Spicy Miso Pork

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Miso is fermented soybeans used in Japanese cuisine, most commonly, the miso soup. It has a salty, nutty, and slightly tangy flavor; although the flavor profile is different depending on whether you have sweet miso (light in color with a short fermentation time), or dark miso (red or brown in color with a longer fermentation time and higher salt content). There's actually over a 1000 different types of miso and the Japanese consider miso making an art form. If you are interested in the history, "The Miso Book" by John and Jan Belleme is good.

In any case, I like using miso as a marinade to add an earthy nutty flavor to the meats. The basic miso marinade is typically made with miso, mirin, sugar, garlic and ginger. And here, I just took the basic miso marinade and added a healthy amount of sriracha sauce to make it spicy. Easy, no fuss, and totally freezer friendly. Pictured above are 3 meal prep boxes with the spicy miso pork over a bed of rice topped with the dipping sauce, and a side of broccoli.


Miso paste marinade 

Marinate overnight in fridge

Bake, then broil in a foil lined tray for easy clean up

Yields 8-10 servings

Ingredients:

  • 5 lbs pork butt
  • 3 T sriracha hot chili sauce
  • 2 T miso (any kind, but I used white miso here)
  • 2 T sugar
  • 2 T mirin
  • 2 t salt
  • 1 t ginger powder
  • 2 t garlic powder

Dipping sauce:

  • 2 cloves garlic minced to a fine paste
  • 2 T sesame oil
  • 1/3 c soy sauce
  • 3 T honey
  • 2 T chopped green onions
  • 1 t sriracha hot chili sauce

Procedures:

1. Cut pork butt into 5 equal pieces. Place pork into a ziplock bag.

2. In a bowl, mix together the sriracha hot chili sauce, miso, sugar, mirin, salt, ginger and garlic powder to form a paste. Spoon marinade into ziplock bag of pork. Mix and allow to marinate overnight in the refrigerator. An hour prior to baking, take pork out of the refrigerator and leave at room temperature so it is not icy cold going into the oven.

3. Preheat oven to 375 F.

4. Line a large baking tray with foil. Place the pork in a single layer on the pan. Bake at 375 F for 30 min.

5. After 30 min of baking, take the tray of pork out. Switch oven to broil. Broil for 2 to 3 min or until slightly charred. Watch carefully, as miso burns easily. Turn each pork strip over and broil for 2 to 3 min or until slightly charred.

 6. Allow pork to rest for 10 min. Then slice and serve with dipping sauce.