This dish can be the highlight of a big family holiday: a whole pig stuffed with two whole chickens!
This method of cooking meat requires quite a lot of time, but the result is impressive and worth the effort.
Here's the step-by-step recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 whole pig.
- 2 chickens.
- Lemongrass.
- Lemon thyme.
- Garlic.
- Green onions.
- Italian parsley.
- Sage.
- 2 lemons.
- 2 apples.
- Salt and pepper.
Light up the grill.
You'll likely be using a grill with an automatic spit rotation to ensure the meat cooks evenly over many hours.
Prepare the seasonings: lemongrass, lemon thyme, garlic, green onions, Italian parsley and sage.
Cut the lemongrass stems lengthwise and then in half. Lemongrass has a subtle taste and aroma that goes well with pepper and other herbs. Chop lemon thyme, Italian parsley, garlic, green onion and sage.
Lemons are needed to stuff chickens with them. Trim them around the edges and cut them lightly along the sides.During frying, lemon juice marinates the chicken from the inside, adding juiciness and making the meat very tender and soft.
Wash and dry the prepared herbs.
Combine herbs, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl.
Mix everything well. To make the process easier, add a little olive oil.
Make slits in the apples. The use of apples in cooking pork has long been traditional; their sour taste complements fairly fatty meat and gives it a unique aroma.
Place lemons inside chicken carcasses.
Sometimes it is recommended to boil the lemon first. Make a small hole in the skin to secure the stems. This will prevent the lemon from falling out during cooking.
Now place the piglet on its back, pour the herb mixture inside and distribute evenly.
Place both chicken carcasses on top of the herbs; there should be no free space inside.
Finally, add the apples.
The skewer should pierce the piglet on one side, pass through both hens and come out the other.
Sew up the pig with kitchen thread. The peculiarity of this thread is that it is heat-resistant, quite thick and dense. You can replace it with another durable thread, the main thing is that it does not contain synthetics or dyes.
Tie the legs together and install the skewer clamps in place.
To ensure that the pig gets an appetizing crust when roasting, rub the outside of it with salt.
Check the readiness of the coals.
All that remains is to install the spit and start the rotation process.
A pig of this size will roast for 8-10 hours. Keep an eye on the grill at all times. You may need to adjust the amount of coals; if the heat is too high, the meat may burn on the outside without being cooked through on the inside.
If halfway through cooking the pig starts to burn.
Wrap the center of the pig in foil so that the meat continues to cook only from the inside.
Continue roasting for about 4 hours until the meat is very tender.
The finished pig should sit for at least another half hour, preferably an hour.
No matter how great the temptation is to try an amazing dish right away, if you cut hot meat straight from the heat, it will lose its juiciness. In fact, the meat continues to cook for some time after the fire goes out: the temperature inside and outside the carcass is equalized, and the juices accumulated inside are evenly distributed. If you let the meat “rest” after frying, when cutting, the most delicious things will remain inside.
Finally, it's time to cut up the pig.
The pork should be amazingly tender and juicy.
Remove the chickens and butcher them too.
They should also be very soft while still retaining their individual flavor.
All that's left to do is eat this beauty!
Original article in English
