Cheating Cuban Pork Roast

I say "cheating" because it's not really an authentic Cuban pork roast.  But it was really good and relatively easy.

Served with a stuffed baked potato.

I had a 3 1/2 lb boneless pork shoulder roast that I had cut and tied this past weekend.  I also had a jar on McCormick's new Cuban Seasoning.

Nope it's not a seasoning made by Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban.  It's a blend of oregano, onion, cumin, garlic, red and green bell pepper, sea salt, lemon peel, and other flavors.  You can just see the flavor in the coarse mix of herbs and spices, perfect for grilling.

So a Cuban pork roast was the obvious choice.  I thought I'd make a quick mojo for a brief marinade and basting sauce and fire roast the roast on my Big Green Egg.  You could do the same thing on an indirect grill or even your oven.  The cheating mojo sauce can be made a day in advance.

Cheating Cuban Pork Roast

source:  Nibble Me This

Ingredients

• 3-4 lb boneless pork shoulder roast, tied
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp McCormick's Gourmet Collection Cuban Seasoning (divided)
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat a medium sauce pan over medium heat.  Add the oil and heat until it begins to shimmer.
2. Add 1 Tbsp Cuban seasoning and cook for only 15 seconds.  Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.
3. Whisk in the orange and lime juice, salt, and pepper.  Bring back to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove and cool.
4. Place the pork shoulder roast in a 1 gallon Glad® zipper storage bag.  Add one half of the mojo, seal and marinate refrigerated for 4 hours.
5. Remove the roast from the marinade and pat dry.  Season with the other Tbsp of Cuban seasoning.  Allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
6. Preheat a charcoal grill to 350f set up for indirect cooking*.     
7. Place the roast on a roasting rack and cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 190f, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Brush with other half of the mojo and rotate a 1/4 turn every 45 minutes for even browning.
8. Remove and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Slice and serve.

Notes

• I used my Big Green Egg.  Set up was fire box full of coal, plate setter legs up, spacers to keep my stoneware pan from resting directly on the hot plate setter, stoneware, v-rack.
• After an hour, I added 4 large yukon gold potatoes to the stoneware.  They were a little too big to put the v-rack back on top.  No problem, I just decided to get rid of the rack and used the potatoes as the roasting rack.  Worked perfectly.   Not only did the potatoes hold the roast, the rendered pork fat rolled over the potatoes.

UPDATE :  Several people have asked about the stuffed potato.  I posted that recipe as my Friday Fire Day guest post over at Our Krazy Kitchen. 

The plate setter gets very hot at 350f so to minimize conductive heating from the bottom, I used spacers to keep the stoneware from resting directly on the plate setter.  You could also use BGE feet, but I don't have extras.

Roasting rack set up.

The potatoes also made a great roasting rack. 

Fresh in off the grill!

 [Standard Disclaimer]  I received my McCormick's Cuban Seasoning as a free sample.