If you are around a Puerto Rican for any length of time you realize something pretty quickly: they love pork. Which is good, because I love pork.
You’ll often find Mofongo (mashed and formed and cooked plantains) served with chunks of crispy pork. Sometimes the pork is mixed with the plantains. Sometimes the pork is served on the side. The problem is, in my experience, the pork is almost always cooked badly.
What’s bad about it? Well, it’s almost never tender enough. You’ll get a wonderful brown and crispy crust on the chunks, but then you need a chainsaw to cut them. Tough, tough, tough.
My goal was to come up with a way of having a crispy pork exterior with a perfectly tender interior. Luckily I found a recipe for Mexican Pork Tostadas (Tingas) which gave me the technique I was missing.
Note that the meat I’m using should be inexpensive. Get yourself a big (18-20 pound) bone-in Boston Butt (at 99 cents a pound) and cut it up into pieces. I spend an hour or so doing this, wrap up the pieces, and freeze. I freeze 1/2 the butt for slow cooker BBQ. The other half I break into chunks and 1 1/2 pound packets (each packet for 1 meal). I get about 8 meals for two people out of $20 worth of pork. Doing all the work at once saves time during the weeknight meals. Boston Butt / Pork Shoulder is magical pork. It’s very fatty and a pain when its raw, but if slow cooked it turns magically tender and very flavorful. It’s the basis for most pork BBQ.
Crispy & Tender Pork Chunks
- 1 to 2 lb pork butt (or Boston butt) trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 inch chunks. There should be some fat in the meat, but trim off excess with kitchen shears.
- Water (about 6 cups)
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 tsp thyme (dried is fine, 2 sprigs of fresh better)
- 1 Tbl salt
Put the pork chunks into a large (3 quart or more) pot and cover with water. The pot should be almost filled to the top with water (at least 2″ above the chunks). Start heating to a boil.
While the pork is heating up you’ll start seeing foam / scum rising to the top. Take a large spoon and start skimming. You’ll have to keep doing this for a while. Skim. Wait for more foam to appear. Skim. It’s a bit tedious, but will remove the gross/greasy parts. After a couple minutes of skimming the water will be nearly to a boil and you’ll get no more foam.
Once skimming is complete and water at/near boiling, add the garlic cloves, thyme, and salt. Stir.
Reduce heat to low, partially cover, and keep at a rapid simmer (active motion–the chunks should be moving about).
Let simmer for about 60 to 90 minutes (less for smaller chunks, longer for big/fatty chunks).
Drain the pork. You may wish to reserve the cooking liquid — it’s very tasty and can be used as a soup base. Discard the garlic (will be mushy) and thyme (if you used fresh sprigs).
At this point you have very tender pork chunks. You have two choices. Make Tinga, where you’d shred and season the meat, or go with the fried chunks. I’m doing fried here.
In a large (12+”) non-stick skillet (frying pan) add about 2 Tbl oil or bacon drippings. I highly recommend that you use bacon drippings. You do save your drippings, don’t you? Heat over medium high heat until just about smoking.
Add pork to hot oil/pan. Stir often, until pork is well browned and crisp. This will take about 8 to 10 minutes.
Drain on paper towels / newspaper and serve. I usually serve them with simple sides, like mashed potatoes, baked beans, or whatever. They are also good with Mofongo, Tostones, or Surullitos. I usually go with potatoes or beans, as the other stuff might be too greasy for one meal. Rice and beans would be an excellent side, too.
If you like eating crispy chunks of pork, but have always hated the toughness, give this a try. I’ve made it many times with excellent results.
