Pork in Garlic Sauce

Pork in Garlic Sauce is one of my all time favorite take out dishes. It’s probs between this and lo mein for the top slot- it’s hard to beat a good lo mein! But if I’m not ordering lo mein, you best believe there will be a steaming hot container of Pork in Garlic Sauce knocking on my door in 20-30 minutes 👅👅👅.

The creation of this recipe is something I have toiled over for quite some time. I have a problem with stir fry sauces in general, and that problem is soy sauce. I over soy my sauces! All of my sauces always turn out tasting way to soy sauce-y, aaaand it’s a problem. So I created and recreated this dish several times before I found that perfect balance of soy sauce flavor. I didn’t want it to taste like soy sauce…I wanted it to taste like garlic sauce!

If you’ve never had garlic sauce before, it’s a savory, sweet, garlicky (obvi) sauce that coats any type of meat and vegetable puuuurrrrrr-fectly. The trick to not over soy-saucing is to add another liquid to your sauce so you’re not adding soy sauce for volume. You can use water, but using a stock adds more flavor. I went with chicken stock here, but if you were making this with beef instead of pork, beef stock would probably be yummy!

So we have two big elements in this recipe: the pork and the garlic sauce. Let’s dissect both a bit.

• The pork. We use pork tenderloin here that is cut into strips. There is no need to marinate the meat because it’s already tender, and we get great flavor from the sauce. All we do is slice the pork up, season it, and coat it in cornstarch so we get some yummy crispness when we brown it in our pan.
• The sauce. This delicious sauce is made up of soy sauce, brown and white sugar, rice vinegar, chicken stock, plenty of garlic, and a big pinch of red pepper flakes. There is no need for a thickening agent in here because the cornstarch on the pork tenderloin helps thicken the sauce. We also cook the sauce and the pork together for several minutes, allowing the sauce to reduce and become even richer in flavor! Drooolllll.

This recipe has the perfect amount of sauce to nicely coat each piece of pork with enough left over to ooze down into the rice that you absolutely must serve under this. You can’t let that golden sauce go to waste, people! Soak it up!

I’ve been working on perfecting this one for a while, so you’ve gotta try it out and let me know what you think!

Y’alllllllll…we’ve had some struggle moments this past weekend. We have had some STRUGGLE moments. Last Friday, Ford basically slept for zero minutes the entire night. It was one of the roughest nights we’ve had since he was born. I think it’s because he napped a lot, lot, lot during the day on Friday, so when night time came around, his little sleep bank was nice and full. He didn’t go to sleep until 11:00, woke up at 1:00, stayed up until 4:00, woke up at 6:00, and I couldn’t get him back down for a nap until about 9:00. It was rouuuuugggghhhh, man.

And he was pretty fussy too, and I couldn’t figure out why. I had to resist the urge to scream into a pillow. Just kidding……maybe. But then when he went down for a nap at 9, I napped with him, we cuddled, slept for a few hours, and both woke up feeling much better 😀.

Want to know what happened before we fell asleep at 9, though? Oh, no biggie – I accidentally uploaded A LIVE VIDEO TO FACEBOOK. What. How. I don’t even know how to upload a live video on purpose…so how in the world did it happen accidentally?! And it went live right before we took a nap, so it stayed on Facebook for two hours before I saw and deleted it. Coooolll. Luckily I was just walking around my house and not doing anything awkward and embarrassing. But still…fail.

And want to know what else happened this weekend? I’ve really, reaaallly needed to get diapers for the past several days, and I finally went yesterday because I had like two left. So I go to Target to get the diapers, Ford isn’t fussy at all and does great, we get in, we get out, and we get home right when he’s supposed to eat again and is getting hungry. I was feeling quite accomplished! Until I realized that I left the diapers in the cart. In the parking lot. At Target. They never made it into my car. HOWWWWW.

I think I have like maybe 3 or 4 remaining brain cells that function at full capacity. Raising a newborn, working, and trying to basically just function in every day life while Seth is deployed is absolutely crazy with a capital “C” sometimes, people. Some days it’s a total breeze and we just cuddle and hang out and have zero issues. And then there are days like Friday when I’m thinking in my head, “It is physically impossible that I am going to get through these next seven months.” If you see me around, give me a hug and ignore the fact that my 3-days-with-no-shower hair is sticking up in multiple directions. K thx love you.

At least we have this bomb pork recipe to cheer us up on the harder days!!

This recipe has 6 smart points per serving!

Pork in Garlic Sauce

★★★★★

5 from 3 reviews

This classic takeout recipe is so much better homemade and it’s super easy to throw together!

• Author: Annie Chesson
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 5 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the pork

• 2 pounds pork tenderloin, sliced into strips
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 bunch green onions, sliced
• Salt and pepper

For the sauce

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 big pinch red pepper flakes

Instructions

1. Start off by making your sauce – you want that ready to go by the time you cook your pork, because things happen pretty quickly once the cooking starts. To make the sauce, add all ingredients (soy sauce, both sugars, vinegar, chicken stock, garlic, and pepper flakes) into a bowl and whisk to combine.
2. Slice the pork, season it with salt and pepper, and coat the pieces evenly in your cornstarch
3. Heat a large, non-stick skillet over medium high heat with your coconut oil
4. When hot, add your pork and cook until it has started to brown. You don’t want to cook it all the way through here! It finishes cooking in the sauce
5. Once your pork has browned for a few minutes, lower the heat to medium, add the white parts of your green onions, and add your sauce. Let the sauce cook down and the pork cook through (this won’t take long!)
6. Once the pork is cooked through, remove the pan from the heat and garnish with the sliced green tops of your green onions

Notes

This should definitely be served over something that will soak up that extra sauce! I recommend rice, but quinoa would also be a yummy, extra-healthy alternative!

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/2 cup
• Calories: 269
• Sugar: 9 g
• Sodium: 378 mg
• Fat: 7 g
• Carbohydrates: 13 g
• Fiber: 1 g
• Protein: 38 g
• Cholesterol: 96 mg

If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

In the mood for more easy stir fry recipes? Check these out:

Cashew Chicken

15 Minute Veggie Stir Fry

Rainbow Veggie Rice Noodle Stir-Fry