These Pork Souvlaki Skewers and their amazing Marinade is everything you need for a weeknight dinner or family barbecue. Delicious bright lemon, garlic, and oregano penetrate perfectly grilled pork.
Bonus:
The Amazing Marinade works for chicken, shrimp, and even makes an amazing dressing for wilted greens
How To Marinade
There are some differing opinions in the cooking world about how to use marinade or just generally what is the best way to push flavor into food. I would say cooks fall into one of two categories. There are the fans of Long Cold Marinade. This just means that you coat your food, usually meat way ahead and let it sit in the fridge for the flavor to slowly seep in. Then there is the Apply Marinade to Hot Food group. This group applies flavor while cooking and immediately after.
I fall firmly in the apply hot group. Don’t get me wrong, I use a bit of marinade on the cold meat right before cooking. You need to season and get things coated right before you start cooking, but over a decade of experience and thousands of meals, I just haven’t found any benefit to letting meat sit in a marinade for hours and hours. You also run the risk that a highly acidic marinade will degrade your meat quality and make the outer layers mushy. They best thing to do, especially for nice cubed pork souvlaki, is to put a light coating of marinade on before cooking and hit it with a drizzle of marinade right after you take it off the grill and let it rest in the marinade.
Before you grilling aficionados get too worked up and start asking about dry brining and rubs, I’m just going to say, let’s save it for another post. There are some great grilling techniques and all have their merit and appropriate uses, but today I’m here for the last-minute dinner crew.
Last Minute Dinner Crew
This Is For You!
Sitting at work around 4:30, clicking through Pinterest, deciding what to shop for on your way home…. No need to plan ahead. No need to pick up take out. Pork Souvlaki is it tonight.
Grab a rice pilaf box and bag of lettuce and in 30 minutes you can be a dinner hero.
“They’re always saying I’m a capitalistic pig. I suppose I am. But… it’s good for my drumming.” – Keith Moon
| Prep Time | 10 Minutes |
| Cook Time | 15 Minutes |
| Servings | Skewers |
- 1/4 Cup Lemon Juice Juice of 1 Large Lemon
- 1/2 Cup olive oil Extra Virgin
- 1 Tsp Dry Oregano
- 3 Cloves garlic Pressed or minced
- 1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 Tsp Pepper
- 1 Tbsp Salt
Ingredients Marinade
| |
- Mix together Marinade. Put half in a large bowl or gallon zip lock back to coat the raw meat, and reserve the second half for basting meat after it is cooked.
- Take pork loin and cube it into 1" cubes. It is best to use pork loin for this recipe. If you can't find a small whole piece of pork loin, purchase thick cut pork loin chops. This will work with pork tenderloin, but it is more expensive, and this recipe is perfect for the less expensive cut.
- Cut lemon into thick slices and then quarter the slices.
- Mix cubed pork and lemons in half of the marinade, and then skewer the pork adding a lemon slice every few pieces.
- Heat a grill pan or your barbecue grill on a medium heat. Make sure the pan or grill is hot before cooking the pork skewers. A hot grill will guarantee nice color and a good sear to keep the natural juices in the meat. Cook the skewers 3-5 minutes on each side.
- Remove pork souvlaki skewers from the pan when they are cooked medium/well. Drizzle with the remaining marinade, and let rest with foil over them for at 5 minutes.
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