Pernil (Puerto Rican pork roast)

Our family is currently passing around a cold so dinner time around here has consisted of a lot of Trader Joe's frozen meals. Tonight I was finally able to make us a full dinner (with a lot of help from my husband) and it was nice to get back in the kitchen. I bought a few big pork shoulders a few weeks ago and have been keeping my eye out for recipes. I loved the long cooking time and relative ease of this recipe.

Pernil

1 pork shoulder, 7 pounds
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large yellow onion, peeled and quartered
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder (I used ancho)
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
Olive oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 (14 oz) can of beef broth
lime wedges for serving

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Score the pork with a sharp knife in a crisscross pattern.

Pulse the garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper together in a food processor, adding the oil until a paste is formed. Blend in the vinegar.

Rub your paste well into the pork. Put the pork in a roasting pan and pour in just enough beef broth to cover the bottom of your pan. Roast the pork for 5-6 hours or until a thermometer inserted in the middle gets to 170 degrees.

Turn your roast every hour or so being sure to keep the bottom of the pan covered with beef broth. If you use up all your beef broth just use water to cover the bottom of the pan.

If you like your meat brown and crispy raise the heat to 400 degrees the last 10 minutes of cooking.
Let the pork rest for 10 minutes, then cut into pieces and serve with lime wedges.

Serves 6-8 people

After scoring.

Rubbed with marinade and ready to go into the oven.

Our pork was soft and flavorful, the taste reminded me of carnitas. We have a lot of leftover meat so tomorrow we will be shredding it up and having tostadas for dinner.  Oh and a word of warning, after the onions were "pulverized" in the food processor I was tearing up so badly I had to leave the kitchen for awhile until I could see again. Don't let that keep you from making this tasty dish.

Till tomorrow...