This garlic and citrus Slow Cooker Cuban Pork is tender and flavorful! Great along with rice for a complete meal.
If you want to use your slow cooker for another Cuban recipe try my ropa vieja recipe!
About 2 weeks ago at a potluck I tried Cuban Pork for the first time. I didn’t realize I needed a new recipe for pork until that day. The Cuban pork has a great citrus and garlic flavor, different from other pork recipes I have. This recipe has 10 garlic cloves in it, and smells great while cooking.
Below is what the meat looks like after cooking for 10 hours on low.
Then what the meat looks like after being shredded.
I served this meat with yellow rice, but I’m sure there are some other great Cuban side dishes that would go great with this too.
I will make this meal again and again! And I think you will too! Have a great week.
Slow Cooker Cuban Pork
Equipment Needed:
Ingredients:
- 5 lbs pork shoulder
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil, extra virgin
- 1 lemon
- 1 lime
- 1 orange
- 1 Tbsp. dried oregano (leaf, not ground)
- 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
- 10 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1 white onion, cut into rounds
Instructions:
- Add the pork shoulder to the slow cooker. Using a small knife cut slits into the pork, about an inch down.
- In a large bowl add the olive oil. Cut the lemon, lime and orange in half. Squeeze the juice out of the citrus into the bowl. Add the oregano, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper. Whisk until combined.
- Pour the mixture over the pork roast. Using a spatula squish the garlic and sauce into the pork.
- Add the onion rounds.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 10 hours without opening the lid during the cooking time.
- Shred the meat with 2 forks and remove the bone. I left about half of the juices with the meat to keep it moist.
How to Video:
Nutrition Information:
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
Do you think it will come out good if I add chopped up bell peppers and mushrooms in it
I think those are great additions.
Bell peppers don’t mesh with the flavor of this dish, and mushrooms aren’t something very common to Cuban cuisine.
Add this today….it was AMAZINGLY flavorful. I threw in the juices from my olives, and added some pasillo chilies that I had just fried for another recipe….definitely adds that smoky Mexico flavor.
EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT. I cooked on high in my crock pot for the 5 hours.
Mexican flavor in a Cuban dish is just disrespectful.
The meat was super tender which was awesome. We weren’t a fan of the taste but maybe that was something I did wrong.
Made this and served it as a semi Cuban sandwich (minus ham). It was amazing! My house smelled delicious the whole day while I cleaned for the party. Served with fried plantains and mojitos.
How many does thus serve?
I served it as sandwiches for a group of 8 people and had plenty of leftovers
where would we find dried oregano leaves??? why not just use the powder???
Leaf oregano to me is easier to find than ground, it’s usually higher up on the spices shelves at the store (still in a jar, like ground). Ground is very potent and a tablespoon may ruin this dish. If you have to use ground, cut the amount in half at least. 🙂
Congratulations in not adding anything Hot like Habaneros, Serranos and things like that because we never, ever use them in our cuisine. I would double the garlic and cut the cumin down to 1 tsp as it would overpower the tastes and then be more middle eastern than cuban. As for the orange, if you could find sour oranges, that would be ideal.
Thanks for the tips Carlos. I will try next time.
What kind of rice did you use?
What other sides would you serve with the pork? Back beans, fried plantains?
Traditional Cuban sides include sweet plantains (maduros), yuca (a potatoe-like root), fried plantains, black beans with rice (white or yellow). Then, serve flan and Cuban coffee for dessert and you have a perfect Cuban meal!
I also agree with Carlos.]
I would also add 1tsp of smoked Spanish paprika.
You forgot the Cuba Libre.
I’ll be making this next week.
Thank you for your recip, bye for now.
Have a nice dat & stay safe.