Superbowl Suckling Pig

Happy Superbowl everyone! A little belated, but here's my little celebratory review of our suckling pig roast. You read that right. A suckling pig. Roasting in my little oven. 1 pig in a NYC apartment... ok you get the picture. But we pulled it off and boy was it delicious. The pig was about a 12-13 pounder so definitely on the small side and I ordered him from D'Artagnan and in case anyone out there is thinking of doing this please note that it's pretty pricey. But our little pig easily fed about 10 people, so you should also take that into consideration too.

We called him Brady

There were tons of other goodies from our friends and a few dips that I threw together. There were collard greens cooked in bourbon with bacon and sweet sausage, a 7 layer dip (courtesy of my Texas self), roasted potato salad, spicy crab dip, chili, lumpia- which are absolutely delicious Filipino meat spring rolls, a bean dip, and a few other various goodies of both the eating and imbibing variety. It was so much fun, mostly to gather with friends, see how many people I could comfortably fit inside my apartment and do something absolutely crazy, like roast a pig! And while I won't pretend to even remotely be a Giants fan (in fact Wes Welker carried my fantasy team this year and Sterling Moore is a fellow SMU grad) I was happy that my city got to experience another win. New Yorkers really do know how to go crazy with those things.

Brady all nice and roasted

And I have my own little celebration as well. I've been hinting it here for months but for various reasons haven't been able to say anything until yesterday. I got a promotion! This year so far is off to a pretty good start.

Suckling Pig
1 12-14 lb. suckling pig
3 Heineken
2 c. orange juice
5-6 cloves of crushed garlic
1 c. kosher salt
1 Tbl. oregano
1 Tbl. thyme

1. 24-48 hours before cooking put pig in a unscented plastic trash bag (may want to double this up), along with all the above marinading ingredients. Halfway through the marinading time rotate the pig to ensure it's evenly coated.

2. Pre-heat oven to 350.Wash off marinade (although it's ok to leave the herbs in the cavity) and arrange on a platter with the feet tucked underneath, like in the above pictures. Roast at 350 for 12 minutes per pound. Right before serving, set oven to broil and broil until skin is crispy and it registers an internal temperature of 160.

3. Let rest for 10-15 minutes. It's helpful to have someone who knows what they're doing carve (one of our friends is a butcher).