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.
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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.