Braised pork shoulder

Pork is great as leftovers. Works great in tacos, on rice and salads, in sandwiches… it’s great to have around.

pork shoulder, right from the butcher. bone-in

Ingredients

Pork shoulder — I like mine with the bone in
Salt
Bad Byron’s Butt Rub (a standard cajun mix of spices and salt; the kids find the label hysterical)
A handful of serrano peppers (about 5)
A bunch of garlic (about 11 cloves)
Pork lard, for searing — very little
Apple cider
Chicken broth
Dijon mustard

Equipment

Dutch oven (or an Instant Pot — see notes)
Wooden spoon
Tongs

Prep

Get salt on the shoulder as early as possible — the longer the salt is on, the tastier it’ll be
Go easy mode on the rub: Bad Byron’s Butt Rub

pork shoulder all rubbed up using Bad Byron's Butt Rub

While waiting for the shoulder to come up to room-ish temp, score the serrano peppers and crush the garlic

5 Serrano peppers 11 cloves of garlic scored peppers and crushed garlic

Sear

Sear the snot out of the shoulder in the dutch oven, using pork lard as the searing fat
Get all sides

Pork shoulder being seared in a dutch oven seared pork shoulder, removed from dutch oven

Deglaze the dutch oven with apple cider, chicken broth, and a wooden spoon

Dutch oven with pork burnt spices and pork shoulder bits being deglazed with apple cider Chicken broth, apple cider, and dijon mustard in bottles

Braise

Cut a bunch of slots in the shoulder and fill them with the scored serranos and crushed garlic
Cover the whole thing in dijon mustard and put it back into the dutch oven

seared pork shoulder, slotted and stuffed with Serrano peppers, garlic, and covered in dijon mustard prepared pork shoulder put back in the dutch oven and braising liquid

Fill the pot about half way up the meat with the braising liquids
Bring everything to a simmer on the stove top
Cover the dutch oven and place it in the oven at 325 for 3 hours

Covered dutch oven, loaded with prepared pork shoulder and braising liquids. It's inside an oven set at 325 for 3 hours

Your house should be smelling like a symphony of seared fat, garlic, spices and apple
Mistakes are part of amateur cooking: if the shoulder is too tall for the dutch oven and pushes the lid open as the meat tightens, put it side-down until it’s tender enough for the lid to stay closed

My dutch oven cracking open as the meat tightens. Not ideal. The pork shoulder set on its side in the dutch oven to help keep the lid closed

Uncover and crust

After 3 hours, it should be looking good
Take off the top of the dutch oven and put it back in the oven for another hour-ish — this will develop a nice crust and color

Open dutch oven with almost finished pork shoulder

After about 40 minutes it should be a beautiful mahogany color and dry around the edges

A cooked, magohony color pork shoulder in the dutch oven

Pull it out when it’s fork tender — if you have a bone, it should pull out with tongs and very minimal effort

Pull at the bone, if it comes out with little effort, you did great

Rest

Now don’t do anything! LET IT REST
Remove from heat for 30 minutes minimum
The cooking process has melted all of the fat and collagen. If you cut into hot meat, those melted fats just spill out and leave your meat dry
Resting meat lets fats solidify just enough that they don’t spill right out
Be patient, you’ll be well rewarded

Serve

That’s it! Now you have delicious, fork-tender pork

fork-pulled pork shoulder above the finished product

Put it on fries, sandwiches, rice, salad, tacos…
It took some time but not a ton of effort

Notes and variations

Instant Pot: I haven’t tried it in the Instant Pot, tho any Instant Pot instructions for a whole pork shoulder should work — if I’m not mistaken, that’s 45-60 minutes
Leftovers: it’s great to have around — tacos, rice, salads, sandwiches — and I later turned leftovers into migas
All recipes are just a reference point. Mine’s just an alteration of something I found

Reference

Original thread