Ingredients:
This will serve around 4 adults. Feel free to scale up or down.
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3-4 pounds pork shoulder
1 onion, chopped
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
zest and juice of 3 lemons
6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
salt & pepper
Plus extra: lemon juice & zest, fresh or dried herbs, salt & pepper, red pepper flakes or chili sauce
To serve:
Pita bread
Pickled onions
Greek yogurt (make a sauce with lemon zest, fresh dill, paprika, salt and pepper… or just some za’atar)
Feta cheese
Special equipment:
Dutch oven
Method:
- Pre-heat your oven to 325F.
- Heat olive oil in a dutch oven on the stovetop, on medium-high heat. Pat your pork shoulder dry with paper towels, season it with salt and pepper, and brown it in the dutch oven on all sides. Adjust heat as needed so it’s not smoking too much, but browns the meat.
- Turn off heat. Lift the pork shoulder out of the dutch oven and place in the bottom of the pan the onion and 3 sprigs of rosemary. Place the pork back in the dutch oven over the rosemary and onion.
- Season the meat with a little more salt and pepper and add the garlic, lemon juice and the lemon zest. Tuck the other 3 rosemary sprigs around the meat, and pour the white wine over it.
- Turn the stove back on medium-high and bring the wine to a boil.
- When the wine starts to boil, place the lid on your dutch oven and in it goes into your pre-heated oven.
- Cook it for 4-5 hours until the meat is very tender and pulls apart easily.
- When the meat is cooked and pulling apart, take it out of the oven, uncover it and let it cool until it’s cool enough to handle without burning your hands. To hasten the process, you might take it out of the dutch oven and let it rest on a channeled cutting board (channeled because juices might run off—save those juices!)
- When the pork is cool enough to handle, pull it apart using a fork. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Remove the rosemary sprigs from the dutch oven and compost them, but leave the juices onions and garlic in there. Put the pulled pork back in the dutch oven as you work pulling it apart.
- Add zest and juice of 1 more lemon, some fresh herbs you might have on hand (best would be dill, oregano, chives, parsley, marjoram), and salt and pepper to taste.
- Mix it all up and adjust for seasoning. Flavor should be bright and fresh. Taste for a good balance of lemon juice, salt and seasoning, and add more if needed. If you like a little heat, feel free to add some hot pepper.
- To serve: Reheat on the stove until heated-through. Turn broiler on and crisp it up a bit too.
- Leftovers can be portioned out and frozen in freezer bags.
🍽️ Serving suggestion: Make sandwiches on homemade pita bread: top with pickled red onions, crumbled feta, and a yogurt sauce made of Greek yogurt, dill, lemon zest, paprika, salt & pepper.