Transform a pork shoulder into this simple but amazingly delicious dish with a quick sear, simple seasonings, lightly caramelized onions and a simple roux. Fantastic.
Smothered Pork Roast with Rice
This Smothered Pork Roast recipe is as simple as it comes. A seared pork roast, seasoned with salt and pepper, smothered in a gorgeous garlic, rosemary and thyme infused gravy, and braised in a covered Dutch oven, low and slow. The original recipe called for a boneless pork butt or shoulder, but I could only find a 7 pound bone-in pork shoulder, and even that just barely squeezed into my Dutch oven. The downside to using the bone-in roast is that there is less meat, but it was enough for the two of us. It is a heavenly way to utilize a cut of pork that is most often reserved for pulled pork sandwiches though it can be used for other cuts as well. The fragrance of it will surely bring you back to grandma's kitchen and the flavor is just simply pork perfection.When I say simple, I mean pure simplicity. Salt and pepper, and a simple sear which I did in a separate skillet due to the tight fit of my Dutch oven since I could only find a bone-in roast the day I wanted to make this.
I lightly caramelized the seasoned onion in the same skillet, added the garlic, and deglazed the pan to scrape up the browned bits. The original recipe used significantly more thyme and rosemary than I did, though now that I've tasted the roast, I think the recipe could probably take as much.
A buttery roux was cooked to the color of peanut butter in the bottom of the Dutch oven, to which the chicken broth was slowly stirred in.
The onions were stirred in, the roast placed on top, and a few scoops of the gravy were poured over the roast. That's it! Cover, place into a preheated 275 degree oven and let it cook for about 3 hours, turning about every 30 minutes and basting the top with some of the gravy each time it was turned.
This recipe was simply delicious, and if it doesn't drum up some memories of pork roast at grandma's house, I don't know what will.
In fact, this recipe was exactly that - a take on the very memories Chef Donald Link recalls from his own Granny's pork roast. Mine is a slightly adapted version of that recipe from his cookbook Real Cajun: Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link's Louisiana, one of the cookbooks that I asked Santa to bring me this Christmas. I am so glad that I did. You can check out a sneak peek of some of the other recipes in this cookbook on my review post.
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