Whether you’re looking for new ground pork lettuce wraps or a high protein rice bowls filling, you’ll love this simple chili garlic ground pork. Lean ground pork is cooked with bell pepper, garlic, and ginger before adding a sweet and spicy blend of chili garlic sauce, honey, and a secret ingredient.
Ground Pork vs Ground Pork Tenderloin
The recipe calls for the same homemade ground pork tenderloin I used for my Mexican-style lean chorizo and low fat ground pork tacos. Check out my guide to making it for a more detailed explanation, but the short version is trimming two pork tenderloins, cutting into chunks, and pulsing in a food processor a handful of times.
Don’t want to go to the trouble of making your own? No worries. Any ground pork or even ground chicken or turkey will work fine for this recipe. Though you’ll want to adjust the nutrition facts, as pork tenderloin is super lean and most ground pork options are in the range of 80% to 90% lean.
Ingredients for Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce
- Chili Garlic Sauce
- Honey
- Bachan’s Japanese Barbecue Sauce
If you’ve tried my chili garlic air fryer chicken and broccoli, you know the magic that is the one-two combo of chili garlic sauce and honey. It reminds me of a punchier Thai sweet chili sauce.
Bachan’s barbecue sauce is another obsession of mine, and you may have seen it in recipes like my BBQ chicken fried cauliflower rice or leftover pork tenderloin fried rice. I highly recommend trying it but if you’re in a hurry to make this recipe, soy sauce is a viable replacement. And if you have them on hand, you could add something like mirin or hoisin to get even closer.
Ground Pork Lettuce Wraps, Rice Bowls, & More
To keep things low carb, I’d serve this chili garlic ground pork in a leaf of lettuce or with cauliflower rice. More creative ideas might include ground pork tacos with an Asian slaw or with low carb noodles like the hearts of palm I served with my Mongolian ground beef.
Let me know how you end up serving this one in the comments or a recipe review. I hope you enjoy it!
Chili Garlic Ground Pork Tenderloin
Sweet and spicy lean ground pork with bell pepper perfect for lettuce wraps, rice bowls, and more.
Ingredients
- 1 pound Ground Pork Tenderloin*
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil, divided
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Minced Ginger
For the Sauce
- 3 Tablespoons (45g) Chili Garlic Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon (21g) Honey
- 1 Tablespoon (19g) Bachan's Japanese BBQ Sauce (or soy sauce)
Instructions
- Brown the ground pork with 1 Tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat before breaking apart and fully cooking.
- Push the cooked pork to one side of the pan and add the remaining 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil before adding the pepper, garlic, and ginger. Cook for 30-60 seconds until fragrant before stirring everything together.
- Turn off the heat and add the sauce, stirring everything together.
- Serve with rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds and scallions, if desired.
Notes
*To make ground pork tenderloin, trim a pork tenderloin, slice it into chunks, and use a food processor to pulse the pork 6-8 times until you reach your desired grind. You can also use a meat grinder or knife as seen in my homemade ground chicken guide.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: about 3 ozAmount Per Serving: Calories: 135Total Fat: 5gCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 16g
Skip to Recipe