We had pork left over in our fridge. When I looked at it, I kept envisioning some type of Asian-inspire barbecue sandwich. We had some Coke left over from a recent party and I thought about how some Korean mamas marinate beef in the sugary soda. I wanted the crisp caramelization found in Korean barbecue, the vinegary-dressing in Vietnamese sandwiches, and I had various Chinese spices around the kitchen.
Oh man! It came out so good… It was spicy and sweet, rich, and meaty. You could probably do something like this with chicken or beef as well. Give it a shot.
We ate in the backyard under some pretty orchids Jessica found.
Asian-Style Pork Barbecue
~makes three sandwiches
Ingredients
- 4 Arbol Chilies, stemmed
- 1/2 tsp. Szechuan Red Peppercorns
- 1/2 piece Star Anise
- 1 cup Coca Cola (flat and/or room-temperature is fine)
- 1/2 cup Ketchup
- 2 tbsp. Black Vinegar
- 1 tbsp. Soy Sauce
- 1 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
- 1/2 tsp. White Pepper
- 1/4 tsp. Dried Ground Ginger
- 1.25 lb. Pork Butt
Instructions
1. With a mortar and pestle, grind arbols, peppercorns, and star anise. Reserve.
2. In a narrow container whisk together coke, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, oil, reserved spice mixture, white pepper, and ginger. Add pork butt and coat well, cover, and marinate for at least an hour in the refrigerator.
3. Remove from fridge and strain marinade into a sauce pan. Reduce over low heat while pre-heating grill, at least 10 minutes, to produce a barbecue sauce.
4. Grill pork over medium-high heat. Keep coating with barbecue sauce, grilling on all sides. While cooking keep pork covered with aluminum foil.
5. When all sides are grilled, remove from heat, slice and grill slices to cook through (about 30 seconds). Then remove from heat, slice into strips, and eat in a sandwich on grilled pita, with extra barbecue sauce and topped with Hot Slaw (recipe below).
Hot Slaw
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
- 2 cups (packed) finely-shredded Purple Cabbage
- 1/2 cup shredded Carrot
- Kosher Salt
- White Pepper
- 1 tbsp. grated, fresh Ginger
- 2 cloves Garlic, grated
- 1 tbsp. Soy Sauce
- 1 tbsp. Black Vinegar
- 3 tbsp. Mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp. Sriracha
Instructions
1. Over medium-high heat, in large sauce pot, heat oil. Add cabbage, carrot, kosher salt and white pepper. Continue to stir, try to remove most of the moisture, about five minutes.
2. Add ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar. Stir well to combine and continue to cook another five minutes.
3. Remove from heat, stir in mayo and sriracha. Serve as a dressing or side with your favorite dish, such as a delicious Asian-Style Pork Barbecue sandwich!
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I’ll try this with chicken (I don’t eat pork) because it looks genius! I used to live with a girl from HK back in university, and she used to make a very similar dish, with tons of coke and other sweet&sticky sauces… oh it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and looked just like this 😉
Yum! Looks fantastic.
yum – i’ll try to make this for the meat-eaters in my family.
looks yummy… i must try it as it seems quite different from anything we make at home