Daisy Martinez Puerto Rican Roast Pork

By carvalhohm

This Puerto Rican Roast Pork recipe results in a deliciously moist roasted pork shoulder with skin that transforms into a crunchy crisp!

Ingredients

• WET RUB:
• 1 (4.5-pound) skin-on pork shoulder roast
• 12 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fine sea or kosher salt (see Notes)
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Preparation

Step 1

WET RUB:
Pound garlic cloves and salt to paste using mortar and pestle. Add peppercorns and oregano, pounding well after each one to incorporate them into paste. Stir in oil and vinegar.

NOTES:
Salt keeps garlic from flying all over place as you pound them together. This wet rub will keep for 5 to 6 days in refrigerator, which gives you a chance to try it on anything you like, from fish fillets and pork chops to turkey cutlets and steaks.

PORK:
Up to 3 days before you serve roast, set it in bowl, skin side up. With paring or boning knife, make several slits about 1/2 inch apart through the skin of the roast and into the meat. Make the slits as deep as you can. Wiggle finger in slits to open them up bit and then fill each one with wet rub using teaspoon. (A pair of latex gloves comes in handy when it comes time to rub wet rub into pork.) Do same on all sides. If you have rub left over, smear it all over outside of roast. Refrigerate, covered, at least 1 day or up to 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Set roast, skin side up, on rack in roasting pan. Roast until skin is deep golden brown and crackly and with no trace of pink near bone, about 11/2 hours or until instant reading thermometer inserted near bone registers 160°F. Let the roast rest at least 15 minutes before carving. A good rule of thumb for roasting pork is to cook the roast half an hour for every pound.

TO SERVE:
Remove crispy skin. It will pull right off in big pieces. Cut them into smaller pieces—kitchen shears work well for this—and pile them in center of the platter. Carve meat parallel to bones all way down to bone. (It will get trickier to carve neat slices as you get near bone; don’t let that bother you.)