Salsa Macha Pork Noodles
Updated April 13, 2026
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
- Ready In
- 30 min
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
3 dried chiles de árbol, stemmed
3 (5-inch) dried guajillo chiles, stemmed
¼ cup unsalted roasted peanuts
½ pound ground pork
Kosher salt
1 (13-ounce) package fresh or frozen ramen noodles
⅓ cup canola or vegetable oil, plus more as needed
10 garlic cloves, grated or minced
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds
½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 limes, halved
Preparation
- Step 1
In a blender, combine the chiles de árbol and the guajillos; blend into coarse flakes. Add peanuts and pulse 3 times, until coarsely ground and no whole peanuts remain. Set aside.
- Step 2
Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and break up the meat into large chunks, then season with salt. Cook, undisturbed, until fat renders and the underside of pork starts to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir and continue to cook until pork is crispy, breaking up meat into smaller pieces, about 5 minutes more. Turn off heat.
- Step 3
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup of the cooking water, then drain noodles and divide between two serving bowls.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, return the skillet to medium heat. Add the peanut-chile mixture and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the canola oil and garlic and cook, stirring for 30 seconds more. Stir in the sesame oil, cumin, oregano and sesame seeds. Add reserved noodle cooking water and toss until the mixture is combined and saucy. Season with salt to taste.
- Step 5
To serve, top each bowl of noodles with half of the salsa macha pork. Sprinkle with cilantro and scallions and squeeze an entire lime over each bowl. Stir to combine at the table.
Private Notes
Comments
Used 1 T of chipotle with the peanuts! Double the sesame oil. Make it in a wok. Would be nice with some stir-fried broccoli on the side Raman comes in funny sizes. Boil it for 3 minutes, don’t leave it in the colander; hard to clean colander.
This was so delicious! I doubled the recipe but cut back on the vegetable oil. New favorite- started to make it with chipotle peppers in sauce but it was too spicy. Ended up engineering some chilli paste/oil to fill in. Added bok choy for fun. Crunch crunch.
I used a pound of pork and did the other ingredients x 1.5 - definitely didn’t need so much oil. I’ll skip the sesame seeds next time, the texture is already chunky with the peanuts. The lime is surprisingly great!
I wanted to like this recipe. The sauce smelled great, but the dish lacked punch. Maybe adding some more hot chilis
It was OK. I think as others have suggested, this recipe is kind of a template. For me, less oil and maybe a little fish sauce as it seemed to lack some umami. I'll take another swing and see if fish sauce treats it a little better.
Super tasty and indulgent. I found it quite flavoraful--a generous drizzling of lime juice really brings out the subtle flavors. I mosrtly stuck to the recipe but did add some grated ginger and a scant teaspoon of sugar. Plus, to adapt this to the spice-tolerance of our kid, I left out most of the seeds from the chiles (then added the seeds to the adults' portions later).