Mojo Pork or Cuban Roast Pork {slow cooker}

Flavourful Mojo Pork or Cuban Roast Pork has been one of the most popular recipes published on Foodie with Family since it first went live in 2009, and for good reason. Fragrant, garlicky, crispy-edged yet succulent, this mouth-watering pork is as easy to make as it is wonderful and habit forming.

Let me tell you, Mojo Pork deserves every bit of its popularity. Cuban Roast Pork is one of those crazy recipes that somehow manages to be dead simple, insanely inexpensive, mind-bendingly delicious, and wickedly versatile.

Cuban Pork Recipe

When I say it’s easy, I mean like New Orleans BIG EASY easy. Our Cuban Pork Recipe is designed to be made in the slow-cooker and crisped in the oven or an air fryer before serving.

I personally make this with as large a pork shoulder as I can lay my hands on because I know we’ll go through a lot. For this, I grab this slow-cooker.

It’s literally as easy as putting a pork shoulder in the slow-cooker, tossing in whole cloves of garlic, oregano, cilantro stems, salt, pepper, lime juice, and frozen orange juice concentrate. All you do then is cover it up and let it cook on HIGH overnight or all day.

I often split the process between two days by taking the cooked pork shoulder and juices and letting them chill to make them easier to handle. It makes it far easier to remove excess fat because the pork fat firms up as it cools; reach in, pull off the hardened fat, and voila!

You break up the pork with your hands and run a knife through it, strain the pan juices and boil them to reduce them, then pour over the pulled pork before reheating in the oven or an air fryer. TA-DA!

Cuban Mojo Pork

“What in the world would I do with 10 pounds of Cuban Pork?” I hear you say. I’m so glad you asked.

First, we need to remember you’re going to lose about 40% of the overall weight of the pork when you cook it. So really, you’re just looking at about 6 pounds of pulled pork.

And considering how much my kids love Cuban Mojo Pork in burritos, quesadillas, and on a fork, we never have found out how to get tired of it before it’s gone. Besides that, it’s amazing in Cuban Sandwiches | Pressed Toasted Sandwiches!

Besides, we use leftovers from this recipe for Filthy Burgers (Beef, Barbecue Pulled Pork, & Bacon Burgers),Pulled Pork Huevos Rancheros, Barbecue Pulled Pork Sliders, Barbecue Pulled Pork Pizza, Pulled Pork Walking Tacos, Taco Soup, and BBQ Pulled Pork Overstuffed Shells among other things.

If you want to take a break before you’re done eating it, divide it into meal sized portions and pop it into the freezer. A couple containers of this pork in the freezer is the best guarantee against the “I have no idea what to make for dinner” blues.

Over the past 13 years, I’ve received all sorts of emails from people who have up-sized the Cuban Pork enough to feed a couple hundred people at church suppers, wedding receptions, and down-sized it to feed a singleton or a couple. In fact, I made this for my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding.

If you’ve been around here for a while, and you’re one of the many who have tried the recipe, would you tell us how you made it? Did you have it at a special occasion?

What’s your favourite way to serve Mojo Pork? Fill me in!

Mojo Pork

Place untrimmed pork, fat side up in the slow-cooker. Toss garlic cloves around the roast and scatter the salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, and crushed red pepper flakes or fresh jalapeño around the pork shoulder.

Dollop the frozen orange juice concentrate over the roast. Pour the 1/3 cup lime juice around the edges and toss in the cilantro stems.

Cover and turn the slow cooker to “HIGH”. Allow to cook for 1 hour, turn the heat to ’LOW’ and continue cooking for another 7 hours or until meat falls apart when prodded with a fork.

When the meat is tender, turn off slow cooker and place the slow cooker bowl in the fridge until it is cool enough to handle comfortably. (If your slow-cooker doesn’t have a removable insert, transfer the contents to a large container with a tight-fitting lid and pop that into the fridge.)

Use a spoon to remove the congealed fat from around the pork shoulder. Discard the fat.

Transfer pork shoulder to a large cutting board, preferably one with a groove to catch juices. Otherwise, keep the paper towels handy! Let sit while attending to the pan juices.

Pour the cooking juices that surrounded the pork through a fine mesh strainer positioned over a saucepan. Remove and discard any solids left in the strainer. 

Add the remaining lime juice to the cooking juices. Whisk until evenly combined and bring to a boil over medium high heat. 

Allow to boil (while working on shredding the pork) until reduced to about 1/4 of the starting volume. Set the reduced sauce aside.

Pull the bone out of the pork and discard. Scrape as much fat as you can from the outside of the pork shoulder. Discard the fat.

Pull large chunks of the shoulder apart. It should naturally come apart at places where there is additional fat you can remove. Take as much of the fat out as you can without wasting meat.

Using your hands -or two forks- shred the meat into small pieces. When you’ve shredded all the meat, you can leave it as is or chop through it quickly with a knife to ensure that you have small bite-sized pieces. 

Transfer the pork to a 9 x 13 baking dish with sides. Pour the reduced pan juices over the pork and toss. 

Tightly cover the pan with foil. If you plan on serving it immediately, put into a preheated 350ºF oven and heat for 25 minutes, or until hot all the way through. If you are preparing this ahead of time you can either place the pan directly into the freezer or into the fridge.

To reheat from chilled:

Place, still covered in foil, in a preheated 350ºF oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through.

To heat from frozen:

Place, still covered in foil, in a preheated 350ºF for 45 minutes, or until heated through.

This post was originally published March 24 and 26 of 2009, was republished in 2012, and republished with new photos in February of 2022.