Puerto Rican Pernil (Roast Pork)
Crispy, juicy Puerto Rican Pernil (Roast Pork) is slow roasted until fall-apart tender. Seasoned with garlic and adobo for maximum flavor, your house will smell as incredible as it tastes! VIDEO included.
Puerto Rican Pernil Recipe
For everyone looking for that special Christmas dinner - here it is!
Forget the ham and turkey, this roasted Puerto Rican pork served on special occasions is where it is!
My husband pronounced this the best pork he ever ate and I have to agree!
Crispy on the outside while juicy and tender inside, it's slow roasted until it falls apart with the touch of a fork.
Keep scrolling for a how-to video at the end!
Oh and the flavor! With a whole head of garlic, it's full of bold flavor, a hallmark of Puerto Rican-style cooking.
Traditionally the garlic is mashed with a pilón (mortar and pestle), but I quickly puréed it in a small food processor.
It looks impressive upon the table, but no need to be intimidated since it's really easy to make.
The hardest part is enduring the tantalizing scent that fills your house while it bakes, but I promise it's worth the wait!
To get the full Puerto Rican flavor in every bite, you'll need to season it the night before, so plan ahead for that.
Puerto Rican Pernil is typically made from a picnic cut pork shoulder, but I used a Boston butt (which is still the shoulder) since that's what was available.
Just make sure to get a shoulder with the fat cap still on it - it keeps the meat tender and flavorful.
Plus, the crispy "cuero" skin is the best part!
I recommend serving this with my Puerto Rican Beans, Puerto Rican Rice, a green salad and fresh bread for a complete meal.
This would make a great alternative Christmas dinner or New Year's menu! Buen provecho!
Pin this to your Dinner board!
Puerto Rican Pernil (Roast Pork)
Crispy, juicy Puerto Rican Pernil (Roast Pork) is slow roasted until fall-apart tender. Seasoned with garlic and adobo for maximum flavor, your house will smell as incredible as it tastes!
Ingredients
- 8-10 lbs bone-in pork shoulder (picnic cut or boston butt)
- 1 head of garlic, peeled
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons adobo
- 2 packets of sazón (optional)
Instructions
- Rinse pork in cold water and pat dry. With a paring knife, stab 1-inch slits all over the pork, top and bottom.
- In a food processor (or by hand if you have a pilón!), blend all the garlic, olive oil, black pepper and oregano until smooth. Fill each slit in the pork with about a teaspoon of the garlic paste. Sprinkle all sides of the roast with the adobo and sazón (if using) and rub pork with the spices. Place in a roasting pan that has sides at least 2 inches deep, cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
- When ready to cook, preheat oven to 350°F. Leave the roast covered with foil and bake for 4-5 hours, approximately 30-45 minutes per pound. Pork should read 180°F on an internal thermometer and shred easily with a fork.
- Uncover roast and bake for 15-20 minutes to crisp up the fat, or broil at 500°F for 10 minutes, watching carefully not to burn.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12Amount Per Serving: Calories: 216
Nutritional information provided is an estimate only. Please consult the labels of ingredients you use for more accurate results.
I made pernil last night and it came out amazing. Pretty close to my grandmothers. Well worth the effort
Can you give me a link for the oya you used to cook the pernil the one I have at home isn’t round and not sure if it’ll be deep enough unless I can just put aluminum covering the whole thing?
Hi Deb, you can use whatever pan you have and cover with foil. A lot of people use the disposable aluminum roasters. I LOVE my roaster and use it all the time for so many things. I have the 18 inch but it comes in a variety of sizes: https://amzn.to/3aWvoco
Thank you so much !!! I have loved all of your recipes. I’m Cuban and my man is Puerto Rican and these have been a life saver !
I use a cast iron skillet comes out perfect every time. .Sometimes I do it on gas or charcoal grill . So not to heat house up. It's great
I'm cooking three 10 lb shoulders in one pan. How long should I cook them?
If the shoulders have plenty of space and air circulating around each one it should take about 4+ hours. If they are all touching in the pan it will take 10+ hours.
The video doesn’t load can you send in email?
I sent you an email.
Did you ever get the video? I am having a tough time even posting a comment.
Hi Diana, I emailed it to you and I also fixed the post. I'm not sure why it wasn't playing before but thanks for letting me know!
In the oven now....followed the exact recipe and crossing my fingers that it will turn out tender and delicious! Thank you for your great recipes! FELIZ NAVIDAD!
It will! If it doesn't shred the first time you check just cook a little longer. 🙂 Feliz Navidad!
Is that really the amount of seasonings for an 8lb pork shoulder or is it that amount per pound? and no salt?
That's for the whole roast. There's salt in the adobo and sazon so I do not add any extra. If you don't use sazon add 2 teaspoons of salt.
Excellent recipe. So easy and so delicious. My family loves it.
I followed this recipe EXACTLY! I love Sazon so I opted to use that as well. My plan was to marinate it for 15hrs (while I worked.) I got home.. put it in the oven (325°) and set my timer for 4.5hours and left my house! Came back.. choped/diced some veggies for the sides.. fries about 6 plantains.. then my timer goes off. I go to remove the foil to bake uncovered the last half hour..it was still completely RAW! My heating element went out!!!! So we opted for tacos. Anyways, 10hrs later, while at work.. i FINALLY cooked it!!!!! I must say it was well worth the wait!!!! SOOOOOOOOO TENDER & JUICY! VERY FLAVORFUL AS WELL!!!! Will make again soon!!!! Thank you so much for posting this!!
OMG my heart literally dropped reading that...but I'm so glad it worked out in the end!!!
Making this again Friday!! Two actually! Praying my oven doesn't go out again! Lol
😱 That’s cause for a PR Panic attack!
Lol.. welp... i put it in the oven that morning.. came back home... oven messed up, AGAIN! the connector came loose! So I think it is safe to say that I should not make this anymore lol I put it in my Dutch oven and simmered it on the stove for a few hrs. It was still good.. but no where as good as it should have been!
I think it's time to get a new oven.
Does the pork shoulder get baked fat side up?
Yes
Ive made pork pernil one other time and it didn’t come out well. I wanted to find an easy main dish to make for 24-people so I decided on this recipe because the reviews were so good. I was nervous though. But it turned out so good that my guests thought I bought it from an acclaimed manhattan restaurant. They couldn’t believe someone could make something this good at home! The crispy skin was really to die for. The meat was succulent. I’m definitely going to make again but just for our family. More for us this time!!
Wow a Manhattan restaurant! Thanks so much for this glowing review!
Why do you have the sazon as optional. Does it have a really strong flavor? I've never cooked with it so just want to know how it enhances the pork? Thank you!
The sazon is optional because it's made with MSG which some people avoid. MSG tenderizes meat and makes food taste "better", but it doesn't really have any flavor.
MSG does not tenderize meat, it's increases an items "savoriness".
More specifically, MSG is associated with umami, a taste worked out by the Japanese in the same research (I believe) that resulted in MSG. However, the "meaty" umami taste can cotton a range of more natural products.
Oven works best. Look for Badia brand sazón which is equally delicious with NO MSG!!
@Wesley, Badia tastes gross! I wish I liked it better...but it is awful. It is better to make your own dry mix of herbs and spices.
I can't seem to download peril roasted pork receive. I'll send my email, etc. Will you email it to me.?
Hi Audrey, not sure why it's not coming up for you, but I sent you an email!
Forgot to ask. Do you place the meat side down first to roast, or the rind part?
How long to cook each side?
Thank you
Can I use a Reynolds oven bag, like the one used to roast a turkey?
Or, do you suggest foil?
If roasting bag is used , will it still come out crispy for the pork rind?
Thank you
I've never used a bag before but I suppose you can. You'll need to take it off at the end and continue cooking so the skin/fat will get crisp. The fat should be on top.
I prepared this lastnight to cook today. I am very worried because I couldn't get the garlic mashed I just didnt have the tools I thought my ninja blender would do it but it didnt. Do you think it will be good still even tho the garlic is more like chopped not like a paste? I dont know what to do to make it better and my family is super excited to try this so I just really want it to be good.
It will still be good! The garlic will soften while it cooks and be delicious 🙂
Smash it wit the side off the knife hard work ot 2 paper plates smash it with a can off vegetable smash it it works. Just did mine. Lol