Mojo Pork Recipe: Citrus-Garlic Roast Pork Shoulder

This mojo pork recipe is Cuban-style roast pork: a boneless pork shoulder marinated overnight in mojo, a bright mix of sour orange juice, a whole head of garlic, cumin, oregano and olive oil, then roasted slowly until it pulls apart. A little fresh mojo, set aside at the start, goes over the top at the end.

Pork shoulder, also sold as pork butt, is the right cut because it has the fat and connective tissue to stay juicy through hours in the oven. The sharp citrus and garlic cut through that richness, which is why the two go so well together.

At a glance: serves 8. Prep 20 minutes, marinate 8 to 24 hours, roast about 4 1/4 hours, rest 30 minutes.

Gray Shipley, who runs the farm, remembers how Keith cooked for a crowd:

“you remember those special events and those times when, uh, you know, Keith would just sit out by the smoker all night and, uh, and prepare a big, big feast for whoever's coming.”

Gray Shipley

Keith's feasts came off a smoker after a night by the fire. This one comes out of an oven, so it asks much less of you. But it is the same kind of cooking: a big piece of pork, a long, slow cook, and enough at the end to feed whoever is coming.

Ingredients

• 1 boneless pork butt (pork shoulder) roast, about 4 pounds
• 1 head garlic (12 to 15 cloves), peeled
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups sour orange juice, or 1 cup fresh orange juice plus 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• Cooked white rice, black beans and lime wedges, to serve

Instructions

1. Mash the garlic and salt into a rough paste with a mortar and pestle, or chop the garlic finely, sprinkle it with the salt, and press and scrape it with the flat of a knife. Stir in the cumin, oregano, pepper, citrus juice and olive oil. Pour 1/2 cup of this mojo into a jar and refrigerate it for serving.
2. Pat the pork dry. If it is tied or netted, leave that on. With a paring knife, cut 10 to 12 slits about 1 inch deep all over the meat.
3. Put the pork and the sliced onion in a large zip-top bag or a glass or ceramic dish. Pour the rest of the mojo over it, working some of the garlic into the slits. Seal or cover, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 24, turning it once or twice.
4. Heat the oven to 325 degrees with a rack in the lower middle. Put the pork, fat side up, in a roasting pan or Dutch oven just big enough to hold it, and pour the marinade and onions around it.
5. Cover tightly with foil or a lid and roast for 2 1/2 hours.
6. Uncover, baste the pork with the pan juices, and keep roasting, basting every 30 minutes, until the outside is well browned and a thermometer in the thickest part reads 195 to 205 degrees F, usually 1 1/2 to 2 hours more. A fork pushed into the meat should twist easily. If the pan runs dry, add 1/2 cup of water.
7. Move the pork to a cutting board, tent it loosely with foil and rest it for 30 minutes. Pour the pan juices into a measuring cup, let them settle, and spoon off the fat.
8. Remove any string or netting. Pull the pork into large chunks with two forks, toss it with the onions and some of the skimmed juices, and spoon the reserved mojo over the top. Taste and add a pinch of salt if it needs it. Serve with rice, black beans and lime wedges.

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What is mojo?

Mojo is a Cuban marinade and sauce built on sour orange, garlic, cumin and oregano, loosened with olive oil. Sour oranges, sometimes sold as Seville or bitter oranges, are tart rather than sweet, closer to a lime than to an eating orange. Some Latin markets also sell bottled sour orange juice labeled naranja agria. If you cannot find either, two parts fresh orange juice to one part fresh lime juice makes a good stand-in, and that is the mix the ingredient list gives.

Why roast past 145 degrees F?

USDA FSIS lists 145 degrees F with a 3-minute rest as the safe minimum for whole cuts of pork, and a pork shoulder is safe to eat at that point. It is just not tender yet. Shoulder is full of connective tissue that stays tight and chewy until it has spent a long time well above that temperature. Somewhere between 195 and 205 degrees F it softens, and the meat pulls apart with a fork. So 145 is the safety mark, and the higher number is the texture you are cooking for.

If you would rather slice the pork than pull it, take it out a little earlier, at about 185 to 190 degrees F, when it is tender but still holds together.

Serving mojo pork

The classic plate is white rice, black beans, the roasted onions and a squeeze of lime, with fried plantains if you have time. Leftovers make excellent Cuban sandwiches: pile the pork onto split Cuban or French bread with sliced ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles and yellow mustard, then press it in a hot skillet until the bread is crisp and the cheese melts.

Leftovers

Store the pork in its juices so it stays moist. Refrigerate it promptly, and reheat it covered, in a 325-degree oven or in a pan on the stove with a splash of water, until it reaches 165 degrees F. It also freezes well in its juices.

Food safety

Always marinate in the refrigerator, and keep the raw marinade away from anything that will not be cooked. The marinade in the roasting pan cooks for hours alongside the pork, so the pan juices are safe to serve, and the mojo you set aside at the start never touched raw meat. USDA FSIS lists 145 degrees F with a 3-minute rest for whole cuts of pork and 165 degrees F for reheated leftovers. See the FSIS Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart.