If you're like me, you often find your self searching for paleo *insert ingredient/recipe name here.* I recently bought a few Boston butt roasts because they were on sale, so I found myself searching. After entering paleo Boston butt, this recipe by Cat Cora came up. Evidently, she's an "Iron Chef." It's not from a paleo website, but the ingredients all are all paleo. I instantly wanted to make this recipe because it was different from the typical paprika, cumin based seasonings I've typically seen for pork roast recipes. The only drawback was that it was oven roasted.
After gathering my ingredients, I put my broth in the microwave to defrost. Next, I washed and dried the pork roast and put it on a baking sheet for seasoning. I cut a lemon in half and rubbed it on all sides of the roast while squeezing the juice onto the roast.
I stripped the leaves of oregano off of their stems until I had 1/4 cup.
I then chopped up the leaves.
I added the chopped oregano to a ramekin where I had measured out the salt and pepper. I mixed the seasonings together with my finger and then rubbed the mixture all over the roast.
I greased my roasting rack with spray coconut oil. I held it over the sink to do this rather than in the pan. Once greased, I put the rack back in my pan and put the roast on the rack. I separated the garlic cloves and sprinkled them around the roast. They wouldn't really stay "around" the roast. They slid around the pan a bit.
Next, I drizzled olive oil over the roast and garlic cloves. I don't know what sort of rack the author of the recipe used, but it was hard to get the oil on the roast and the garlic cloves below the rack so I focused on the roast.
Instead of using a separate bowl, I just squeezed the remaining lemon juice needed directly into the chicken broth and gave it a stir before pouring it into the roasting pan.
I put the roast in the oven and set the timer for 3 hours. The recipe says to cook fro 3 to 3.5 hours until fork tender. It also mentions that you should be able to shred the pork. After 3 hours, I checked the pork and it looked pretty, but when I attempted to see if it would shred easy, it didn't. I set the timer for another 30 minutes.
After the additional 30 minutes, this is what I had. It still wouldn't shred, but I checked the temperature with my instant read thermometer and it was done. I don't know if there was something wrong with the roast I bought cut wise or it was simply a matter of needing a lot more time in the oven. It was already late on a Sunday night, so I decided I'd just have to have this roast sliced rather than shredded.
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| Don't be fooled by this roast's pretty looks! |
Here's my plate. I served it with Paleo Comfort Foods' Collard Greens.
And a close up.
Accessibility & Cost of Ingredients: You should be able to find everything you need for this recipe at your "big box" grocery store pretty inexpensively. I encourage you to make your own broth rather than buy it at the store. The ingredient list lists kitchen string but there isn't any need for it. This pork recipe is exactly like a lamb recipe on this site and I think they simply forgot to delete it from this recipe.
Preparation & Cooking Time: It took me 20 minutes to get this roast ready to go into the oven. It roasted for 3.5 hours.
Clean Up: Clean up wasn't bad, but here is my roasting pan once I removed the roast. Yuck. The didn't really have anything baked on but my rack did, so I decided to soak the whole thing. It was late, so I let it soak overnight.
The Paleo Review: Thumbs Down! I'm really disappointed in how this roast turned out. For the amount of time spent roasting in the oven and for it not to shred was really disappointing. I think that because I had made this roast in the crock pot so recently, I think the fact this one didn't shred even more disappointing. The recipe mentions using roasted garlic as a garnish. I assumed before making the recipe that they meant the garlic roasted with the pork. By the time this roast came out of the oven, the garlic was beyond roasted and completely burnt. The flavor was fine but the texture of the slices I think took away from the dish. I'm still intrigued by this seasoning mix. I might try these seasonings again with a pork roast, but cook it in the crock pot.
I have two more pork roasts in my freezer to make but I'll hold off for a while, I'm kinda porked out.