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There are few things in this world better than a good Hawaiian plate lunch. Here you will find everything you need to make a Hawaiian plate lunch at home!
Table of Contents
- Ingredients for Hawaiian Lunch Plate
- Plate Lunch vs. Mixed Plate
- The Best Hawaiian Mac Salad
- Hawaiian Teriyaki Grilled Chicken
- Hawaiian Beef Teriyaki
- Our Favorite Kalua Pork
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Making Ahead and Storing Hawaiian Plate Lunch
- More Hawaiian Recipes
- How To Make a Hawaiian Plate Lunch
- Hawaiian Plate Lunch Recipe
A true Hawaiian plate lunch is made up of two scoops of rice or one big scoop. A healthy portion of mac salad, and an “entrée” (usually meaning some kind of protein). The “entrée” is typically grilled teriyaki chicken, Kalua pork, or teriyaki beef.
Sometimes you can find plate lunches with chicken katsu (a Japanese-style breaded chicken), shoyu chicken, shrimp, hamburger patties, mahi mahi, BBQ chicken, or spam. I have also seen plates that have potatoes, fried eggs, salmon, or sausage. It just totally depends on the plate lunch spot.
Ingredients for Hawaiian Lunch Plate
We love making Hawaiian lunch plates! It is the perfect way to have all the Hawaiian recipes on one plate. This lunch plate is unique! You get a little bit of your Hawaiian favorites without mixing them together. Enjoy each individual ingredient or meal separately while having it all in one place!
- Rice – The rice is usually a sticky-type rice. Calrose rice is common for lunch plates. Jasmine rice or long-grain white rice definitely doesn’t make the cut. And definitely not brown rice if you are going for authentic. Sometimes you will find that restaurants put a bit of sauce (or brown gravy) over the rice for you. I love this because it gives the rice just a little flavor boost. Most of the time the rice is just plain, which is great too. Season with a little salt and pepper for extra flavor.
- Hawaiian macaroni salad – This has oversized noodles that absorb the salad mixture. Serve the mac salad cold. It has a tangy and sweet flavor to it. Hawaiian mac salad is a staple in the Hawaiian dishes!
- Kalua pork – Made with only a few ingredients this kalua pork is tender and a little more on the drier side. It doesn’t come with a lot of juices compared to other meats. Kalua pork is loaded with all the flavor though!
- Grilled teriyaki chicken – A classic favorite that kids and adults love to have on their plates. This teriyaki chicken recipe is grilled to perfection. It is tender and juicy with teriyaki sauce. It is the best type of Hawaiian BBQ!
- Hawaiian beef teriyaki – Thin cuts of beef cooked in teriyaki sauce give a decadent flavor that is loved by all. It is tender and moist in every bite.
Plate Lunch vs. Mixed Plate
People can get confused between a plate lunch and a mixed plate. The only difference is that with a mixed plate, you have more than one “entrée” dish. A typical plate lunch only has one big serving of one thing (like JUST teriyaki chicken or JUST Kalua pork etc..) A mixed plate usually consists of two or more smaller servings of a combination of entrees. For me, I usually like the mixed plate because I like a little taste of everything!
The Best Hawaiian Mac Salad
A plate lunch is not a REAL plate lunch unless it has Hawaiian macaroni salad. You simply MUST have mac salad on there. Don’t ask me why, it just makes a meal complete. I am a food mixer when it comes to plate lunches. I love getting a little creamy mac salad, a little rice, and a little bit of meat for each bite. Have a side dish of Hawaiian rolls to scoop it all together. HEAVEN I tell ya. Mac salad, the good kind with mayo, sliced carrots, and everything all together. Don’t skip it!
Hawaiian Teriyaki Grilled Chicken
Grilled teriyaki chicken has got to be the most common entree ordered. I could be wrong on this but it seems like it is always a safe option for people who are unsure about trying out new foods. If you are throwing a luau or party and just want to cook up one entree for everyone, this may be the one you want to do. Be sure, though, if you do this, that you are using chicken THIGHS. Chicken breasts do not make the cut and I promise you, it will not taste anywhere nearly as good as chicken thighs. Don’t be tempted to make the switch!
Hawaiian Beef Teriyaki
The grilled beef teriyaki is probably my husband’s favorite entrée (and it may be mine, too, it’s so hard to say). I love tender, SUPER thin slices of beef steak that you can cut with a fork. The marinade for the teriyaki beef is also just downright delicious. I love cooking up the leftover marinade and pouring it over the beef (and sometimes over the rice) to make sort of a beef stew. So, so good.
Our Favorite Kalua Pork
Kalua Pork is another very common plate lunch entrée. Traditional Kalua big is slow-cooked in a pit (an imu) with ti leaves and/or banana leaves. That method is a little intense for a typical weeknight meal at our house so we usually do the “cheater” method. This version is made in the slow cooker and tastes just like authentic shredded Kalua Pig. We love adding cabbage to the mix, which is also very common for this style of lunch.
“Yum – all my favorites on one page! Amazing recipes”
-Melissa
Frequently Asked Questions
A Hawaiian plate lunch consists of scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, then two to three types of meat depending on how much or little you want. You can either have a large plate lunch or a mini.
It is a plate full of Hawaiian favorite meals that consist of pork, beef, scoop of mac salad, and rice. These are placed in separate areas on the plate that are not touching but encompassed on a plate or bento box.
A Hawaiian mixed plate originated in the 1880s. It was made for the sugar plantation workers on the mainland who would bring their lunches to work with all the traditional meals on one plate.
Yes! It is a little bit different than this traditional Hawaiian plate lunch but it is delicious with all the favorites from Hawaiian meals. It consists of a hamburger patty, fried egg, and gravy served over top of rice.
Hawaii is known for the delicious and fresh fruit they have on the islands, especially pineapple. Fresh pineapple cut into pineapple chunks, pineapple dole whips, refreshing pineapple juice, or pineapple smoothies. They also have passion fruit and fresh mango. Haupia is a favorite coconut pudding recipe that is made for special occasions.
The first is usually spam which is similar to ham. Kalua pork, poke, salmon, teriyaki chicken, mahi mahi, shrimp, and beef. All these types of meats are found on the islands and are used during luaus and special dinners gathering friends and family.
Making Ahead and Storing Hawaiian Plate Lunch
This Hawaiian plate lunch is the perfect meal for feeding a crowd! Make ahead or the day of the recipes for a lunch plate. When ready to serve use a bento-style plate or styrofoam container to hold all the contents.
- Refrigerator – Place each recipe from the Hawaiian plate lunch into separate airtight containers to store. Label them and place them in the fridge.
- Making ahead – Make each of the recipes ahead of time and store them in the proper containers or create bento or plate lunches ahead of time to have as a meal plan for the week.
- Serving – Warm the chicken, pork, or beef separately in the microwave or oven. Once warmed through place on a Hawaiian lunch plate and add the creamy mac salad and rice as sides.
More Hawaiian Recipes
Hawaiian food is so fun to make and eat for every meal. Our Hawaiian Banana Pancakes or Spam Musubi are always favorites. For lunch, read above for everything you need to know about assembling the BEST lunch plate, and for dinner try our Grilled Huli Huli Chicken. For dessert, try this Hawaiian Guava Cake or our Duke’s Hula Pie Copycat Recipe. YUM!
How To Make a Hawaiian Plate Lunch
Hawaiian Plate Lunch
Ingredients
- 6 cups Calrose rice cooked
- ½ cup Hawaiian Macaroni Salad (click for recipe)
- ⅓ cup Kalua Pork (click for recipe)
- ⅓ cup Grilled Teriyaki Chicken (click for recipe)
- ⅓ cup Hawaiian Beef Teriyaki (click for recipe)
Instructions
- For each plate, add rice, macaroni salad, and an entree (one of the meats).
- You can choose one entree, mix and match 2 of the proteins, or have a little of all three to make a "mixed plate" (see notes above).
Thank you for sharing this! I can’t access the recipe for the mac salad. It jumps me to web story of the mac salad which doesn’t give measurements of the ingredients. I would love to get the recipe! 🙂
Sorry it should be fixed now! Here is the link: https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/authentic-hawaiian-macaroni-salad/
I am with you on liking a taste of everything, mixed plate for me! When everything tastes this good, how could you leave anything out?
Found this on Pinterest. What a great set of recipes for putting together an authentic Hawaiian meal! My daughter and I will be making it this weekend.
Yum – all my favorites on one page! Amazing recipes
It’s all great. Soon we will be getting an L&L close enough to us in Texas. (Killeen). It’s a 1/2 hr drive but I can hardly wait. In the meantime I do a lot of what u have here. I love Mac salad and use the L&L recipe. Mayo is the key !
I was born and raised in Hawaii and what I miss most is the food.
I don’t need sauce on the rice. The main entree usually has enough sauce
I can eat plain rice every day ! Thanks for posting this
Oh boy, this is terrific! I can’t wait to try it!
Brings back such great memories of being on the islands of Hawaii! That macaroni is so good!!
Do you have any idea what sauce you use for the rice? I LOOOVE Honolulu Grills (in St George) that they use so much I could probably drink it!
It has been so long since we have been to Honolulu Grill, I will have to go back and see what kins of sauce they put over the rice. I will see if I can duplicate it and make a post out of it! Thanks for the suggestion!