Pernil Dominicano

For a New Years dinner, I wanted to try something I’ve never made before. After talking with a friend about our love of Caribbean food, such as Ox Tail Soup and Goat Curry, I began thinking ‘What is an island holiday feast.’ While searching I came up with a Dominican Republic classic, and I had friends heading to the Dominican Republic for a wedding soon, so I dove into this recipe.

Pernil Dominicano, pronouced “Per-Nee”

The chunk of meat here is a pork shoulder. The sauce is:

1 ½ heads of garlic
3 tbs salt for 7lbs of pork
1 tbs Dominican Oregano
1 tsp Black pepper
2tsp Thyme
½ tsp Cumin
1 red Onion
1 Sopita (Chicken Bouillon Cube)
Orange : 1
Limes : 2
¼ cup olive oil

In a food processor I finely chopped up the garlic and the onion, then I added the oregano, pepper, thyme, cumin, bouillon, orange and lime juice and olive oil. Then I blended it well.

I took my slicking knife and I made MANY cross ‘pokes’ into the meat. Then I pour the mixture on top, and with gloves on, I pushed all the mixture deep into the cuts and rubbed the whole shoulder down. This went into the fridge overnight.

Actually, two nights. After setting this up, I found Nick was hosting trivia at the brewery, so I had a gyro with friends while hanging out with friends. So I held off.

The next day at noon, I put the shoulder into a large pot, poured the marinade on top, added a cup of water, covered it and cooked it on a low boil for an hour.

Then this went into an foil pan and was covered with all the pot juices. This was covered with foil and went into a pre-heated 350° oven for 2.5 hours. I basted it twice.

Then the foil was removed and it was broiled for about 10 minutes until the top was a nice crispy brown.

I let it rest 15 minutes and then thin sliced it up and served it with small potatoes and a salad. The rest will be vacuum sealed, and used in a very promising Cuban sandwich in the near future.

A VERY nice garlicky bite, moist and welcoming.

This is my New Year gift to you!