I’ve seen a lot of recipes for Cuban Pork Roast on the internet lately. This meat is known as Cerbo Asado in Cuba. The recipes I have encountered sound interesting, but quite heavy in Mexican oregano, which is already stronger and more aromatic than Italian oregano most of us are familiar with. The recipes vary quite a bit, like gumbo does from kitchen to kitchen. I’ve come up with a version that is a similar, but much little milder in oregano. It also pulls several interesting new flavors into the mix. It is a blending of some 3-4 different recipes, adding my own ingredients, deleting some ingredient as well. I think you’ll like the final taste on this pork, as both of us certainly did.
When a marinade or sauce can take away the strong flavor of roasted pork (at least strong to me) that’s a win-win in my book. This recipe accomplished that admirably and I will be making this creation again. I’d like to try it on a brisket cooked outside on the grill sometime as well.
I am only providing the nutritional info for the marinade/sauce to which you can just add the amount of meat you slice off and consume. My assumption is that each person will likely only be consuming 1 T. marinade/sauce on the meat and perhaps 1 T. dotted on the meat at table. This recipe is not suitable until you are past the Induction Phase of Atkins. It is perfectly suitable for Keto plans and Primal-Paleo as well.
Afterthought: This meat leftover makes particularly tasty sandwiches. Love it that way, so I do a large roast on purpose! This meat freezes well cooked/sliced & separated with plastic wrap to have at the ready so you can pop off a few slices, defrost and serve up those delicious sandwiches in no time at all! And its ever so much better for you than store-bought lunchmeat.
INGREDIENTS:
6-8 lb. bone-in pork butt (or 4-5 lb. boneless pork shoulder)
3/4 c. fresh-squeezed orange juice
Juice of 1 large lemon
juice of 1 lime
3/4 c. white wine (I used Riesling)
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. each fresh mint and cilantro, chopped
1 T. dried ancho chile pepper, ground
6 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 T. dried oregano leaves (or 2 T. fresh, chopped)
1 T. each onion powder and ground cumin
1 tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. chipotle chile powder (or a 1″ pepper in adobo, rinsed, seeded and mashed)
1/16 tsp. dusted glucomannan powder to ever so slightly thicken marinade so it will cling to meat
OPTIONAL: 1 tsp. salt
VARIATION: I suspect this would be delicious grilled over charcoal like you would pork for making pulled pork BBQ. I haven’t tried that yet, however. If you wish, you can add some bell pepper to the bottom of the baking pan 1 hour before meat is done. The roasted peppers are quite delicious with this meat.
DIRECTIONS: Place first 5 ingredients into a marinating pan large enough for your meat. Add all the herbs and spices listed and stir well. Add glucomannan, whisking until blended. This will ever so slightly thicken the marinade so it will cling to meat. Place pork butt into marinating pan. Using a basting brush, drizzle marinade over meat slowly until all sides are covered. Marinate for 1-2 hours, turning meat once and repeating the drizzling step to baste all over again.
When ready to cook, preheat oven to 325º. Line large sheet pan with foil so it will catch all juices for easier clean-up. Set a meat rack in the pan next to elevate the meat and finally place the meat fat-side up onto the rack. The rack is essential to get the “bark” on all sides of the meat. Pour marinade into a saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes to make certain the raw meat juices in it have fully cooked. Remove from heat.
Baste meat again with marinade and pop into 325º oven. Bake for 1 hour to raise internal temperature of the center of the meat. Now lower oven temperature to 250º and bake for about 4 hours (more for larger roast; less for smaller one), turning the meat and basting every hour to allow all sides to brown evenly. When the meat reaches 170º internal temperature it is done and fork tender. Mine was so tender the slices fell away from the knife before I could even get them cut off. Remove meat to serving platter and set a few minutes. Combine pan juices and baste with a little water and cook a few minutes to be sure it is fully cooked throughout and to reduce. Slice meat fairly thin and serve with a nice guacamole salad. Have the “sauce” on the table so your diners can dot a little more on at the table, it on their portion, as it is a wonderful flavor “boost” to the meat.
TIP: As always, be sure your thermometer isn’t touching a bone when you check temperature so you are getting an accurate reading.
NUTRITIONAL INFO (for sauce only!) Makes about 2 cups (32 T.). Average serving=2 T. Each serving contains: (be sure to add in the meat portion to these numbers to get your per serving total)
54 cals, 6.93g fat, 3.3g carbs, 0.36g fiber, 2.94g NET CARBS, 0.4g protein, trace sodium.
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 