28 Great Ground Pork Recipes

Ground pork is a great alternative to ground beef if you’re looking to mix it up for any reason. It might be you need to take it easy on red meats for health reasons, or you’re bored of eating the same meats each night.

Pork is actually much more healthy than you would believe, as it’s often associated with being ground sausage. Sausage is more likely to have a bunch of unnecessary ingredients added in, so check your ingredients label so you’re informed on what you’re buying.

Pork is brimming with protein, which helps build muscle, vitamins B6 and B12, which help your immune system, and potassium, which helps out with achy bones and muscles. 

There are a huge variety of meals you can create with pork, it’s an incredibly versatile meat. You can use it for burgers, pasta sauces, meatballs, and a whole range of different Asian-influenced dishes. Here are 26 great ground pork recipes to try out.

1. Korean Ground Pork

If you haven’t cooked with Korean flavors yet, now is the time to try. They take you away from the staple cumin and paprika flavorings used in so many recipes and fire up your palette to a unique peppery spice. Slimming Eats shares that gochujang paste is one of the main ways to add a Korean influence to your kitchen.

2. Teriyaki Pork Meatballs

No list of ground pork recipes would be complete without multiple meatball options. The Almond Eater gives us a delicious teriyaki option, sticky, sweet, and of course, flavorful. They can be eaten on their own as an appetizer (use toothpicks to serve) or over rice.

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3. Ground Pork Stir Fry

Stir fries are so easy to whip up, they make the perfect weeknight dinner. The Almond Eater shows us how to add ground pork to your stir fry to add protein. It’s a simple dish with a salty soy sauce marinade, and cabbage and bok choy as the main vegetables.

4. Pork Fried Rice

Another simple dish, but one that is so easy to be boring and flavorless. Creme de la Crumb ensures that isn’t the case, sharing the exact amounts of soy sauce and ginger needed to create a flavorful yet quick weeknight dinner. 

5. Easy Pork Ragu Pappardelle

The title of this recipe from Skinny Spatula might be quite the mouthful, but as the title suggests it is indeed easy to make. It’s basically a bolognese sauce, served over nice big spirals of flat pasta. The sauce has a ton of finely sliced vegetables as well, packing a nutritious punch.

6. Ground Pork Noodles

The ground pork has a Chinese influence in terms of flavor, using peanut oil, dark soy sauce, and hoisin sauce. Sweet Caramel Sunday adds some brown sugar to counteract the chili and gives the meal a deliciously caramelized texture.

7. Coconut Curry Pork Meatballs

This meatball recipe couldn’t be more different from the teriyaki meatballs listed earlier. How Sweet Eats basically combines a creamy coconut curry with meatballs, and why not? Ground pork wouldn’t work well in a curry sauce, but turned into meatballs it works beautifully.

8. Crispy Ground Pork Tacos

Pork is a less common taco filling than beef, chicken, fish, or shrimp but it’s still usually found on most menus. What makes this recipe really special is how crispy the pork cooks. What Molly Made shares her discovery that letting the pork sit in the pan for 2-3 minutes without stirring after cooking is the best method to crisp it up.

9. Easy Ground Pork Tacos

With The Woodruffs brings us an alternate ground pork taco recipe. This is a quicker recipe if you are pressed for time, and adds pineapple for a sweet and juicy flavor. It’s actually a good tip for tacos if you want to mix them up, add a tropical fruit into the salsa like pineapple, mango, or kiwi and it instantly freshens up the flavor.

10. Vietnamese Caramelized Pork Bowls

The brown sugar in this recipe caramelizes the pork in a way that complements the fish sauce, and serrano chillis perfectly. Posh Journal goes a step further than just a squeeze of lime for some punch, they suggest zesting the lime straight in there for a depth of flavor. And boy, does it work.

11. Italian Ground Pork Skillet

This colorful dish from Amee’s Savory Dish is delicious, nutritious, and a one-pot dinner so the clean up is minimal. The tomatoes and butternut squash are what give it a fantastic color, and the brown rice bulks it up into a full meal. It also takes around 20 minutes to cook, winning!

12. Spicy Pork Noodles

If you feel like a change from pasta, potatoes, or rice, check out this noodle dish from Fit Foodie Finds. The main taste comes from the gochujang, which is a Korean spice paste and gives a really unique flavor. Ginger, carrot, and green onions are also main contenders as with most stir-fry dishes, but it’s the Korean influence that gives this recipe the edge.

13. Sweet and Spicy Pork Lettuce Wraps

What Molly Made shares a recipe great for those who want to cut back on their carbs, as lettuce leaves are used instead of flour tortillas. The recipe cuts the sweetness with spice, leaving you with a lot of flavor and just a kick of spice.

14. Sriracha Hoisin Ground Pork Bowls

Hoisin isn’t just a sauce for duck. Meal Plan Addict shows how to use it successfully with ground pork, and the key is adding the spicy garlicky flavor that comes with sriracha. The two condiments complement each other beautifully and give you a dinner that serves enough for a leftover lunch.

15. Easy Asian Pork Meatballs

Meatballs are so delicious when homemade, they are always more flavorful and moist. However, they can sometimes be time-consuming. Meal Plan Addict shows us how to make them easily, and also add an Asian twang to the flavor.

16. Apple Pork Meatballs

What fruit pairs better with pork than apple? It’s an incomparable match. Stay At Home Mum uses this knowledge and tested it out in meatballs. And guess what? It worked!

17. Ground Pork Dumplings

Make your own dumplings? It sounds complicated, but we promise that you can do it! The Novice Chef turns it into a much easier feat than you’d expect, and uses a beautiful spice blend for the ground pork filling.

18. Pork Egg Roll in a Bowl

There are so many flavors thrown together into this pork egg roll in a bowl recipe from Cookrita. Think sweet and sour sauce, coupled with soy sauce and garlic. Too much? Absolutely not!

19. Pork Picadillo Empanadas

That’s right, you no longer have to visit your local farmer’s market or huge indoor public market and pay ramped-up prices for a single empanada. Sense and Edibility reveal how you can stuff a whole batch of empanadas with pork picadillo. You’ll find the filling spiced with typical Hispanic flavors like adobo and sazon. Delicious!

20. Ground Pork Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers are a dish you can make with so many things, one of which being basically any ground meat. Yep Recipes divulges their recipe for stuffed peppers using ground pork, combined with jasmine rice and topped with cheese. It’s a reasonably time-consuming dinner to prepare and make, but an easy one. So as long as you’ve got the time, you can pull it off!

21. Pork Wonton Soup

The great thing about this recipe from Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch is that you can make the wontons ahead of time. You can even make them, freeze them, and weeks from then pull them out to quickly whip up this soup. So, folks, this is one for the meal-prepping fanatics!

22. Pork Banh Mi Burger

Ground meat and burgers go together like ranch dressing and, erm, everything? The Modern Proper shares a fabulous ground pork burger recipe, inspired by the Vietnamese sandwich. Banh Mi sandwiches are known for their salty, savory, and tangy flavors, and their crunchy vegetables added on top (think shredded cabbage or cucumber).

24. Thai Basil Pork

Another classic Asian pork recipe, that sounds underwhelming but is ridiculously delicious. Cooking with Team J gives quite a long list of ingredients, but don’t let it put you off because they are actually pretty simple foods you’re likely to have on hand. The key element to note is the use of Thai basil versus the regular basil we’d pick up from the store. The flavor is quite different!

25. Spicy Pork Noodles aka Pad Kee Mao

Also known as drunk noodles… Platings or Pairings uses Thai basil in this recipe as well, so if you have any leftover you can use it to make the Thai basil pork recipe listed above! Contrary to the nickname, there is no alcohol in this noodle dish, but traditionally it is said men would come home after a night drinking and indulge in this meal.

26. Pad Thai

Possibly the most well-known Thai noodle dish, this Pad Thai recipe from That Spicy Chick doesn’t disappoint. You can use any meat or protein you’d like really, but ground pork is a delicious choice. We always find the key with pulling off a Pad Thai, is the squeeze of lime and sprinkling of crushed peanuts over the finished noodle dish!

27. Juicy Pork Burgers

The other pork burger recipe was Vietnamese-inspired, this one from Babaganosh is a regular old burger recipe. Basically, he subs out ground beef for pork, adds cheese, tomato, and lettuce and throws it in a bun. His one little trick is to add egg and oats to the burger patties to help them form their shape better and stick together more efficiently. The oats are popped in to help the burger keep the meat juices inside the burger instead of seeping out during grilling, clever, eh?

And for a 28th recipe, I’ll leave you with a ground pork version of my famous Homemade Hamburger Helper! Check out the full details below!