Sweet and Sour Pork

Name: Sweet and Sour Pork
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 23 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 200g Pork; 1 Egg; Dash Water; 1/2 tsp Salt; 1 tsp Sugar; 10g Soy Sauce; 10g Starch; 30g Tomato Puree; 10g Vinegar; Dash Coriander

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Pork recipe with Chinese flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 67 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 35 min total

200g Pork
1 Egg
Dash Water
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar
10g Soy Sauce
10g Starch
30g Tomato Puree
10g Vinegar
Dash Coriander

Step-by-step instructions

Preparation 1. Crack the egg into a bowl. Separate the egg white and yolk.
Sweet and Sour Pork 2. Slice the pork tenderloin into strips.
Prepare the marinade using a pinch of salt, one teaspoon of starch, two teaspoons of light soy sauce, and an egg white.
Marinade the pork strips for about 20 minutes.
Put the remaining starch in a bowl. Add some water and vinegar to make a starchy sauce.
Sweet and Sour Pork Cooking Instructions 1. Pour the cooking oil into a wok and heat to 190°C (375°F). Add the marinated pork strips and fry them until they turn brown. Remove the cooked pork from the wok and place on a plate.
Leave some oil in the wok. Put the tomato sauce and white sugar into the wok, and heat until the oil and sauce are fully combined.
Add some water to the wok and thoroughly heat the sweet and sour sauce before adding the pork strips to it.
Pour in the starchy sauce. Stir-fry all the ingredients until the pork and sauce are thoroughly mixed together.
Serve on a plate and add some coriander for decoration.

Why this works on a weeknight

Sweet and Sour Pork lands at about 35 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Stir-Fry collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Sweet and Sour Pork actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🥢 Stir-Fry Pork Chinese Sweet