Cuban pulled pork recipes are famous for their special flavor. While some Cuban grandmothers claim such recipes to be among their biggest secrets, in reality it’s rather a matter of trial and error until discovering those ingredients that are the most appealing to your taste. Here’s how the Cuban grandmother of one of my friends used to cook delicious pulled pork:

Ingredients:

• 1 pork shoulder (Boston Butt), about 5-6 lbs, with bone
• 4 onions, chopped
• 15 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 bottle of Mojo sauce
• Zest from one orange
• 1/2 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 1 tablespoon red chili powder
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons black pepper, ground
• 2 tablespoons salt

Preparation time: 1 day

Cooking time: 12 hours

Serves: 12

Cooking method:

First, you need to prepare the rub: in a bowl, mix the chopped onions, garlic, Mojo sauce, orange juice, orange zest, herbs, salt, pepper and olive oil. You can use a whisk for better mixing everything together, until you get a thick paste. Rub the pork shoulder with the paste, taking care to cover it thoroughly. Put the meat in a plastic bag and let it sit in the fridge over night. This will help the meat marinate a bit and get more flavor from the rub paste. However, if this is not possible, you can skip this step.

Put the pork shoulder in a roasting pot, cover it and let it slowly roast in the oven for about 10 hours, at a temperature of 250 – 300 F. By the end of the cooking, check the internal temperature of the meat: it should be 185 F. When ready, let the meat sit for 15-20 minutes, then pull it apart with two forks. Serve it with Cuban black beans or with saffron rice. Optionally, you can add some barbecue sauce on top of it.

Mexican food is appreciated by many people, thanks to its special ingredients and to the specific preparation methods which can turn a dull chicken breast into a moist and flavored dish. Enchiladas, quesadillas, burritos or fajitas are only a few of the specific dishes that can be found in all Mexican restaurants. What if we don’t always feel like going out for dinner? This Mexican pulled pork recipe can be easily prepared at home, without needing a barbecue grill or a smoker (although it would be nicer if you used one of these).

Ingredients:

• 1 pork shoulder, about 2-3 pounds
• 6 corn flour tortillas
• 1 green pepper, seeded and cut in thin stripes
• 1 red pepper, seeded and cut in the same way
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 onions, finely sliced
• 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped small
• 1/2 cup hot chipotle sauce (if you don’t want to food to be really hot, get a milder sauce)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 2 cups salsa
• 1 tablespoon apple vinegar
• 1 tablespoon red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 8-10 hours

Serves 6

Cooking Method:

Trim the excess fat, then put the pork shoulder in the slow cooker. Mix together 1-2 cups of water with the salsa, vinegar, onions, garlic, cilantro, cumin, chipotle sauce, salt and pepper and pour the liquid over the pork roast, then cover the slow cooker and cook on high for one hour, then set it on low and let it cook for 8-9 more hours. By the end of the interval, you can try the meat with a fork, to see if it is tender enough to pull apart, or it needs more cooking. When the meat is done, shred it with two forks, then stir-fry the peppers and the tomatoes in olive oil for a couple of minutes. Fill the shredded pork into the tortillas, topping it with peppers and tomato dice and serve hot.

This is another pulled pork recipe for barbecue lovers who can’t go to picnic so often or who don’t have a backyard. One of the advantages of using a pressure cooker is that the cooking time is significantly reduced. This is possible because the higher the pressure, the higher the boiling point of water gets. When we boil something in a regular pot, the maximum temperature we can reach is 212F, no matter how big we set the fire to be. When boiling in pressurized environment, the water boiling point becomes higher, thus the foods in it will be cooked at higher temperatures, thus needing less time to be ready. Recipes with long cooking times benefit a lot from pressure cookers.

Ingredients:

• 1 pork butt or shoulder, about 4-6 lbs weight
• 1/2 tablespoon liquid smoke
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed (or garlic powder)
• 1 tablespoon vinegar (apple cider is the best)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Barbecue sauce or any other sauce you like

Ingredients for the rub:

• 3 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons freshly ground pepper mix of black pepper, Cayenne pepper and white pepper
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon red hot chili powder (if you like the food a bit hot; otherwise don’t put this in the rub)
• 3 tablespoons dried thyme
• 3 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time 3-4 hours

Serves: 8-10 people

How to cook it:

Combine all ingredients for the rub, mix them well, then rub the pork shoulder with it and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours. Then you can either roast the pork shoulder in the oven for about two hours, or you can fry it in the pressure cooker with a little oil sprinkled all over the meat. When it starts to steam, let it cool, then add the liquid smoke, the crushed garlic, the vinegar and two cups of water, then set the fire on high until the pressure cooker starts steaming. In this moment, make the fire low and let the food cook for one hour and a half. Then let the cooker cool and check the meat. If you like its tenderness, you’re done. If not, add two cups of water and cook it for one more hour. When ready, let the meat cool a little, then pull it apart with two forks. Serve it in buns, make sandwiches, make tacos or simply put it on a plate with some nice side dish and enjoy.