This cabbage stir-fry is a perfect addition to your weekly menu. So quick to make with any type of meat–pork, chicken, or beef sauteed in a simple Chinese-style sauce. It’s savory yet refreshing with a hint of spice from the chili oil.
Cabbage Stir-fry
Green cabbage is any home cook’s dream vegetable–healthy, versatile, and inexpensive. The recipe for today involves stir-frying it with pork and Asian seasonings. I love it because it has a good balance of meat and vegetables. So filling and the flavor is far from boring!
What you need
Here’s what you need to make this simple stir-fry recipe.
- Meat – use thinly sliced tender cuts of pork like pork butt or tenderloin, chicken breast, or beef. I used a packed shabu-shabu cut for convenience. Ground meat is also a good substitute.
- Green Cabbage – is highly recommended for this recipe. It’s so versatile and easily absorbs flavors.
- Stir-fry sauce – soy sauce, oyster sauce, ginger, Shaoxing wine, garlic, sugar, and ginger. The Chinese wine can be substituted with sherry or cooking wine.
- Chili Oil – gives the dish a hint of heat. That’s right it’s not just a dipping sauce. You can add it to any stir-fry dish to make it more interesting.
How to make Cabbage Stir-fry
Start off by combining the sauce ingredients in a bowl. I like doing this in all of my stir-fry sauces so I can make the adjustments before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.
Marinate the pork or your choice of meat in half portion of the sauce for 10 minutes. This will allow the meat to absorb the flavors.
After that, it’s all pretty much a breeze! Stir-fry the pork in a pan or wok with hot oil. Don’t worry if it gets watery, liquid will eventually reduce as it continues to cook. Add the garlic, and chili oil and cook until it smells good! Be careful, not to burn the garlic.
Finally, add in the sliced cabbage, and the rest of the sauce mixture. Pour a little bit of water to help “steam” the vegetables.
Cover with lid and cook until cabbage is wilted tender yet still crisp.
Serve
This cabbage stir-fry is best served freshly cooked with any kind of rice–Jasmine, brown rice, or short-grain rice. It’s a filling dish and can be enjoyed on its own if you’re on a low-carb diet.
More Asian recipes…
- Baked Spicy Salmon with Gochujang
- Thai Basil Beef Zucchini Stir-fry
- Spicy Squid and Pork Korean Stir-fry
- Pork Fried Rice
- Quick and Easy Korean Beef Bulgogi
- Easy Asian Meatballs
Try these next…
Easy Cabbage Stir-fry
Ingredients
- 200 grams pork butt or tenderloin (thinly sliced, see note 1)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tsp Shaoxing wine or cooking wine (see note 2)
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil (I used canola)
- 1 tsp sugar
- ½ thumb ginger (grated, optional)
- 1-2 tsp chili oil
- ½ cabbage (hand-torn or sliced)
- 1-2 tbsp water (or chicken stock)
- salt (to taste)
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and Shaoxing wine. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Divide in two portions.
- Marinate pork in 1/2 of the sauce for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the garlic and slice the cabbage.
- In a pan or wok, heat oil over high heat. Add pork and cook until brown. Add the garlic, ginger and chili oil. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking until fragrant.
- Add sliced cabbage and the rest of the sauce mixture. Add a little bit of water to help “steam” the vegetables. Stir to coat the vegetables. Cover with lid and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until cabbage is tender yet still crisp. Season with salt, to taste. Serve with rice and enjoy!
Recipe Notes & Tips:
- Pork – use thinly sliced tender cuts of pork like pork butt or tenderloin. Packed cuts of shabu-shabu or sukiyaki and ground pork can also be used for convenience. Substitute with chicken or beef if preferred.
- Shaoxing wine – you can find this in most Asian stores. Substitute with dry sherry or chicken broth if not available.
This was delicious! I happen to have some fresh thick noodles on hand so i added these at the end and it was a great addition.Darleen
This was a hit in our house! We left out the chili oil and some of us added sweet chili sauce at the end. Thanks for the recipe!
Glad you enjoyed this Steph! Chili sauce sounds like a good idea 🙂
– Mella
Simple, easy and yummy!
Love the simplicity of this recipe! Made it using chicken. Yum!