Mexican Roast Pork Shoulder Recipe

Slow roast shoulder of pork with grapefruit and Scotch bonnet chilli

Main
easy
4
4 hours 40 minutes

PT4H40M

Helen Graves' Mexican roast pork recipe gives a traditional Sunday roast a spicy, vibrant, Mexican twist. Heat from scotch bonnet chillies and the fragrance of zesty grapefruit add some warmth to this hearty recipe.

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This is slow roast pork with Mexican vibes. The pork is smothered in a paste with grapefruit zest, then cooked in the oven with the grapefruit juice, scotch bonnet chilli and onions, bubbling down to a spicy gravy.

The chilli in the drizzle is mellowed by the citrus juice, which also adds important acidity to the finished dish. If you’d rather leave out the chilli however, just use the spring onions instead.

Ingredients

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Roast pork
2kg pork shoulder, boned and rolled, preferably organic
1 scotch bonnet chilli
2 onions, thickly sliced
sprigs of thyme
4 bay leaves
1 pinch of salt
Spice rub
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tbsp of cumin seeds
2 grapefruit, zested and juiced
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 1/2 tbsp of light brown sugar
1 tbsp of salt
1 tsp black pepper
Grapefruit drizzle
1 grapefruit, juiced
1 scotch bonnet chilli, very finely chopped
2 spring onions, green part sonly, very finely chopped
1 tsp caster sugar
1 pinch of salt

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Method

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Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2

Pat the pork dry with kitchen paper and score through the skin in a diamond pattern with a sharp knife (or have your butcher to do this for you)

In a pestle and mortar, crush the garlic with the salt and cumin seeds. Add the grapefruit zest (save the juice) and pound again, then mix in the black pepper, sweet paprika and sugar. Rub this mixture all over the pork, making sure to get into any gaps in the skin

Place the pork in a roasting tin and add the scotch bonnet chilli, onions, thyme and bay leaves. Mix the grapefruit juice with 200ml water and pour into the tin

Sprinkle a little extra salt over the pork, wrap everything tightly with foil and roast in the oven for 3½ hours, before removing the foil and roasting for a further hour, or until the top is covered with crisp, golden crackling and the meat is very tender

Make the drizzle an hour before you want to serve the pork by combining everything in a bowl and mixing well (the citrus juice will mellow the heat of the chilli and the onion during this time). Serve with the roast pork and crisp crackling

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Helen Graves

Helen Graves is a freelance food and travel writer, recipe developer and editor. She writes one of London's oldest food blogs, Food Stories and is editor of Pit Magazine, an independent magazine about live fire cooking and smoking. She is based in South East London and loves carbs, cats, crabs and kebabs.