Chicken and Pork Lau Lau

Ingredients

• 12 to 24 large luau leaves (leaves of the taro root plant), as needed to wrap proteins
• 1 (2 to 3-pound) pork butt, cut into 6 pork-chop sized slices
• 6 (6-ounce) boneless chicken breasts
• 12 (3-ounce) pieces sablefish, butterfish or other fish of your choice
• Sea salt, as needed to taste
• 24 ti leaves to serve as wrappers, or aluminum foil (ti leaves are not to be eaten, but are used as the packaging material to bake/steam the luau leaf packets)

Directions

For the luau leaves, have a large bowl of ice water standing by. In a large pot fitted with a steamer basket (or use a stainless steel colander with handles), steam the luau leaves until soft but still bright green, and then plunge the steamer basket into the ice water to stop the cooking. Set the steamer basket on a utility platter or over a pot to let drain well and cool.

Lay the steamed luau leaves out on your work surface, then lay a piece of chicken or a piece of pork on each leaf topped with a piece of fish. Season with sea salt. Enclose the meat and fish in the luau leaves and then package them in ti leaves or aluminum foil. If you are using ti leaves, arrange the leaves perpendicular to each other in across arrangement. The stem of the ti leaf acts as the "string" to tie the package shut. The chicken and pork lau lau can then be cooked in an imu (the earthen oven) or in a conventional oven at 350 degrees F until cooked through, about 1 hour. For a description of the imu, please refer to the recipe for Whole Kahlua Pig Roasted in an Imu for a Luau.