Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

The best deal I have found in a long time, were these pork shoulder roasts for $1 a pound. I challenged myself to slow roast the pork shoulders in a scrumptious way, and then transform the leftover meat each day this week into a completely different meal. We begin my Slow Roasted Pork Challenge with of course....the Slow Roasted Pork. I didn't want anything boring. If the lil guy wasn't full of flavor I couldn't get my hubby to eat it. He gets totally bored by basic home cookin', so I wanted to blow this one outta the park to get him interested. Luckily Apartment Therapy The Kitchn came to the rescue with her amazing slow roasted pork recipe. Rubbed with brown sugar, smoked paprika, and cumin and simmered in beer with onions and garlic. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Seriously good eats.

*Recipe by Elizabeth P. of The Kitchn
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Makes about 5 cups of shredded meat

4 to 5 pound pork shoulder, bone-in
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onions, peeled and cut into wedges
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 12 oz beer (use chicken stock or water here if you prefer, but we used a brown ale and it was perfect)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

If the pork shoulder has any thick layers of fat you want to trim that off. Mix together the cumin, paprika, brown sugar, salt and pepper and rub it all over the pork shoulder. Let it rest with the spice mixture on for about 30 minutes.

Once the pork has rested, heat up a dutch oven with the olive oil over medium high heat. Place the pork inside and brown on all sides. Once it has a nice brown crust all over, remove from the pot and add the onions, garlic, tomatoes and beer. This is the part where you scrape up all the delicious bits off the bottom. Place the pork back in the dutch oven, cover and slow roast for 3 1/2 to 4 hours until the pork is extremely tender and pulls apart with a fork.

Remove the pork roast from the dutch oven to a cutting board. Using two forks, shred the meat and place on a platter. Remove any bits of fat. Serve the pork with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots and spoon the delicious sauce over the top. You can also puree the beer/tomato/onion mixture to get rid of any big chunks...it becomes a beautiful thick gravy that is just delicious. Enjoy every bite of this incredible roast.

If you want to stretch the pork leftovers to a week of exciting meals, you'll want to roast two pork shoulders at the same time. Double the spices to cover both roasts, but nothing else. Mine didn't fit in a dutch oven, but did fit in my big roaster. When you are finished roasting the pork and have shredded it, you should have between 10-12 cups of roasted pork.

When you puree the tomato/onion/beer mixture, reserve 4 cups of it for another meal. Serve the rest of the sauce with the pork along with about 2 cups of the shredded pork. You'll need the rest of the pork for the rest of the week.

Click here for a printable version of Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
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THE RESULTS?
We LOVED this pork roast. The brown sugar, cumin and smoked paprika rub is awesome. The meal is so homey and wonderful, but completely full of flavor. This is a GREAT way to roast a pork shoulder. I'm so glad I doubled this recipe for the rest of the week's delicious meals.

Wow Elizabeth. Incredible recipe.

Need to use up those leftovers? Try:

This recipe is being entered into this weeks' Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap.