During the bleak winter months here in the Northeast, I often gravitate to beef stroganoff, turkey tetrazzini, and other creamy, meat-heavy noodle dishes for a quick hit of coziness. So for this version, I brown ground pork with some mushrooms before stirring in broth and scraping up all the savory bits.
Cooking the noodles in this saucy mix ensures that they are deeply flavorful from the inside out. And just at the end, I stir in Boursin cheese, delivering quintessential creaminess and complex herby flavor from one ingredient. Even better: There’s not a bunch of herbs wasting away in my fridge before I get the chance to use them up.–Leah Colin
Creamy Pork and Egg Noodles FAQs
You absolutely can. But I find that making two single batches of a dish at the same time is always better. Sometimes doubling a dish, especially a casserole, can end in disaster. (That’s why you won’t find an ingredient multiplier on LC.)
Ground turkey, ground chicken, ground beef–even ground lamb–will work. The flavor profile will change, so keep that in mind.
Creamy Pork and Egg Noodles
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
- 1 pound ground pork
- 8 ounces cremini or white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt, plus more if needed
- 4 cups canned chicken broth or homemade chicken stock
- 8 ounces (4 cups) wide egg noodles
- 1 package (5.2 ounce) Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs cheese, crumbled
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm the oil until just smoking. Add pork, mushrooms, and salt and cook until liquid has evaporated and pork is beginning to brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Stir in broth, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits and bring to a simmer. Stir in noodles, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until noodles are just tender, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat, stir in Boursin cheese until well combined, then let sit until slightly thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir to recombine, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Creamy pork with egg noodles is a quick and easy meal reminiscent of Stroganoff with savory creaminess and herby flavors. The prep time was minimal, especially with pre-sliced mushrooms from the grocery store and ground pork. My tasters cleaned up every bit after going back to the Dutch oven for second helpings!
This simple recipe turned out creamy, savory noodles that seem more than the sum of their parts. Next time, I’ll leave out the salt as the broth is salty enough, and add more mushrooms. We added fresh spinach to our leftovers without issue. Boursin seems worth keeping on hand as a speedy and flavorful sub for cream and herbs, now that winter is here.
The whole time I was making this creamy pork and egg noodles I kept asking myself, “How come I’ve never thought to do this?” The recipe couldn’t be easier – brown some meat, add broth and noodles, cook, add cheese, et voila. You do have to slice a few mushrooms (although, you could buy them sliced) and stirring is required but other than that, it’s just patience. And, this is a one-pot meal–so minimal dishes!
A few notes:
- Be sure to let the liquid cook out in Step 1. Browning the meat ups the flavor and you don’t need extra liquid in this recipe.
- My broth came up to a boil pretty quickly in Step 2 so I lowered the heat to medium.
- I pulled my pot off of the heat when my noodles were al dente (10 minutes) because I didn’t want them to overcook in the next step.
- For Step 3, my sauce thickened a little. I let the recipe sit for 10 minutes. I think some of the sauce was absorbed by the pasta; the rest was in the pot, slightly thickened. We added freshly ground black pepper and a bit of kosher salt at the end. Next time, I’ll add fresh chives at the end for extra chive-iness!
This will serve four with a nice side salad and is perfect for a weeknight. I especially like the versatility of this recipe–you could change up the protein or the Boursin flavor, use vegetable stock, mix-and-match pasta shapes… there are a lot of tasty possibilities here!
This creamy pork and egg noodles dish was quick, easy, and delicious. I’ll definitely be making this again! And I think I’d actually choose this over a classic beef stroganoff. Everything comes together in one pot with very little prep and ingredients. You’ll have dinner ready in no time with very little mess to clean. I was skeptical of the Boursin, but it was amazing in this dish. I highly recommend you try this!
Five ingredients, one pot, 30 minutes from start to finish? Not to mention delicious? You bet these creamy pork and egg noodles will be going into regular rotation here!
Think Hamburger Helper, except instead of throwing in a package of dried cheese, powdered herbs, and sodium in with your protein and noodles, you’ve added a delicious fresh soft cheese with herbs to make the sauce. Mind blown!
I fought my instincts to first brown the pork, and then brown the mushrooms. Wouldn’t everything turn into a watery mess if I threw it all into the pot at the same time? Nope. Everything was well browned at about the 7-minute mark. And at that point, I poured off the excess fat, added the stock, and stirred with a wide wooden spoon to get all the delicious crispy bits stirred into the sauce. I’d recommend cooking the noodles just shy of done, or al dente, as they will continue to cook after stirring in the cheese and absorbing the broth for the next 5 minutes. So I couldn’t resist throwing in a fistful of frozen peas along with the cheese. If you’ve got any kind of green herb in your fridge saying “use me use me” then go ahead and do it!
Well, if this isn’t just the best one-pan 30-minute weeknight meal! Basically, it’s cheap-ish, requires just a few dishes, and everyone LOVED it. We were all surprised at how much flavor such a seemingly small amount of cheese added. But to get maximum flavor, you do need to brown the pork and mushrooms deeply, which only takes a few minutes more. Leftovers reheat well too. And that’s a plus in our house.
Talk about a weeknight wonder. At first glance, I thought this might be bland with so few ingredients, but it’s so good. The finished dish does indeed taste like a stroganoff. There essentially is no prep time if you use presliced mushrooms (I didn’t but would totally help a working mom). The concise directions are accurate. The only tweak I have would be to possibly thicken the noodle mixture with a teaspoon of cornstarch in a slurry before adding the Boursin. Mine did not thicken after 10 min, nor did the noodles absorb the sauce to thicken it overnight as a heated leftover lunch. This is a perfect camping dish!
So delicious! The boursin cheese actually makes a perfectly seasoned sauce. Browning the pork and mushrooms is also very important to the overall flavor of the dish. Only change I would make next time would be to add a little flour to the browned pork and mushrooms, to thicken the sauce a little. Also, I garnished with some chopped scallions (parsley would be good as well), just for a little green. Or, you could stir in some spinach at the end as well, if you want to incorporate some green. So excited to have leftovers for lunch today!
Thanks, Ann. We’re delighted that you enjoyed it. The Boursin really is a secret weapon when it comes to making a creamy sauce.
One of my the biggest waste of time and ingredients. I should’ve known better. I was intrigued by using the Boursin which set me back $6.00 (2022 prices). You sauté the meat and vegetables and then add the noodles, cook for 10 minutes or so and then on top of that you add the Boursin and boil and cook it even further. So your noodles are nothing but absolute mush and as the author said, you might need to wait for it to thicken. The reason for that is, 4 cups of chicken broth is way way way too much! There’s hardly any seasoning in this dish and for us, went sadly… directly into the trash. Don’t waste your time on this awful recipe. Sorry. Maybe you have other recipes but I’ll never know because I’m moving on..:
Jill, I’m so sorry you had a bad experience with the recipe. It comes from America’s Test Kitchen, and their recipes are pretty flawless.
But I wonder if you may have misread the recipe. You’re right: you do add dry noodles and cook them for 10 minutes. Then you add the cheese and let it sit-– not boil–-for 10 minutes. That allows the noodles to absorb the flavor and for the starch to thicken the sauce. Did you buy the Boursin cheese mentioned in the recipe? There’s plain Boursin, but this calls for herb and garlic. That’s where the flavors come from, along with the salt and pepper.
I do hope you’ll give us another chance, but if you do leave, I hope you find other sites that work for you.
I agree, I was really disappointed and the ingredients are expensive.
Deb. I’m so sorry to her. This is from America’s Test Kitchen, which is so reliable. I’ll but this into what we call “triage testing.”
Delicious and so easy and fast! Love the Boursin for a creamy sauce. Everyone gobbled this up. Lucky for me there was just enough left over for my lunch tomorrow.
Fantastic, Kathy! We’re so pleased you enjoyed this.