Cuban Holiday Plate: Mojo Pork with Rice, Beans and Yuca

About This Recipe

This is a home-cook-sized version of the classic Cuban Noche Buena holiday plate, built around lechon asado -- pork marinated in mojo, a tangy blend of sour orange (or lime and orange) juice, garlic and oregano -- served with the trio Cuban tables lean on for celebrations: white rice, black beans, and boiled yuca dressed in more mojo. Instead of roasting a whole pig, this recipe scales the technique down to a pork shoulder that any home oven can handle. The marinade is the heart of the dish: plenty of garlic mashed into a paste with salt, mixed with citrus juice and oregano, rubbed all over the pork and left to soak in for at least four hours, ideally overnight. Slow-roasting the pork covered for most of the cooking time keeps it moist, then uncovering it at the end lets the exterior crisp and caramelize into the crackly bits Cuban cooks fight over at the table. Boiled yuca finished with its own quick mojo -- garlic sizzled in olive oil poured hot over the drained root -- echoes the pork's citrus-garlic flavor and rounds out a plate that Cuban families build entire holidays around.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 3 lbboneless pork shoulder
• 10 clovesgarlic(divided)
• 1 cupsour orange juice(or 2/3 cup orange juice + 1/3 cup lime juice)
• 1 tbspdried oregano
• 1 tbspground cumin
• 2 tspfine sea salt(plus more to taste)
• 0.5 cupolive oil(divided)
• 2 lbyuca(peeled, cut into chunks)
• 1onion(thinly sliced)
• 3 cupscooked white rice(to serve)
• 2 cupsblack beans(cooked, to serve)
• 1lime(cut into wedges)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the mojo marinade

   Mash 6 garlic cloves with 1 teaspoon salt into a paste. Whisk with sour orange juice, oregano, cumin and a quarter cup olive oil.

2. 2

   Marinate the pork

   Pierce the pork all over with a knife, then rub with the marinade, working it into the slits. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

3. 3

   Roast covered

   Preheat oven to 325F (165C). Place pork with its marinade in a roasting dish, cover tightly with foil, and roast 2.5 hours until very tender.

4. 4

   Crisp the exterior

   Uncover, raise oven to 425F (220C), and roast 20 to 25 more minutes until the surface is deeply browned and crackly.

   Baste with the pan juices halfway through this final blast for extra shine and flavor on the crust.

5. 5

   Boil the yuca

   While the pork roasts, boil yuca in salted water 20 to 25 minutes until fork-tender. Drain.

6. 6

   Finish the yuca mojo

   Heat remaining olive oil in a small pan with 4 minced garlic cloves and sliced onion until fragrant and lightly golden. Pour hot over the drained yuca.

7. 7

   Rest, slice and plate

   Let the pork rest 15 minutes, then slice or shred. Serve with rice, black beans, the mojo yuca, and lime wedges.

Variations

• •

  Whole roast alternative: use a bone-in pork butt and extend covered roasting time by 30 to 45 minutes.

• •

  Grilled version: after marinating, grill smaller pork pieces over indirect heat, basting with reserved marinade.

• •

  Skip the yuca: substitute boiled plantains or a simple avocado salad if yuca isn't available.

Storage

Refrigerate pork, beans and rice separately in airtight containers up to 4 days. Reheat pork covered in a low oven with a splash of its juices to keep it moist; the yuca is best reheated briefly in a hot skillet to re-crisp the mojo.

Frequently Asked Questions