Make Ahead

Instant Pot (or Not) Soy-Ginger Pork with Noodles and Greens

by:
June  9, 2021
4
24 Ratings
Photo by Mark Weinberg
  • Prep time 5 minutes
  • Cook time 1 hour
  • Serves 4 to 6
Author Notes

Don't have an Instant Pot or pressure cooker? Double the amounts of the braising liquid (soy sauce through water), ginger, and green onions, and combine with the pork in an ovenproof pot. Bring to simmer on the stovetop, then transfer to a 300 degree F oven (with the lid left ajar) for about 3 hours, or until the pork is fork tender. —EmilyC

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • For the pork
  • 3 to 3 1/2 pounds pork shoulder or country-style pork ribs, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks and excess fat trimmed
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup rice vinegar (unseasoned, i.e., no salt or sugar)
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 2 teaspoons (or more for a spicier kick) chile-garlic sauce (can substitute gochujang or other red chile paste)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar (light or dark)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 piece unpeeled ginger (about 4-inches, or 3 ounces), scrubbed well and cut into 3 chunks
  • 3 whole green onions, trimmed and washed well
  • For serving
  • 12 ounces noodles, such as lo mein, Chinese egg noodles, even spaghetti!
  • 1 bunch kale (Tuscan or curly), ribs removed and chopped (about 5 to 6 cups in total)
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • To garnish: thinly sliced green onions, toasted sesame seeds, and more chile-garlic sauce (if desired)
Directions
  1. Add pork and rest of ingredients (soy sauce through whole green onions) to the pressure cooker.
  2. Cover and cook on high pressure for 45 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally, or if you're in a hurry, release the pressure manually.
  3. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pork to a bowl and cover with foil to keep warm. Discard the ginger and green onions. Use a fat separator to separate the fat from the broth, or just spoon the fat off the top. Taste the broth, and adjust spiciness to taste. Pour the broth back over the pork. (Can make up to two days in advance and refrigerate.)
  4. When ready to serve, warm pork and broth in saucepan (if needed). Cook noodles in a large pot of generously salted water. Add kale to the pot during the last two minutes of cook time. Drain well and return to pot. Immediately toss the noodles and kale with sesame oil, then add the pork and about a cup of broth (can make the noodles more or less brothy). Garnish with sesame seeds and slivered green onions and more chile-garlic sauce, if desired.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Danuta Gajewski
    Danuta Gajewski
  • Debby Bushnell-Froze
    Debby Bushnell-Froze
  • WnnaBTrvlWrtr
    WnnaBTrvlWrtr
  • Megan
    Megan
  • laura
    laura
EmilyC

Recipe by: EmilyC

I'm a home cook. I love salads. Two things you'll always find in my refrigerator are lemons and butter, and in my pantry good quality chocolate and the makings for chocolate chip cookies.

31 Reviews

NXL June 9, 2021
This is so so so good! Easy and flavorful. I always make it with soba noodles, which go well with the Sesame oil, I think. Every time I question the 45 minutes for the pork, but yes, it actually does take that long. I use pork butt and don't usually take the time to spoon off the fat, which gives such great mouth feel.
 
linzertorte April 29, 2021
love this recipe BUT I let it naturally release for the first time tonight and would highly recommend manually releasing. The pork becomes a bit overcooked it you let it sit once it's done.
 
Mele H. July 24, 2020
Absolutely loved it. Made it exactly as written (usually do the first time) though I used more chili garlic sauce than specified because I confused tsp. and Tbsp. But the flavors were wonderful. The cubed pork was disintegrating perfectly, so tender. This goes at the top of my list. So yum!
 
EmilyC July 24, 2020
Hooray, so glad you liked it, Mele! Thanks so much for trying it and your note.
 
DoubleNegative August 29, 2019
So, I'm usually a make the recipe as is the first time and then tweak kind of girl, but today was one of those days where the flavors sounded so right even though I had no pork on hand. But I always have frozen chicken thighs of the Costco block variety, so that's what I used. After reading some of the comments, I omitted the vinegar (as I have also experienced cooked vinegar just being too strong at the end for me). I also grated the ginger and 3 or so cloves of garlic. I added a TBLS of gochujang, and a couple TBLS of chili garlic sauce. I only used 2 tsp of brown sugar (to balance out my gochujang which is kind of sweet). I meant to sub out the green onions for some regular onion (as I only had one little sad green onion left of the bunch), but I forgot and I didn't actually miss it. I halved a jalapeno, seeded it and threw it in. So I dinked a lot with amounts of stuff, but that's just my preference, I like a little spice, the soy, fish sauce, and water I kept the same as the original recipe. I cooked it at high pressure for 20 minutes and let it natural release, only to find the chicken was an underdone lump. HA! I separated the bone in thighs and let it go for another 10 minutes and then did a quick release, because by this time I was getting pretty hungry. I boiled some Chinese egg noodles, and steamed some frozen spinach that I finished with the recommended sesame oil , and some toasted sesame seeds. I took the chicken off the bone and pretty drastically reduced the sauce for while (one whole saute cycle and part of a second cycle in the IP). Stir often if you decide to reduce as the sugar in the sauce could burn quickly. I skimmed the fat because I had a lot of it from bone in, skin on chicken. While sauce was reducing I made cracklins with the chicken skin on the broiler plate in the toaster oven, and sliced that one sad green onion I had to use as garnish. I squeezed a little fresh lime instead of the vinegar at the end. And then I inhaled it. I know it sounds like I changed the whole recipe since I used different meat and altered the sauce proportions and reduced it, but the basics of the recipe were all still there and I really enjoyed it. Luckily, there will be leftovers. Thanks, EmilyC for a nice basic recipe that was ultra easy to meld to my personal tastes. Next time, pork, for sure. ;)
 
instantphoebe July 18, 2019
This recipe was only OK for me. The broth was too soy sauce heavy, and I found it relatively salty and somewhat one note, albeit a tasty one note. I would reduce the rice vinegar by half, add more water and perhaps some rice wine, garlic cloves, and maybe some star anise and peppercorns. The only deviation I did here was add daikon radish and used glass noodles.
 
Danuta G. May 18, 2019
Don't know what happened, but this was a failure for me. I followed the directions to a T for the oven method, i.e., doubling the braising liquid, but the overwhelming smell and taste of rice vinegar absolutely killed the whole recipe! It was horrid. Not even going to try the recipe again by cutting back on the vinegar...there are too many other recipes to sample! Sorry...this is a first...I have loved all the other recipes I've tried from your site.
 
Debby B. February 20, 2019
Love this recipe! Super easy and so flavorful. I substituted vegetable broth for the H20 and then served over white rice and also white rice noodles. Side of sautéed green beans in sesame oil and red pepper. Yum!
 
EmilyC February 21, 2019
Yay, so glad this was a hit! Thanks Debby!
 
Kara K. February 14, 2019
This was fabulous and so easy - my picky kids and husband all agreed it was a keeper! I loved the kale - and I added some leftover broccoli I had in the fridge. With the leftover broth I made ramen later in the week - the broth is incredible. I’m making it again tonight for the in-laws and doubling the broth. Thanks so much for the fantastic recipe.
 
EmilyC February 21, 2019
So happy to hear that you liked this, Kara! Thanks for your note!
 
WnnaBTrvlWrtr February 6, 2019
I'm a new Instant Pot owner. I made this recipe on a weeknight thinking that the cook time would be 1 hour. Unfortunately, between the time it took for the machine to come up to pressure (approx 20 minutes) and then release pressure naturally (26 minutes), dinner was pretty significantly delayed. We really enjoyed the result, and I will make it again, but it's more appropriate for a weekend meal at my house.
 
EmilyC February 21, 2019
Sorry for my delayed response! I'll note in my recipe that you can manually release the pressure for this recipe--I've done that several times when I'm in a hurry, and the results don't suffer! Thanks for trying this!!
 
Megan January 31, 2019
This really is so good! I wasn't quite expecting it to be as flavorful as it was for some reason. I love that you just dump it all in, no browning, etc. and just leave it alone. So easy. I'm noting my changes here not because I necessarily recommend them, but just so I remember what worked-- I used partially frozen pork tenderloins cut into chunks because that's what I had. Only did 40 minutes of pressure + 5 min of natural release then quick release. It seemed to me that pork tenderloin might need less time than the pork shoulder chunks, but since it was partially frozen I wasn't sure how long to do it (I'm still pretty new to the instant pot). 40 min was probably a bit too long.. the pork was totally fall-apart tender and probably would have been fine with a little less time. I wanted to keep some noodles kale-free for my picky kids, so I just stirred the kale into the broth after opening up the instant pot. I also didn't bother to skim any fat (unnecessary with the lean meat). Everything else was the same, except I did a heaping Tbs of gochujang + more at the table. And I added cilantro at the table which was a very tasty addition. Next time I will do 1.5 or 2x the broth because it is so good. Thank you for this one!!
 
EmilyC January 31, 2019
Hi Megan! So happy you tried and liked this! I'm with you--the flavor is such a surprise given how easy it is. Thanks so much for your feedback--always appreciated!!
 
Riley January 24, 2019
I usually don't bother to comment on things but... this is SO GOOD! I wouldn't change a thing. The broth is the star. We topped it with cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Thank you for this fast, affordable, delicious meal!!!
 
EmilyC January 24, 2019
Aw, thank you Riley! So glad this was a hit for you! Thanks for your note.
 
Robin January 26, 2019
You should try Emily’s Coconut Lime Pork tacos - amazing!!
 
Maryanne January 14, 2019
A new favorite for our house! The only changes, and I definitley reccommend them, is to add 2 minced cloves of garlic, 2-3 tablespoons store bought hoison sauce before cooking and serve it with chopped cilantro! That fresh cilantro was wonderful on top! Thanks!!!
 
EmilyC January 24, 2019
Thanks Maryanne! So glad you made and liked this!
 
Mary April 17, 2019
at what [point did you add the Hoison sauce? Thanks!
 
laura December 8, 2018
This was delicious, and the leftovers even better! I love the gingery sweet broth - would have loved a double batch of it, and the pork was tender and flavorful. I didn't have kale so used broccoli, which worked fine for me and the family. Will definitely make again, thank you!
 
EmilyC December 8, 2018
Yay, so glad you liked this, theseasonedtraveler!! Re: the broth, yes to doubling! I was just thinking the other day that more broth would be a lovely variation--a little more ramen in style. Love the broccoli idea, too. Thanks so much for trying this and your note!
 
Meghan W. December 5, 2018
My husband and I are big instant pot fans so we are always on the lookout for new recipes to try. I made this last Sunday over udon noodles and ended up preparing the kale separately. It was wonderful! It was simple to make and had wonderful flavors! My husband and I both have to bring lunch to work and the flavors only seemed to improve after some time in the fridge. I will definitely be making this one again!
 
EmilyC December 6, 2018
Hi Meghan! So glad that you and your husband enjoyed this! I completely agree about the flavors only getting better the next day. Thanks so much for trying this and reporting back!!
 
BellaRasa December 3, 2018
I made this last night in my Instant Pot and my family really enjoyed it. I'm a huge fan of gochujang so added quit a bit more. I also browned the meat on the saute setting before adding the rest of the ingredients. I wasn't sure about the kale, but it worked well with the pork and noodles. I'm always looking for ethnic recipes to cook in my Instant Pot, so thanks for sharing!
 
EmilyC December 3, 2018
So glad you liked this, BellaRasa! Thanks so much for circling back with your feedback!
 
FrugalCat December 2, 2018
Made this in the crockpot. It was a winner! We are not a kale family so I used a mix of spinach and Shanghai bok choy,
 
EmilyC December 2, 2018
Yay! So glad this was a hit, and glad to know it worked well in a crockpot! Thanks for your note, FrugalCat!
 
thirschfeld November 27, 2018
This was great, exactly what I was looking for, and so simple to through together. I didn't have any chili paste so I added a clove of garlic and some chili flakes. Today at lunch though I picked up some quachang and threw it on top. So good. Thanks for such a great recipe.
 
EmilyC November 27, 2018
Tom: Your comment made my day! So happy that you tried and liked this! Glad you were able to experience it with gochujang on top, too — I love making my bowl extra spicy when I eat this. Thanks for your note!