Mojo Pork Shoulder

This isn’t a recipe… per se. It’s a “note” to self and my family. That being said, it’s still easy to follow… by links AND pictures below. I started with a big whole pork shoulder. It had to be cut in half and STILL stuffed into my pressure cooker 🤭 Season pork well. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, chili powder (I use more than one kind; like Morton & Bassett chipotle powder, McCormick Chili Powder, & Gebhardt Chili Powder, but the one basic McCormick alone works), and liquid smoke. Then, with ninja foodi or similar appliance, using either coconut oil or bacon fat, sear on all sides. Add a cup or two of broth, more seasoning (to TASTE), dried chile pods, if you can get them. Of course, we have choices of those in abundance being a border state. I usually use guajillo, ancho, arbol, and chipotle with adobo sauce. If you don’t have that, add more chil powder, half an onion, at least 4-6 smashed garlic cloves, more of the seasonings listed above that I use on meat, along with Mexican oregano, couple tbsp of brown sugar or to taste. Pressure cook on high for at least an hour, depending on size of pork. It should easily pull apart with tongs. If not, put in PC another half an hour. Shred pork and transfer to slow cooker. Yeah, I dirty more dishes. You could stick with ninja foodi (switching to slow cooker settimg) or a pan on stove on low. I go through this routine because I like the height, shape, and ease of use/reach with typical standard crockpot. AND I have different people coming in and out of the house at different times, so leaving slow cooker on “warm” works best for us. After liquid sits for a minute, I ladle out the fat that rises to top. Unless you have a fat separator. I keep forgetting to buy one 😬 Then I strain liquid into slow cooker over meat. I’ve also changed to putting the ingredients from the strainer into a blender (with about a cup of liquid the liquid added back into blender, mixing well, then adding back to meat. It has the chilies, onion, and garlic. Lots of flavor. All that being said, we really like the juices/broth with meat. It’s definitely messier, but we eat them like birria tacos. Dripping flavor 😋 Using your favorite tortillas, add meat and your favorite toppings.

I’m using this for pork tacos. And a previous post 😜 … we stick to the mojo version for the last couple of years and probably always will. That’s just how much we LOVE the flavor.