In this classic takeaway-style sweet n’ sour pork stir fry recipe, crispy twice-cooked pork shoulder strips are coated in a tangy sweet and sour sauce with pineapple chunks, sweet bell peppers and onions.
Originally published in May 2014. Updated and republished with new images and information in May 2021. This recipe is suitable for gluten-free diets.
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- Why you should make this…
- What you’ll need…
- How to make it…
- Tips for making sweet and sour pork
- Where does sweet and sour pork come from?
- What’s the best pork for sweet and sour pork?
- Why is Chinese takeaway meat so tender?
- Tips for a tender pork stir fry
- How do you make pork crispy?
- Sweet and Sour Pork Stir-fry Recipe
- Pin this recipe for later
- Other recipes you might like
Why you should make this…
Craving Chinese food? This classic takeaway-style sweet n’ sour pork stir fry recipe is just what you need!
In it, crispy twice-cooked pork shoulder strips are coated in a deliciously tangy sweet and sour sauce and served with pineapple chunks, sweet bell peppers and onions.
This recipe tastes just like a Chinese takeaway!
– fussy teenager.
This recipe has always been a hit with my kids; they think it tastes just like a Chinese takeaway meal does.
Clean plates all around, too, for the win!
What you’ll need…
- Pork – shoulder cuts make for a more flavoursome finished dish.
- Tamari soy sauce – a naturally gluten-free sauce used to flavour the pork marinade.
- Egg yolk – acts as a liquid to get the cornflour to stick to the meat.
- Cornflour – acts as a tenderiser, coating the pork so it doesn’t lose moisture when it’s deep-fried (see tips on velveting, below). Also used to thicken the sweet and sour sauce.
- Sunflower oil – some for deep-frying the twice-cooked pork and a little more for stir-frying the vegetables.
- Sweet bell peppers – use either green, red or yellow or a combination of all three.
- Onion – red, white or brown, as you wish. I’ve used red as it’s got a sweeter flavour that the kids like.
- Garlic – two finely chopped cloves, for a mild garlic flavour.
- Pineapple chunks in juice – for convenience and flavour. Reserve the juice to use in the sweet and sour sauce.
- Vinegar – distilled white vinegar will do, but you can substitute this with apple cider vinegar. Either will provide the characteristic sour punch to the sauce.
- Caster sugar – adds more sweetness to the sauce. Substitute with granulated if desired.
- Water – for stir-frying the peppers and adding liquid to the sauce.
- Tomato ketchup – don’t be judgy now. This adds the right level of tart flavour to the sauce. Substitute with 1/2 the quantity of tomato puree if you wish but it won’t taste the same.
- Sea salt – to balance the sweet and sour perfectly.
- Spring onions – to garnish (optional)
How to make it…
- Marinade your pork strips in cornflour, soy sauce and a beaten egg yolk for 20-30 minutes.
- Make the sweet and sour sauce by combining pineapple juice, vinegar, sugar, water and tomato ketchup in a small bowl.
- Coat the marinated pork strips in more cornflour and deep-fry in hot oil, twice.
- Stir-fry the peppers, onions and pineapple in a little oil.
- Add the sweet and sour sauce, bring to the boil and thicken with cornflour.
- Add the crispy pork strips and mix well to coat. Serve immediately.
Click here for the full recipe instructions.
Tips for making sweet and sour pork
- prep everything in advance – chop your vegetables, mix the sauce, marinate the meat and dissolve the cornflour in water so that it’s all ready to go. Separate bowls make this easier.
- use a digital thermometer to keep track of the temperature of the hot oil. Bring the oil back up to 180 C between each batch.
- serve sweet and sour pork immediately while the pork is still crispy from deep-frying.
Where does sweet and sour pork come from?
Sweet and sour pork is a classic Cantonese dish from the Guangdong province in China. The Chinese call it gu lao rou 咕咾肉, and although there are many different recipes, most involve pork, pineapple and bell peppers.
What’s the best pork for sweet and sour pork?
Pork shoulder cuts make for a more flavoursome finished dish because they contain more fat. Alternatively, use neck fillet or tenderloin. We recommend sourcing your meat from a higher-welfare butcher.
Why is Chinese takeaway meat so tender?
Chinese takeaway meat is so tender and silky because they use a special technique called velveting. Velveting (tenderising) is a method of marinating meat with cornstarch and a little bit of egg, soy sauce and/or oil before cooking.
This creates a layer of silkiness around the protein, which you will recognise from Chinese takeaways.
Tips for a tender pork stir fry
- slice your meat in thin strips against the grain. This shortens the fibres which help make the meat tender.
- use the velveting technique in this recipe. The cornflour marinade before pre-cooking the pork results in a very tender finished meat.
How do you make pork crispy?
Double frying the pork after it’s been marinaded and dredged in cornflour coats the meat in a protective, crispy layer, which means it’ll remain crispy when mixed with the sauce.
Serve immediately with rice or noodles.
Recipe Difficulty Levels
Easy
Requires basic cooking skills and ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen.
Moderate
Requires more experience, preparation and/or cooking time. You may have to source special ingredients.
Challenging
Recipes requiring more advanced skills and experience and maybe some special equipment.
Sweet and Sour Pork Stir-fry Recipe
Ingredients
For the crispy twice-cooked pork
- 300 grams pork shoulder thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 free-range egg yolk
- 7 tbsp cornflour divided
- sunflower oil for frying
For the vegetables
- 1.5 red bell peppers or a mix of red, green and/or yellow, chopped
- 1 onion coarsely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 150 grams tinned pineapple in juice cut into pieces
- 4 tbsp sunflower oil for cooking
For the sweet and sour sauce
- 2 tbsp reserved pineapple juice
- 2 tbsp distilled white vinegar
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 3 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1.5 tsp Shetland sea salt
- 1.5 tsp cornflour
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Equipment
Instructions
- Prepare pork marinade by combining the soy sauce, egg yolk and 1 tbsp of cornstarch together in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the pork pieces and leave to marinade for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare peppers, onion, garlic and pineapple and place in separate bowls. It can get frantic while cooking and so having everything prepared in advance makes it much easier.
- Prepare sauce by combining the pineapple juice, vinegar, sugar, water and tomato sauce together in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Stir the remaining 6 tbsp cornstarch into the pork. It gets a bit gloopy but I find once it's well combined you can separate the pork pieces onto two plates for ease of handling. They'll separate during frying.
- Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan to 180 °C. Keep the lid nearby just in case the oil gets too hot and catches fire (just pop the lid on to put it out).
- Deep fry the pork in two batches for 3 minutes. Use a kitchen timer! Remove pork with a slotted spoon and place on a plate next to the cooker.
- When both batches of pork have been cooked pop them all back into the hot oil for a further 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain in a bowl lined with kitchen towel. Keep warm (I put a plate over the top to keep the heat in).
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or frying pan and stir fry the peppers for 2 minutes. Remove peppers and keep warm.
- Add remaining 3 tbsp oil and stir fry the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the onion and pineapple and stir fry for a further minute.
- Return peppers to the pan and pour in the sauce.
- Bring to the boil and stir in the cornflour dissolved in the water to thicken.
- When thickened stir in the pork pieces and toss lightly to coat the pork in the sauce completely.
- Serve immediately with rice or noodles.
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Nice blog to follow while preparing recipes.Thank you so much for sharing with us.
Thanks for sharing, this looks a lovely fake away for an weekend treat 🙂
Yummy! My hubby is going to enjoy this! Definitely making this for his birthday dinner tonight! So excited to try this!
Thank you so much for your tip on how to keep the pork crispy. That’s so important for the texture in this dish. It looks so delicious.
This pork looks delicious, love making stir fries for dinner!
This Sweet n sour pork looks absolutely perfect! My family is going to love this.
We love a pork stir fry and sweet and sour is always a good addition.
It’s a wonderful recipe but for someone of my capabilities it’s quite a lot of effort.I thing I would make this en masse and freeze a number of portions. That would justify the work !
Gorgeous recipe. I love me some sweet and sour! I also liked your story. I too like trains and traveling. So I was surprised, yet intrigued at first with the two being in the same post. Trains…sweet and sour = A great combination. 🙂
Oh I love sweet and sour……and I think that would be easy to keep gluten free too. JOY!
What a lovely fascinating story. And the recipe looks perfect for dinner tonight. I have some pork fillet sitting in the fridge waiting for inspiration. I love how many of your recipes use ingredients that are already in my store cupboard with good meat and veg which I normally have to hand or can easily get. I actually have a lovely little time entering your competitions, browsing your blog wth a cup of herbal tea, and working out what’s for dinner tonight – so I can feel all virtuous about being productive not just self indulgent. 🙂
Lovely story & so evocative!
This sounds great, exactly the sort of thing the whole family would enjoy. Got this bookmarked to make soon.
Such a lovely story, I was just looking at your blog to see where you’re from in Canada, and now I’ve got my answer 🙂
Thank you Niki! So glad you enjoyed it and that it answered your question 🙂
Sweet and sour dishes are amongst my absolute favourites, but I rarely make them myself, this one looks incredible though so I’m pinning it now!
#TastyTuesdays
Me too 🙂 When I was little Chinese food was synonymous with sweet and sour sauce – I thought that’s all it was! 🙂
I absolutely loved the fact you combined your recipe with a story about you and your first job! Genius! Your photography is impressive and your recipe is going straight on my ‘to try’ board on Pinterest. Mel
Wow that is a taste explosion, so up my street and fab post and photos! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
What a fascinating story. The stir fry looks amazing as well
Thank you 🙂 You take the things you do for granted when you’re young, it’s only when you get older that you realise how lucky you were!
As a bit of a train geek, I am drawn to travel stories that involve train journeys- so liked the train / recipe combo, and sweet and sour recipe reminds me of a home version we had – usually with chicken.
Is making me want to cook it just now- maybe as with visitingsupermarkets maybe should not read food blogs when hungry! 🙂
I have a fondness for trains too. It’s one of the things I miss with living in Shetland – there are no trains!
Well I just had to see where Pork Stir Fry and Trains collide! Lovely stories – and quite amazing where inspiration originates sometimes Elizabeth! Thanks…
Hehee, I was hoping the bizarre title might attract a reader or two! 🙂 I’m glad you liked the story. Thanks Richard 🙂