Haaaaaaaallelujah!
Daylight Savings has finally arrived! And I could not think of a better reason to lose an hour of sleep and wake up a little groggy. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who feels like the extra hour of daylight in the evening is freaking life-changing.
Seriously.
I mean, sure, I’m all for some extra sun shining through my window in the mornings to help get me out of bed in the winter. But if given the choice between sun in the morning, and glorious, warm, bright, makes-you-feel-like-there’s-actually-more-of-the-day-left in the evenings after work, I will choose DST any day in a heartbeat. (In fact, yes, I’m totally one of “those people” who wishes Congress would let us keep saving daylight year-round….) But in the meantime, I’m fully appreciating every second of these sunshiny evenings that celebrate the beginning of this warm season to come.
And one of my favorite things to do when it’s light out in the evenings? You’d better believe it — cook! It nearly felt like summer here last night, so I decided to whip up a quick batch of my new favorite “better than takeout” recipes that I’m recently obsessed with making — moo shu! (Or moo shoo, mu shoo, it seems that the spelling options are endless.) It has been one of my long-time favorite dishes to order when I’m doing Chinese takeout. And after studying the ingredients, I recently decided it was worth a try to make at home.
Turns out, Moo Shu Pork (or Chicken!) is super quick and easy to make, it’s chocked full of fresh and vibrant ingredients, and it’s full of those bold sweet and savory flavors we all love. But best of all, it can be ready to go in 20 minutes, so you can get on with your evening out in the warm spring sunshine. ;)
Let’s make some!
20-Minute Moo Shu Pork Recipe | 1-Minute Video
So, I was a little too excited about a few shortcuts I discovered to making Moo Shu extra-speedy at home:
- Instead of taking the time to chop up a green and purple cabbage and some carrots — you guessed it — just buy a bag of your favorite cole slaw! (Organic, if you can.) I found one with green and purple cabbage, but either or both colors will do. I really loved the pop of the purple against the other colors.
- Instead of chopping up a bunch of mushrooms (and traditional moo shu uses shiitake and wood-ear/black mushrooms), I just went for the prepared package of thinly-sliced shiitake mushrooms. If you can’t find them pre-sliced, you can obviously slice them yourself. And if you can’t find shiitakes, white button or baby-bella mushrooms will also work.
- Instead of taking the time to make those homemade flour Mandarin pancakes — which I love at Chinese restaurants — I took the easy route and just used some Mexican flour tortillas. Not quite the same, but still delicious and ultra-easy.
Other than that, the basic stir-fry instructions are pretty simple!
Just whip up a simple marinade, and toss half of it with your thinly-sliced pork or chicken, setting aside the second half of the marinade to be used in cooking.
Then while the meat marinates, cook your eggs. And then saute the meat (discarding its marinade). And then saute the veggies. And then toss the reserved marinade in the pan and saute everything all together until it’s cooked and evenly-coated in the sauce.
Then, this rainbow of deliciousness if going to be yours to enjoy.
Serve it up in some flour tortillas, or lettuce cups, or over a bed of rice, or whatever sounds good. Then drizzle with a little extra hoisin if you’d like. And voila — a delicious batch of homemade Moo Shu is ready for dinner!
Totally easy. Totally colorful. Totally packed with veggies and protein. And totally delicious.
Enjoy! And happy DST to all of you!
20-Minute Moo Shu Pork (or Chicken)
Ingredients
Marinade Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- freshly-cracked black pepper
Moo Shu Ingredients:
- 1 pound boneless pork chops (or boneless skinless chicken breasts), sliced into very thin strips
- marinade (see below)
- 3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs, whisked
- 1 (14-ounce) bag coleslaw
- 8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly-sliced
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced (green parts only)
- for serving: flour tortillas, lettuce cups, rice or quinoa
- optional toppings: extra hoisin, extra soy sauce, extra thinly-sliced green onions, toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
To Make The Marinade:
- Whisk all ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl until combined. Separate the marinade into two portions — one to marinate the meat, and one to serve as the cooking sauce.
To Make The Moo Shu Pork:
- Add the thinly-sliced pork (or chicken) to half of the marinade, and toss until the meat is evenly coated in the marinade. Set aside for 5 minutes.
- While the meat is marinating, heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large saute pan or wok over medium heat. Add the whisked eggs, and let them sit and until they are cooked and form a large omelet. Transfer the eggs to a separate cutting board, and set aside. When you have a chance (while the pork is cooking), chop the omelet into small, thin pieces.
- Return the pan to the stove, and increase heat to high heat. Add 1 more tablespoon of oil, and then use a pair of tongs (or a fork) to lift the meat out of the marinade and transfer it to the pan, discarding the marinade. Saute the pork, breaking it up and stirring it with your tongs occasionally, until it is cooked and tender, about 3-4 minutes. Then transfer the pork to a separate plate, and set aside.
- Add the remaining oil to the pan, along with the cole slaw, mushrooms, and half of the scallions. Saute for 2-3 minutes, or until the cabbage begins to wilt and softens.
- Add in the reserved marinade for the sauce, and toss to combine. Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Stir in the cooked pork and chopped eggs, and toss until combined. Taste, and season with extra salt and pepper (and/or hoisin or soy sauce) as needed. Sprinkle with the remaining green onions.
- Serve immediately with flour tortillas (or lettuce cups, rice, or quinoa), and garnish with optional toppings if desired.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!This post contains affiliate links.
Can’t wait to make this over the weekend. Any suggestions of sides that pair well with this dish?
Might cook the mushrooms a little before adding the cole slaw stuff, they take longer to soften. And the cole slaw will render a lot of water so consider removing some of that before adding the rest of the hoisin sauce marinade.
I appreciate that you tripled the garlic from the original recipe. Can’t wait to try!
This looks awesome, my husband loves mushu so I can’t wait to try it.
I just wanted to let you know that I am 100% on the same page about DST! I hate standard time, it’s the most depressing time of year for me. I keep seeing proposals to stop changing the clock, but that would leave us on standard time all year long, no thank you! I crave the daylight in spring and summer, and really don’t want the sun up at 5am in the summer in Texas. That means it would be blazing hot by 7am instead of 8am.
My entire family likes this recipe! Thank you so much for posting. We make it with chicken but I do need to try it with pork one of these days!
I love this recipe. It is my go to for Mu Shoo. To really make this quickly I use ground chicken as the meat.
Turns out just fine–and is comparable too much longer and fancier recipes. Make this regularly although prefer to make our own pancakes for serving.
I am big batch cooking for freezer meals. Will this freeze well? Wondering how the coleslaw will hold up.
Thanks for the recipes.
This was sooooo good!
Just made this on the fly, had leftover cabbage and carrots so I used fresh instead of preshrededded coleslaw mix. Really easy, quick and delicious. I would like to have the nutritional info at the end of the recipe however, as it appears to have a lot of sugar, due to the hoisin and oyster sauces. My husband loved it and it’s so easy to prepare, he can make it next time!