Lechon asado, Cuban roast pork

plate of lechon asado Cuban roast pork with rice and beans side

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4.86 from 7 votes

The herb and citrus marinade adds lots of flavor to this flavorful roast pork.

Prep Time10

Cook Time3

Total Time3 10

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Cuban

Servings: approx

Calories: 314kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

3 lb boneless pork shoulder roast (see notes)
½ cup orange juice
¼ cup lime juice approx 1 ½ - 2 limes
¼ cup lemon juice approx 1 lemon
1 ½ teaspoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoon salt
8 cloves garlic crushed
½ onion or 1 whole if small - sliced
ground pepper to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Pat dry the pork roast and prepare a plastic container or freezer bag big enough to hold it plus some liquid.
Squeeze the juice from the orange, lime and lemon. Crush or finely chop the garlic and thinly slice the onion. Mix the juices with rest of ingredients (dry or fresh oregano, cumin, salt, garlic, onion and pepper) in the container/bag.
Add the pork into the marinade and turn or seal the bag and shake a little to cover all over. Leave the pork to marinade overnight in the fridge, ideally turning at least once.
When ready to cook, bring the pork out of the fridge ahead of time - around 30-60min - to allow it to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 325F/ 160C.
Place the pork in a roasting dish with the skin side up, sitting in a little of the citrus marinade juice. Save the rest of the marinade, including all of the onions. Baste the pork with the juice in the dish after 1-2hr and continue cooking. Roast for 3 hours, or a little more if needed, covering with foil if the top gets too brown. You should get an internal temp of at least 170F to be able to slice, or 190-200F to be able to shred when it's ready.
While the pork is cooking, bring the remaining marinade to a gentle simmer and cook for around 5 minutes to soften the onions. Serve this as a sauce over the pork when serving.

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Notes

You can use other cuts of pork for this, but shoulder has a good balance of meat and fat to keep the meat moist as it cooks, as well as a great flavor, so would be my go-to. Leaner cuts would work but will cook quicker or they will become dry out so watch carefully - go by internal temp for timing.

If you can get sour oranges, then use the same quantity of sour orange juice instead of the lemon, lime and orange above.

If your piece of pork has a good layer or fat/skin, you can score this before cooking and at the end of cooking, put the broiler/grill on low and lower the pork towards the bottom of the oven so not too close to the element. Let the skin/fat crisp up, keeping a close eye it doesn't burn.

Nutrition