Family-friendly Cuban-style pork roast that is fragrant, flavorful, and delicious. Serve over mashed sweet potatoes and black beans flavored with cumin.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 11 hrs 20 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons white wine vinegar
- 1 (4 pound) pork shoulder roast
Instructions
- Grind garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, and coriander into a paste using a mortar and pestle.
- Transfer 1/2 of the paste to a bowl. Add lime juice, orange juice, olive oil, and vinegar and whisk until smooth.
- Cut several deep, 1-inch-long slits into the fatty side of the pork roast. Rub the remaining paste into the slits. Put roast into a 1-gallon resealable plastic bag. Pour citrus mixture into the bag to coat roast, then squeeze as much air from the bag as possible and seal. Refrigerate, turning occasionally, 8 hours to overnight.
- Remove pork roast from refrigerator, transfer to a roasting pan, and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Roast pork in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and continue cooking until no longer pink in the center, about 2 hours more. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 170 degrees F (75 degrees C).
- Nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of marinade ingredients. The actual amount consumed will vary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 265 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 2 g |
| Cholesterol | 86 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 29 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 540 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is our all-time favorite pork recipe. Flavorful, succulent. Great with traditional black beans and rice, excellent for sandwiches, burritos and tacos. Make a big roast. You’ll be glad you did!
The marinade is excellent. I added a bit of fresh ginger. Since I used a 4lb pork loin, the cooking time is dramatically reduced. 400 for 20 minutes, 375 for maybe another hour. (You really don’t want this to dry out)
I was born and raised in Cuba. I have lived most of my live there (in Havana City and in a small country town in the province of Pinar del Río). I understand the reasons why same recipes varies from one place to another one in the same country. Even the most known Cuban cookbooks, offer same dishes with differences. But according to all the years I lived in Cuba, I’ve never seen in cookbooks or in different regions of Cuba a roasted pork prepared with coriander, lime juice, orange juice, olive oil (olive oil? oh my gosh! the lard has a distinctive flavor…, and white wine vinegar. We never use orange juice. We use bitter orange juice, aka sour orange that is available in many grocery stores, usually in the same aisles you find the vinegar and salad dressings. In my opinion, the use of orange juice, lime and white wine vinegar was added to the recipe to get a similar flavor of the bitter orange juice when they are mixed with orange juice. I would like to share with you some tips, some of them developed by myself: 1. Cover the pan with aluminum foil to reduce evaporation, to avoid the pork becomes too dry. When you see it’s already roasted, remove the aluminum foil and if you are roasting it with the skin (this is a plus in Cuba!), place the pork with the skin up, and set the oven to broil, so the skin becomes crunchy. 2. Make incisions in the pork with a knife and with the help of a spoon or teaspoon drop there the seasoning. When I plan roasting pork days in advance, I use to prepare the marinate days before, so the sour orange get the flavor of all the condiments. The day before of roasting, I separate the sour orange of the rest of the solid condiments, using a strainer and inject the sour orange to the pork, so the flavor gets deep inside. All the remaining marinate must be rubbed to the pork. This will help you to keep the pork already roasted very juicy inside and truly roasted outside. 3. If you have enough time an a smoker, just try to roast the pork in the smoker… it´s a very slow process but it worth the time you expend smoking the pork. You can also try to roast the pork in a charcoal grill. In this scenario, you will get the flavor similar to the one I enjoyed in the Cuban mountains with friends…
Wow thanks for this one! i had to swap out the white wine for apple cider vinegar, but the roast was fantastic!
I made this for Christmas dinner. It was so good. My personal preference would be for 3 garlic cloves (large, not the 4 large that I did) and a bit less cumin and coriander. Even though I overshot on temp (185) it was still moist and it was the most tender pork loin roast I’ve ever made.
Turned out fantastic. Got rave reviews from entire family. Great recipe.
Great recipe. I use smaller roasts and do it in the slow cooker. Tastes wonderful. One day I might try to brown it before I put in the cooker to get a little crust, but it tastes so good as is, I might not bother.
Wow. This was so good. Strong wonderful flavor! I checked it at 145 degrees and it ran red. Cooked to 170 delish! Not dry at all and I only used a 2 lb roast!
This was a very tasty marinade. I also added lime and orange zest. I bought the wrong cut of port – that’s what I get for rushing and looking for a smaller cut. I made this on a rib roast and found other instructions to make sure I cooked it alright. Will def make again with a larger crowd using a shoulder.
Loved this recipe! Great combination of flavours…I marinated the roast for 3 days and it was amazing and very moist. As others recommended I roasted until internal temperature of 150degrees. Will make again.
Would say a 5 if I had chose a slow cooker. Or covered dish during baking
This pork was amazing I only did a 2 lb roast and used orange pineapple juice cuz it’s what I had but oh man did these flavors come together nicely Made Cuban sandwiches that were top notch with homemade pickles honey ham and aged Swiss they were to die for. Thank you for sharing this recipe it’s a must have!
4 1/2 pound pork roast burnt to a crisp. Great! Cooking time and temps followed to a T. I am not a happy wife right now.
Oh did I ever make people happy with this roast. I live in Guatemala and it is hard to find large cuts of any meat, but I found some shoulder roasts frozen in a supermarket. The smallest was 10 lbs, so I had to adjust cooking time quite a bit. It could have used another hour, although the meat was cooked through it wasn’t falling off the bone and needed some work to shred it. I served it with Cuban black beans, rice and a mango salsa for a special quarantine lunch with a family nearby, and they were thrilled. Now we have some terrific leftovers that are almost like carnitas. Tonight’s dinner was carnita burritos, and they were really good too. Soup tomorrow. Thank you so much for this recipe. When things get back to whatever resembles normal, I will make it again for a crowd.
Absolutely the best Cuban Pork Roast I have ever made. I will only use this recipe from this day forward. Followed instructions exactly. Husband and kids loved it. I can’t wait to make this for friends and family.
Delicious! No more words needed
Delicious! No more words needed
Its awesome! Followed the recipe and came out really good. Has a crust on it and loving it.
This was so delicious! Forgot to grab a photo.
Loved the flavor, but agree with others reviews that 170 is too high. I would make this again but next time will lower the heat and only cook to an internal of 140 – 150.
Turned out great made the Black beans and rice with it.