07 Jan The Best Braised Pork
This recipe is one that has been refined over my first few months living in Texas. I have decided to fully embrace my deep love of tacos and delicious pulled pork is a must. The recipe you find here isn’t over complicated; it starts with a great stock to create foundation of flavor without any fuss. I also add tomatoes for an umami kick and of course, a ton of salt. The ingredients are few, but essential. The reduced braising liquid that is added back to the meat after pulling makes the finished product super salty and moist, ready for even the driest corn tortilla (because the GF eaters out there are probably all too aware of how dry corn tortillas can get without a saucy meat inside!).
This recipe has origins in a lot of places – my love of cumin, my need for a simple go to bulk recipe, my borderline obsession with tacos. It also draws on some knowledge I obtained from cooking out of Taste and Technique. The braised short ribs in that cookbook call for 5 tablespoons of salt! That recipe was life changing for me because the tender braised meat was also seasoned well. I realized that it takes a lot of salt for braised meat to taste well seasoned.
This recipe calls for a 10-pound pork shoulder. I realize this seems excessive, but I am a fan of cooking in bulk and eating on something throughout the week in different ways. In my house it’s never to early or too late for pork – if eating leftover pork with eggs at 7am is wrong, I don’t want to be right! I also like entertaining with recipes like this because most of the active cooking is finished when people get to your house. Pre-make coleslaw, grab some corn tortillas and you’ve got tacos for a crowd (a version of this up soon on the blog!)! If you want to make less or can only find the 5-pound pork shoulders, this recipe is easily halved, just be aware that you may need more liquid. You want the meat to be mostly submerged.
This recipe has endless possibilities and I plan to post a number of the ways I use it here in the near future. Use it on tacos, rice bowls, eggs, salads or just eat it alone – something I encourage you to do while pulling the meat before serving, it is so good you’re going to be doing the OK-just-one-more-bite dance until its all pulled. Or maybe that’s just me… Enjoy!
The Best Braised Pork
- Category: Dinner, Gluten Free, Paleo
Ingredients
- 10 lb Pork Shoulder
- 3 tbsp. Salt
- 1 tbsp. Cumin
- 1/2 c Strained tomatoes
- 4 c Chicken or Veggie Stock
- 1/4 c Lime Juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Heat a 7qt cast iron or other oven safe dutch oven on the stove until hot. Add the pork and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes a side.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil.
- Cover the dutch oven with a heavy lid and place it in the oven. Cook for 5 hours, turning once about half way through.
- Remove the pork from the oven and pull meat out of the liquid and place on a heat safe cutting board. Allow to cool long enough so it can be handled without burning you, and then tear the meat apart and place into a bowl, discarding any chunks of fat as you go.
- Move all of the braising liquid to a sauce pan and bring to a simmer (do this because reducing in the cast iron can make it a major pain to clean out). Simmer liquid until reduced by half.
- Strain braising liquid into a fat separator through a fine mesh strainer. Pour reduced liquid over the pulled meat and stir so the meat is evenly coated. Serve and feast!
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