Serves

Six

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

overnight

Difficulty

Easy

  • Ingredients

  • 1 x 2.5 kg (5.5 pound) pork shoulder with skin, boned

  • 4 cups chicken stock (broth)

  • few sprigs fresh thyme

  • 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 1 tablespoon salt

  • 4 medium sized potatoes

  • 2 red or brown onions

Comments

Never eat a dry roast pork again. This dish has 2 simple cooking steps and it is hard to go wrong. You will need to leave in the refrigerator overnight to dry out between step 1 and step 2.

Pairs well with …..

apple and celeriac salad https://forkthatsgood.com/apple-and-celeriac-salad/

Hints and Tips

After cooking the first time, the pork needs to be tender, but not falling apart, as it will continue to tenderise when cooked for the second time.

Preheat oven to 120C (248F).

In a large ovenproof / flameproof casserole dish or saucepan with a tight fitting lid, place the pork shoulder, skin side down. Add the bay leaf, thyme leaves and garlic cloves. Pour over enough stock to cover the pork. It’s fine if the pork isn’t fully submerged. The amount of stock you need will depend on the size of your saucepan. Bring to the boil on the stove.

Once boiling has commenced, place the casserole in the oven. After one hour turn the pork so that the skin is facing up, cover and return to the oven for approximately 2 hours.

Once the pork is tender, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the liquid.

Once cooled, remove the pork from the liquid and place in a dish, uncovered, in the refrigerator overnight, to dry out. Reserve ½ cup of the liquid for roasting the following day and save the rest for gravies, risotto etc.

The next day, preheat the oven to 230C (450F).

Line a roasting pan with baking paper. Thickly slice the potato and onion, and place in the base. Pour the cooking stock over the potato. Place the pork on top, use a sharp knife to score the skin (but don’t cut through the meat). Rub the sea salt into the skin and drizzle a little oil.

Roast the meat for approximately 30 minutes (turning the tray around at 15 minutes) until the skin turns to crackling. Once this has happened, turn the oven down to 180C (350F) and cook for a further 25 – 30 minutes, until the meat is heated through. 

Serve with the onion, potato and an apple and celeriac salad. You may wish to make gravy with some of the leftover stock / broth.

*Note: In an ideal world, you would use pork stock, not chicken, which you can make yourself or purchase from a specialty store. The chicken stock still works beautifully with the pork and achieves a similar outcome.