Slow Roasted Pork

By cooksalot

Ingredients

• 4-5 pound bone-in, skin on pork shoulder
• 2 red onions
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 whole garlic bulb
• 6-8 fresh bay leaves
• 2 1⁄2 cups veggie or chicken stock
• kosher salt (as needed)
• black pepper (as needed)
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Preparation

Step 1

Remove the pork from the fridge 1 to 2 hours before cooking so that it reaches room temperature. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Place the pork on a cutting board, using a sharp knife score the skin leaving roughly 1⁄2″ gaps between slices. Be careful not to cut too deep, you only want to cut through the skin and first layer of fat.
Sprinkle a decent amount of kosher salt and pepper on the skin making sure to rub some of the salt inside the scores you made. Turn the pork shoulder over and season the meat side.
In a roasting pan, place the pork skin side up. Roast for 30 minutes or until the skin has started to become crisp and puffs up. Cover the pork with aluminum foil, then turn down the oven temp to 325°F. Roast the pork for 4 hours.
While the pork is roasting, quarter the onions, cut the celery, and carrots, into 1⁄2″ pieces, break apart the garlic cloves and peel them, set everything aside for now.
After pork has cooked for 4 hours, remove it from the oven. Remove the foil, and baste the pork with some of the fat that has now melted into the pan. Gently remove the pork and set on a cutting board. Carefully pour out the grease and any drippings into a bowl (toss this since it’s mostly grease or refrigerate until the fat solidifies so you can scrape out the fat and retain the liquid). Add the onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and bay leaves to the pan. Place the pork on top of the veggies, leave the pork uncovered and put back into the oven for 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours or until the pork becomes fall apart fork tender.
Remove the pork from the oven, place on a cutting board, loosely cover the pork with foil while you make the gravy.
For the gravy

Pour the stock (veggie or chicken) into the roasting pan. Using a wooden spoon scrape any browned bits at the bottom of the pan, then pour all of the items from the pan into a small pot. Heat the stock along with the veggies on medium heat for 15 minutes. Strain the liquid, add this back to the pot. Whisk cornstarch with 1⁄4 cup of water or stock, add this to the small pot, simmer on medium heat for about 2 min until the liquid thickens. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if needed, pour into a gravy boat or other serving dish.
To serve the pork, gently remove the bone then slice the pork to desired thickness along with a little gravy or break apart the pork into chunks (or shred), and serve with a few pieces of skin and a side of gravy.