Seasoned Roasted Pork Shoulder

Whether you like to call it pork shoulder or pork butt, the bottom line is (no pun intended), when you rub your pork roast with a great combination of herbs and seasonings and let it roast slowly in the oven (or on your outdoor grill or smoker), you end up with a spectular, tender and juicy mouth-watering experience that no one will forget! Pork shoulder can be purchased with the option of bone in or boneless, and you might find it labeled as pork shoulder, pork butt, pork shoulder butt, or even as bone-in or boneless pork shoulder picnic roast. Which cut you choose depends on your own personal taste or how you plan to serve the pork. There are plenty of pork shoulder recipes out there, most of them using the oven roasting method or the outdoor grilling (and sometimes smoking) method. Whichever cooking method you use, one thing for sure - it is well worth the wait!

Whether outdoor grilling, smoking or oven-roasting, the trick to a tender and juicy pork shoulder (or pork butt) roast is to cook it slowly. Leaving the fat on your roast (rather than trimming it off) and cooking your pork with the fat side facing up is also another trick to producing a moist and flavorful roast. When the roast is placed in the oven with the fat side up, the pork fat will drip down into the meat and moisten and flavor it as it cooks. Though not all recipes call for this final tip, placing about 1/2 inch of water in the drip pan (or in an aluminum pan below the grilling rack beside the hot coals if you're using the outdoor grilling method) will also help the pork roast to retain its moisture. Pork shoulder roasts with less fat are more likely to dry out during cooking than those that have areas with fat attached to the meat. In short, if you're cooking a lean roast with little fat content, it might be a good idea to add some water to the drip pan. You should check the water a couple times during roasting, and add a little more water if necessary. You can also occasionally baste the pork roast with its own drippings while roasting to help prevent it from drying out, as long as the drippings are still in liquid form and are not dried and leaning on the burned side. If the pork roast has enough fat, however, these extra steps shouldn't be necessary.

How you season your pork roast is completely up to you. One of the beautiful things about pork shoulder is that it not only tastes amazing on its own (served as a roast), it is fabulous in pulled pork form (shredded after it has been cooked, usually with a couple forks). Pulled pork can be served with a variety of dishes that use tortillas, such as tacos, tostadas, fajitas, burritos, enchiladas, taquitos and even over crunchy tortilla chips as pork nachos! (Of course, if using this pork with nachos, you'll probably want to top it with shredded cheese and serve it with sides of salsa, sour cream, avocado slices, pickled jalapeno slices, etc.)