Dinner · 300 min · caribbean

Pernil — Puerto Rican Roast Pork

This is the kind of Caribbean dinner you’ll make on repeat — pork shoulder and garlic, 300 minutes, big payoff. The macros do the talking: 55g protein, 3g carbs, and 65g fat in every 790-calorie serving. No specialty equipment and nothing hard to find at a regular grocery store.

Ingredients

• 7 lb Pork shoulder
• 8 cloves Garlic
• 2 tbsp Black peppercorns
• 2 tbsp Dried oregano
• 3 tbsp Adobo seasoning
• 0.5 cup Sofrito
• 0.25 cup Olive oil
• 2 tbsp White vinegar

Steps

1. Pound the garlic, peppercorns, oregano, and salt into a paste — the adobo. Stab the pork deeply all over and stuff the paste into every hole. This is how flavor reaches the center of a 7-pound shoulder.
2. Rub the outside with sofrito, adobo seasoning, oil, and vinegar. Marinate overnight, or at least 6 hours.
3. Roast at 300°F, covered, for 4 hours, basting occasionally. Then uncover, crank to 450°F, and roast 30 minutes for crackling skin — the cuerito everyone fights over.
4. Rest 30 minutes before carving. The meat should pull apart with a fork.
5. Serve with arroz con gandules and tostones. The centerpiece of every Puerto Rican Christmas — and worth making in July too.

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