How to Make Chef John's Hot Meat Slaw

All Recipes

In this video, learn how to make Chef John's Hot Meat Slaw, a savory and delicious dish that's perfect for any meal. Chef John walks you through the simple steps to create this flavorful combination of tender meat and crunchy cabbage slaw.

Transcript

00:00Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with summer meat slaw.

00:08That's right, it's going to be a hot meat slaw summer.

00:11And whether you do this with pulled pork or with some other kind of meat, this is the

00:15most exciting thing to happen to coleslaw in centuries.

00:19And your summer cookouts will never be the same.

00:22So with that, let's go ahead and get started by cutting a head of green cabbage in half,

00:26which we do so we can remove the core.

00:29And the best way to do that is with two angled cuts, one on each side of the core.

00:34And don't worry about cutting off too much.

00:36Okay, besides the core, that's where all the largest, thickest, most fibrous ribs are.

00:42And once we have that removed, we will cut this in half again to make quarters.

00:46And if any of the outside leaves are in your way or come loose, just set those aside and

00:50we'll slice those up at the end.

00:53And that's it.

00:54Now we're going to take a flat side and begin slicing down every quarter inch or so.

00:59And for other coleslaws, it might not matter, but I don't think we want to go any smaller

01:03than this since we are going to give this a brief pan frying and we don't want it to

01:07get too soft too quick.

01:10So I wouldn't go smaller, but if you want, you could go a little bigger.

01:14I mean, you are after all the law man of your slaw man, but no matter what size you decide

01:18on, make sure you try to keep it as uniform as you can.

01:22And then besides about eight cups of sliced cabbage, we're going to need some already

01:26cooked shredded summer meat, in my case, pulled pork or a kalua pork to be exact.

01:32But this will also work beautifully with other summer meats like shredded grilled chicken

01:36or some barbecue beef.

01:38And then the rest of our slaw ingredients will include some freshly sliced green onions,

01:42some sliced up red pepper.

01:44We will also be adding some carrot as well as a few cloves of crushed garlic.

01:50And to get started, we will add our onions, peppers and garlic to a very experienced large

01:54mixing bowl.

01:55Oh yeah, if your mixing bowl is not all dinged up and scratched, you are not cooking enough.

02:01And then as far as the carrot goes, we're actually going to peel it in instead of grating

02:05it or trying to cut it into julienne.

02:08And not only is this very easy and fast, it's going to give us the perfect size and shape

02:12piece, which is going to produce the exact texture we're going for, which is flexible

02:17but still a little bit crisp.

02:19Oh, and when the carrot gets too small to peel easily, we will perform the old snap

02:23and chew and break that piece off and eat it.

02:26And then continue peeling.

02:29And that's it.

02:30Once that's been accomplished, our veggies are ready to top with some hot meat and cabbage.

02:34So we will put a large skillet over high heat and we'll transfer in whatever shredded meat

02:39we're using.

02:40And besides heating this through and melting any and all congealed fat and accumulated

02:45juices, it's also nice if we get a little bit of brown crust on the meat, since that

02:50will always add more flavor, plus add a very desirable textural element to the final coleslaw.

02:56And once that starts happening and our meat's getting hot, we can kind of gauge how much

03:00fat we have to work with.

03:02And if it looks like you have plenty, don't do anything.

03:05But if it seems like you need a little bit more, which you did to me here, we'll go ahead

03:09and drizzle in a little bit of vegetable oil, just to help things brown up a little easier.

03:15And yes, you can accomplish this with just tongs or a spatula or both.

03:19But if you can flip, you should flip, since that is faster and more efficient.

03:24Plus if people are watching, it kind of looks like we know what we're doing.

03:28But anyway, once our meat is hot and hopefully somewhat browned and crusty, we will transfer

03:33that into our bowl of veggies and we'll give everything a quick toss.

03:38And what's happening here, besides all those flavors melding together, is that heat from

03:41the pork is ever so slightly softening those veggies and taking a little bit of that raw

03:46sharp edge off the garlic.

03:48And that's it.

03:49Once our meat's been mixed in, we'll just let that sit doing what it's already doing.

03:53And we'll head back to the stove and place our pan back on high heat.

03:57And we'll drizzle in another couple of tablespoons of our vegetable oil, at which point we'll

04:01transfer in our cabbage, along with a nice generous pinch of salt.

04:05And by the way, one of the great things about this slaw is we really don't have to make

04:09a dressing, so don't be afraid of that oil we added in, since along with some vinegar

04:14at the end, that is pretty much going to be it for how to dress this.

04:18And then what we'll do once our cabbage softens up enough to start tossing around, is we'll

04:22start tossing it around until it's very hot and partially charred in spots and nice and

04:29flexible.

04:30But, and this is very important, we still want those pieces to have a little bit of

04:34crunch to them.

04:35I mean, you could cook the cabbage until it's soft and tender, but to me, that's not going

04:39to make it seem like a slaw, so you're going to have to decide.

04:44But once mine was looking like this, and I could see those pieces were flexible, and

04:48it's starting to char in spots, I figured at this point it was just about perfect.

04:53And once we are happy with our cabbage, we will transfer that into our bowl.

04:57Oh, and I was about to brag, I didn't even lose one piece of cabbage while doing this.

05:02Until the final flip.

05:04But anyway, let's go ahead and transfer that into our bowl, along with almost all the rest

05:08of the ingredients, including some freshly ground black pepper, a generous squeeze of

05:14sriracha hot sauce, oh yeah, we're giving cayenne the day off, and then we'll finish

05:20up with a generous splash of seasoned rice vinegar, at which point we'll grab our tongs

05:26and give this a very thoughtful and thorough mix.

05:29And for your information, this is fantastic served hot, warm, or at room temp.

05:34So basically, as soon as this is all combined, we can serve it as soon as we want.

05:38Except before I do that, I like to toss in some freshly chopped cilantro, which I like

05:43to do after the cabbage has been mixed in.

05:45I don't want to cook that freshness out of the cilantro, and if we added it with that

05:50really hot steaming cabbage, that might happen.

05:53So I prefer to add it right at the end, once everything's been mixed.

05:56And obviously, before you serve this, you're going to give it a taste, to see if it needs

06:00a little more salt, or maybe some heat, or maybe another splash of vinegar.

06:06And that's it, once that's looking and tasting how we want, we can transfer that into some

06:09kind of beautiful, interesting bowl to serve it in.

06:13Or if you don't have something like that, you could use something like this.

06:16And this is so beautiful, in real life you don't have to add a garnish.

06:20But I'm going to finish with a scattering of freshly sliced green onions, since as you

06:25well know, I need to take some contractually obligated pictures, which I did, at which

06:31point I grabbed a fork to go in for the official taste.

06:34And that, my friends, is unlike any other slaw you've ever had, and also any pulled

06:39pork you've ever had.

06:41And as I touched on earlier, what makes this taste and eat like a slaw, is keeping that

06:45cabbage fairly crisp, and not letting it get too soft and tender, which by the way, would

06:50still make for something very incredible to eat.

06:53But if we're going to call something a meat slaw, we want something that's recognizable

06:57as that, in both taste and texture.

07:00And I really do think this is.

07:02And while some leftover pulled pork would be perfect for this, and probably my first

07:06choice, some shredded barbecued beef, or even a proper beef barbacoa, I think would work

07:12amazingly well in this, as would some shredded up grilled chicken thighs.

07:17And then to finish things up in style, I'm going to go ahead and serve some of this on

07:20rice, so I can admit I stole this idea from my favorite Hawaiian barbecue spot, where

07:26they serve their kalua pork mixed with fried cabbage, on top of rice.

07:30And this meat slaw is definitely already a meal, but when you add the rice in it's even

07:34more of a meal.

07:36But no matter how you serve yours, or exactly what cooked summer meat you use, I think a

07:41big bowl of this would be the star of any cookout, which is why I really do hope you

07:45give it a try soon.

07:48So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much

07:53more info, as usual.

07:55And as always, enjoy.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended