Best Red Chili Glazed Slow Grilled Pork Shoulder Recipes

BRAISED PORK IN RED CHILE SAUCE

Steps:

• Have ready a medium bowl filled with very hot water. In a cast-iron skillet or grill over medium-high heat, toast the chiles until nice and smoky, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Place the chiles in the bowl of hot water to rehydrate for 5 minutes. Drain the chiles.☞TESTER TIP: Reserve the chile soaking water and use it in place of the water called for in steps 2 and 6.
• In a blender, combine the rehydrated chiles with the garlic, cumin, and 1 cup water. Blitz until smooth, then pour the chile paste into a bowl.☞TESTER TIP: There's no need to clean the blender before using it later for the tomatoes.
• On the cast-iron skillet or grill used for toasting the chiles, roast the tomatoes, rotating occasionally, until nice and charred in some places, 7 to 10 minutes. Toss the grilled tomatoes into the blender and blitz until smooth.
• In a Dutch oven or high-sided sauté pan with a lid over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the pork, season with the salt, and cook, stirring often, until the meat is browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pork to a plate, leaving behind the fat in the pan.
• Reduce the heat to medium, add the onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chile paste. Add the pork and stir to coat.
• Pour in the pureed tomatoes and 1 cup water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then cover, turn the heat to low, and braise the pork until tender, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
• Serve the pork in chile sauce with warm tortillas and black beans.

RED CHILE PORK BROCHETTES

Steps:

• Cut pork into 2-by-2-by-3/4-inch pieces. (You should have about 24 pieces.) Mix 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon chile powder. Use mixture to season pork on both sides.
• To skewer, lay meat flat on cutting board. Thread meat onto two skewers spaced equidistant from center; do this first with one skewer, then the other. Put 3 pieces of pork onto each set of skewers, for eight brochettes total.
• Cook the tomato (left whole) over hot coals or under broiler until charred and blackened, about 5 minutes. Cut in quarters but do not remove skin.
• In a blender or food processor, put 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons chile powder, the charred tomato, the garlic, the lime juice, the olive oil and 1 teaspoon cumin. Blend to obtain a smooth sauce and transfer to a bowl.
• Lay brochettes on a tray in 1 layer. Spoon 8 tablespoons chile sauce over pork and spread to cover evenly. (Save remaining sauce.) Leave at room temperature for 1 hour, or refrigerate several hours, then bring to room temperature.
• Grill over medium-hot fire for about 3 minutes per side. Sprinkle with remaining toasted cumin. Serve with reserved sauce.

SMOKY PORK SHOULDER WITH CHILE PASTE

Steps:

• Set pork shoulder in a deep roasting pan just large enough to accommodate it. With a sharp knife or straight edge razor blade, cut a deep 3/4-inch diamond pattern into the thick fat cap.
• Sprinkle 2 tablespoons kosher salt over the diamond cuts, then all the pepper. Rub the salt and pepper into the cuts and all over the top and sides of the pork shoulder.
• Turn the shoulder fat-side down, and sprinkle the remaining salt over the meat. Rub the salt and any pepper that has scattered in the pan into and all over the meat to have a wholly seasoned piece of meat - especially on the top, in the diamond-cut fat area. Let the seasoned roast rest on the counter at room temperature for 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, make the chile paste. Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Off heat, add the pasillas, guajillos and árbols, and let them soak for 30 minutes while you gather and prepare the other ingredients. When the chiles are softened, transfer them and 1/2 cup of their soaking water into a high-powered blender. Add the garlic, scallions, cilantro, vinegar and kosher salt, and blend into a smooth, dark red-brown paste. (The consistency should remind you of jarred applesauce.)
• Pour this chile paste over the pork shoulder and massage it all over the roast, leaving a nice extra schmear on the top of the roast and, again, seasoning the diamond-cut fat cap a little more generously than the bottom. (The fat on the top is going to render slowly all through the cooking and melt down into the meat, in a self-basting way, which is why the most seasoning is at the top.) Don't worry about the excess paste; it will remain in the roasting pan to enhance the juices later.
• Build a fire in your grill, then push the hot coals to one side in a mounded crescent shape, leaving space for the roasting/drip pan that now holds the marinade-slathered meat. If using an oven, heat it to 325.
• Remove the meat from the pan, and set it to the side (I use a sheet of parchment for easy cleanup) while you prepare the grill or oven.
• To prepare the grill or the oven, add a full inch of water to the roasting pan, stirring briefly to combine it with the excess chile paste, and nestle the roasting pan into the bottom of the grill in the empty space next to the crescent of coals, or on the bottom rack of the oven.
• Place the grill rack in position over the coals. Set the meat directly onto the rack above the water-filled roasting pan so that the juices will drip into it while cooking. If using a conventional oven, place the roast, fat side up, on the rack directly above the roasting pan.
• Place the cover on the grill, open the vents all the way and let the roast cook for 3 to 4 hours maintaining a gentle 300 degrees, adding coals when needed. If the temperature spikes to 325 or drops to 275 along the way, it doesn't matter at all - open and close the lid as needed to get back on track. The goal is to slowly, gently cook the meat, giving all that fat time to melt, the skin time to crisp and the tough cut of meat (muscly shoulder) time to become tender.
• Add water to the drip pan if you see it evaporating, though I did not need to add liquid any time I tested this. The natural fats and juices drip down into the pan, commingling with the chile-paste-spiked water to create a smoky, spicy, delicious cache of pan juices for later spooning over the roast while it rests. Loosely cover the meat with foil if it starts looking too dark too soon.
• Cook until the internal temperature reaches about 165 degrees, up to 4 hours. Remove from the grill (or the oven). Remove the roasting/drip pan. Let the meat rest for 30 minutes. Spoon the drippings over the roast until glossy and moist. Slice thin.

SLOW GRILLED ANCHO RUBBED PORK

Steps:

• For the spice rub: Toast the ancho chile pieces over low heat in a dry skillet until fragrant, shaking the pan so they don't scorch. Put the chiles in spice grinder and pulse to a powder. Add the remaining ingredients and buzz again to combine. (Reserve some to sprinkle on the corn.)
• For the pork: Rub the spice mix into the pork and set aside for 1 hour while you prepare the grill. (You can marinate the pork longer under refrigeration, just make sure to bring it to room temperature before cooking it.) Light the coals in a barbecue grill with a cover. When the coals are hot, push them to 1 side of the grill. Rub the pork with some olive oil and season it liberally with salt. Put the pork on the grill away from the coals and place a drip pan underneath the meat. Close the cover and cook, maintaining a medium low temperature, for about 4 to 6 hours, or until the meat shreds easily. Turn the meat occasionally and baste with the drippings.
• For the drizzling sauce: Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth; taste and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle over the shredded pork.

PORK BRAISED IN GUAJILLO CHILE SAUCE

Steps:

• Put the pork in a heavy Dutch oven large enough to fit pork comfortably.
• Pour in enough cold water to cover the meat by about 2 inches.
• Add 2 tablespoons salt, bay leaf and bring to a boil.
• Boil for one hour, skimming foam off surface as necessary.
• Cut the stems off the guajillo chiles. Tap out the seeds.
• Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.
• Add half the chiles and toast them in the skillet, turning with tongs, until they crisp up a bit and change color, about 4 minutes.
• Lift out chiles and repeat with remaining chiles.
• Pour enough boiling water over the toasted chiles to cover them. Soak until completely softened, about 20 minutes. Drain well.
• Wipe out the skillet with paper towels, put the onion and tomatoes cut sides down in the skillet. Cook, turning the veggies as often as necessary, until tomatoes are blackened on all sides and the onions are blackened on both flat sides.
• After the pork cooks one hour, ladle off 2 cups of the cooking liquid and pour into blender. Add onions and puree until smooth. Add chiles and tomatoes and blend until smooth.
• Ladle off another 2 cups of the cooking liquid and set aside. Drain pork, discard remaining liquid, wipe out the pot.
• Set the pot over medium-low heat and add the oil or lard. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, 3-4 minutes.
• Pour the chili sauce into the pot slowly, stir well.
• Return the pork to a simmer, cover the pot and cook until tender, about 1 hour. While it cooks, there should be enough sauce to moisten the pork. If not, add reserved pork cooking liquid as needed.
• Serve hot over white rice or with flour tortillas.

HONEY-SOY BRAISED PORK WITH LIME AND GINGER

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the pork in a large Dutch oven that has a lid. Scatter the garlic, ginger, red-pepper flakes and lime zest over the top. In a measuring cup, whisk together the tamari, honey and sesame oil, then pour it over the pork. Using tongs, turn to coat all sides of the pork in the sauce, and spoon some over the top so that some of the garlic and ginger is on top of the pork. Cover, transfer to the oven and cook for 2 hours.
• Uncover the pot and flip both chunks of pork. Cover the pot and braise until the pork shreds easily with a fork, about 1 more hour. Transfer to the stovetop.
• Using tongs, transfer the pork to a serving platter or a large shallow serving bowl. Using a ladle, skim and discard the excess fat off the surface of the cooking liquid remaining in the Dutch oven, if desired. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium-high heat and let it simmer until reduced and slightly syrupy, about 8 minutes.
• While the sauce simmers, coarsely shred the pork using two forks. Sprinkle the lime juice over the top of the meat. Drizzle about half the sauce over the top of the shredded meat, then toss to combine. Serve over rice or noodles or in lettuce cups. Top with sesame seeds, scallions and cilantro. Pass the remaining sauce at the table, if desired, as well as extra lime wedges and red-pepper flakes.