Puerto Rican pulled pork
Pork dinner with beans

Ingredients

1 Pork Butt (4 lbs)
1 cup orange juice
Juice from 1 lime
1 head of garlic, pealed
2 tbsp dried oregano
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white or apple vinegar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp table salt
Puerto Rican pulled pork will be the star of your dinner. This recipe is full of flavor and comes out tender and juicy.

Instructions

1.Combine olive oil, vinegar, all but 6 cloves of garlic, black pepper, salt mash into a paste or puree in a food processor
2.With a knife make 6 deep stabs into the pork. Stuff the garlic cloves into the slits. Then rub the seasoning paste all over the pork. Push some into the slits as well
3.Put the pork in a crock pot and pour the orange juice and lime juice over the top. Cook on low for 5 hours. Drain the liquid and save 3/4 cup. Shred the pork and put back in the crock pot with the 3/4 cup saved liquid. Cook on high for 20 minutes.

Pulled pork is king. In Puerto Rico meats are ranked according to taste and popularity, pork is number one. When cooked right it is juicy, tender and full of flavor. It is also ideal for infusing with flavor since it doesn’t have a really strong taste. Pulled pork is one of the top ways to prepare pork because of how versatile it is.

Puerto Rican style pulled pork seems to melt in your mouth while exploding with flavor. The way we prepared it uses a slow cooker. A more traditional way would be to cook it in an oven for the same amount of time. The difference is that you would need to flip it half-way through.

Pick a good pork butt, also known as pork shoulder, for this recipe. It’s easier to work with pork that does not have a bone in it. If you can’t find a boneless one just add another hour to the cook time. Choosing the right cut of pork can be intimidating but don’t worry, just pick one that has a good amount of fat marveling. Those strips and whirls of fat will make it really tender. If you are going to cook it in the oven it’s ok to have a slab of fat on one side, just make sure that side is facing down for the start.

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