About the Recipe
Moist and full of flavor!
Ingredients
One 4 to 7 lb pork butt.. bone in, skin and fat on 1/4 c olive oil 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar 1 Tbsp dried oregano 2 Tbsp cumin 2 tsp ancho chili powder (regular chili powder may be substituted) 3 Tbsp sea salt 1 Tbsp black pepper 6 large cloves garlic 1 large onion, cut into chunks Cooking spray
Preparation
Remove pork from refrigerator and allow to get to room temperature, approximately one hour. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare roasting pan with rack - you can use any large baking or roasting pan that you can fit a cooling rack or drip grid onto - to allow for air circulation under meat. First, line the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil. Then fill pan with about 1/2” to 3/4” layer of hot water. Now place the rack above the water line, making sure the rack clears the water. Spray the rack with cooking spray. In a blender, combine oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, chili powder, garlic and onion and blend into a liquidy paste. Take pork butt, fat side up, and use a very sharp chef’s knife to slice into the fat layer, approximately 1/2 inch deep, in rows across the entire top of the pork. Now create another line of slices in a diamond, cross-hatch design. The purpose of this is to allow the fat access to the hot oven air so it will melt and bathe the pork while in the oven. Take the blended paste and massage it onto the pork, first on the bottom and sides, then place pork onto the oiled rack over the water-filled pan and massage in the remaining paste within the cross hatches of fat, making sure the pork is fully coated with mixture. Place pork into preheated oven and roast, low and slow, for 3.5 to 5 hours, depending on size of pork butt. You know it is done when the diamonds of fat on top are a deep, dark brown and meat is super tender. Pork should easily yield when insterted with a fork. Remove from oven and allow to cool at least 30 minutes before serving. You may pour any drippings over meat to keep pork moist.