Last year I wrote this blog post and recipe on Carnitas, which, along with Cowboy Caviar, is our traditional New Year’s Day meal (we also have greens – spinach or kale or both), as family tradition on my husband’s side dictates one must eat black-eyed peas for prosperity in the new year, and tradition on my family’s side leans toward pork and greens for good luck (actually, I think it’s pork and cabbage, but cabbage?  eh).  This year, I put aside my beloved slow cooker (mostly because I had two pretty new red casserole dishes I really wanted to use) in favor of slow roasting the pork in the oven.  We all agreed that while the crockpot version is delightful eating, this is a notch higher on the list.

Ingredients (serves 8-12 depending on size of roast):

• 3-5 pound boneless pork loin roast (you can also use a pork shoulder roast, or one of the other cuts that you enjoy that slow cooks well, but probably not a pork tenderloin – those don’t lend themselves as well to slow cooking)
• 1 TB each of garlic powder, cumin and chili powder (combined)
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 chipotle peppers from a can of chipotle in adobe sauce (chopped) (reserve sauce – see below)
• 1 TB minced garlic
• 1/2 c orange juice
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2 tsp of the reserved adobo sauce
• 1/2 c beer (or beef or chicken broth if you prefer)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Rub the roast all over with the spice mixture.
3. Heat oil in a large covered casserole over medium heat.
4. Brown roast in oil, turning, so that alls sides get browned.
5. Add onion, minced garlic and chopped chipotle pepper to the casserole dish.
6. Mix together juices, adobo sauce and beer (or broth) and pour into casserole dish around the roast.
7. Roast in oven for 2.5 to 3 hours, until pork pulls apart easily. Remove from oven.
8. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
9. Remove pork from casserole, shred and place in a shallow roasting pan.  Ladle sauce over the top.
10. Return to oven and roast 20-25 minutes, or until it is nice and browned and a little bit crips.
11. Instead of step 10, you can also heat oil in a large pan and put the shredded pork in that, pressing down, until it gets nice and crispy, and then flip and do the other side. Make sure to reserve some sauce for gravy/dipping.

We serve this with tortillas, chopped tomatoes and jalapeno and Cowboy Caviar over greens.

HAPPY 2018!

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