Spoon & Whisk
Spicy Pork with Orange and Chipotles

Spicy Pork with Orange and Chipotles
Serves 6

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Sweet and spicy, the flavors of this dish are nicely rounded out with a salad of bitter greens, like watercress, arugula and endive, served with chunks of creamy avocado. If you want more, mashed sweet potatoes are particularly perfect with the pork.

Made from dried, smoked jalapeños, chipotles are a brownish-red chile pepper either sold dried or in cans mixed with adobo sauce, a mixture of vinegar, garlic, soy sauce ad spices. Chipotles themselves are spicy, so be sure to use with caution. They are most often used in marinades for meat, especially pork, in Mexican cuisine.

Add lightly oiled peaches and/or pineapple cubes to the skewer.

1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 cup safflower oil
3 tablespoons chipotles in adobo sauce
4 garlic cloves
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 pounds pork butt, boneless center cut chops or pork shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-1/4-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To make the marinade: Place the orange juice, brown sugar, oil, chipotles, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt in a non-reactive 3- to 4-quart bowl and mix until all the ingredients are well combined. Add the pork to the bowl and mix until it is completely immersed in the marinade. Alternatively, you can transfer the mixture to a large resealable plastic bag. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 8 hours.

Prepare a grill. When the coals are glowing red, after 15 to 20 minutes, cover with the grate. After 5 minutes, use a wire brush to thoroughly clean the grate. When the coals are covered with a pale gray ash and you can leave your hand 5 inches above the fire for 2 to 3 seconds, the coals are ready.

To cook, remove as much marinade as possible from the pork. Thread the pork on skewers and sprinkle all sides with the remaining teaspoon of salt and the pepper. Place the kabobs on the grate and grill, turning every 1-1/2 minutes, until the pork is deeply browned on the outside and medium rare in the inside, 9 to 10 minutes total. Transfer to a serving platter and serve immediately.

 

Ingredients

Cutting Pork

In Plastic Bag

Ready Skewers

Grilling Pork

Recipes from Kabobs, 52 Easy Recipes for Year-Round Grilling by Sally Sampson. Copyright © 2007. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.