freySite
the life and times of J T Frey

Chilorio Pulled Pork

This was a riff on Rick Bayless' "Red Chile Pork Tacos" recipe. I had purchased a whole Boston butt and had lopped-off the 5 lbs of it farthest from the chine bone to make sausage. Doing the whole roast with this method would have yielded way too much meat.

36 tacos
ingredients:

Marinade

  • 2 pasilla chiles (seeded)
  • 8 puja chiles (seeded)
  • 2 cloves garlic (still in skins)
  • 2 naval oranges (juiced)
  • 1 tbsp Mexican oregano
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp light olive oil

Meat

  • Bone end of a Boston butt pork roast (about 2 - 3 lbs)
  • salt

For the marinade:

  1. Head a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Place the garlic gloves in the pan and turn occasionally to toast.
  2. One at a time place a seeded chile flat on the hot skillet. Use a spatula to press for 10 seconds, then flip and press on the second side for 10 seconds. Set each aside to cool slightly.
  3. When all chiles have been toasted, check the garlic. Once it is done remove from the skillet and set aside.
  4. Crumble/tear the toasted chiles into the bowl of a blender. Remove the skins from the garlic and add to the bowl alone with the salt, oregano, and orange juice.
  5. Starting at the lowest speed, puree the mixture until all flecks of chile begin to disappear.
  6. With the blender still running on high speed, drizzle the oil into the bowl of the blender. Continue blending for 1 minute then set the bowl aside.

For the meat:

  1. Heat the oven for 350 °F roasting.
  2. Trim any silver skin from the roast. Season with a generous sprinkling of salt.
  3. Put a large dutch over over medium-high heat. When ready, sear the roast on all sides until browned. Finish with the fat-cap side of the roast facing upwards.
  4. Pour all of the marinade over the roast. You can use a few tbsp of water to clean out the blender bowl and pour that into the base of the dutch oven.
  5. Put the lid on the dutch oven and move to the oven. Roast at 350 °F for an hour, then reduce the head to 275 °F and roast another 3 to 4 hours until the fat cap is soft and the meat has pulled away from the chine bone and is fork-tender.

Once the meat cools, move it to a large baking dish and shred into chunks. The fat cap may be soft enough to shred with the meat (this will keep the meat even more unctious and juicy, but only if the fat is soft enough).

Transfer the braising liquid to a container and allow the fat to rise to the surface. Skim the fat, then spread the remaining sauce over the shredded pork, tossing to combine.

Serve on warm flour tortillas. We had them with roasted and diced red onion and poblano pepper; shredded cheddar and a sprinkle of cotija; and a raspberry chipotle salsa. This meat is really, really tasty just on its own, IMO!


Written by Jeff Frey on Tuesday June 6, 2023
Permalink -