..where teens can learn to cook restaurant quality meals for the family
Braised Pork Shoulder
This one's going to take 3 hours in the oven! So you're going to need that time on your side. But slow cooking like this creates amazing results. So maybe pick a weekend day, and set an alarm to get it going a good 3+ hours before you want to eat. But tell the family this one's going to be good! (Later we'll add more slow cook recipes – there are some you can so in a slow cooker, but our favourite ones are done on a good BBQ!)
ADJUST SERVINGS
Most of our recipes are for 4 people. You can check and adjust the serving size by clicking on the red number above.
BEFORE YOU START
Tips for Braising:
Searing the meat before braising creates a tasty crust. Low and slow cooking in a liquid makes the pork incredibly tender. Vegetables add flavour to the braising liquid that infuses the meat.
GET SHOPPING!
This is a reminder to check what ingredients you need to buy and add them to your shopping list. It’s good to do your own food shopping, but at the very least, you’re head chef, so send a family member out to the shops for you!
GET ORGANISED
Remember ‘Skill 2’ of the Big 5: Become super-organised.:
Add your own private notes:
Equipment
- Dutch oven or large oven-proof pot with a lid
- chopping board
- chefs knife
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cups
- Large pot for potatoes
- Potato masher
- Saucepan for green beans
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg pork shoulder
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 carrots
- 2 stalks celery
- 235 ml chicken broth
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 kg potatoes
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 200 g green beans (or just a bag of green beans)
Optional:
- 1 handful chopped parsley
Instructions
Prep in Advance:
- Preheat your oven to 165°C (325°F)
- Wash your hands
- Put 1.5 kg pork shoulder in a large mixing bowl
- Season the pork shoulder all over with salt and pepper and massage in to make sure it is covered well.
- Trim the ends off your green beans (see video for a great way to do it if they're in a bag)
- Wash your carrots and celery
- Dice 1 large onion and set aside in a large bowl
- Chop your 2 carrots and set aside in the same bowl as the onions
- Finely chop 3 cloves garlic and set aside in the same bowl as the other vegetables
- Dice 2 stalks celery and set aside in the same bowl as onion, garlic and carrots
- Boil your kettle with enough water to make 235 ml chicken broth
- Peel and quarter 1 kg potatoes. You can chop these even smaller if you want to speed up the process of boiling them
- Make you chicken broth/stock according to your packet instructions. You'll have to do the maths to work out how much water vs stock cube you'll need. Often 1 cube makes 500ml so you have to either break up a cube, or make the full 500ml but only use what you need from it
Let's Cook!
- Put 2 tbsp olive oil in your dutch oven or oven proof pan and warm on a medium-high heat
- Place your pork shoulder in the pan and sear on all sides until the outside is fully browned. Give it a chance. This is art. You're creating that Maillard effect. Something you now make a point of doing in many recipes, because you're a top chef.
- Remove the pork and set aside on a plate
- Add the bowl of onion, garlic, carrots, and celery to the pan
- Stir well and cook until softened. Add a little more oil if you need it. (The pan mustn't be totally dry, you want to be cooking the vegetables in visible oil!)
- Stir in 2 tbsp tomato paste and cook for 1 minute
- Add the chicken broth and 1 tsp thyme stir the pot well and scrape the bottom to make sure nothing sticks. (If your pan is non-stick, make sure you're using plastic or wooden tools and not metal!)
- Return the pork shoulder to the pot and put the lid on the pot
- Grab your oven gloves and place the pot in the preheated oven. (You might need to adjust or remove some of the shelves to create space)
- Braise (cook) for 3 hours (remember to check every so often so the pork isn't overdone). As we're learning, we're just going to focus on oven temperature (165°C/325°F) and time (3 hours).But, to become a pro, we'd do it more accurately. We'd get you to put a food/meat thermometer into the pork shoulder (in it's thickest part, and not touching any bone) and cook it until it's 63℃ (145 ℉) if you want it done 'enough' – and we'd go for 96 ℃ (205 ℉) if you wanted it to fall apart off the bone (pulled pork). That's the magic number to make magic dish. We'll look at that in a later recipe. For now, you're just learning braising.
- When there is roughly 30 minutes left for the pork to cook, fill your kettle with water and boil it (so set an alarm for about 2 hours 30 mins from now!)
- Put your chopped potatoes in another pot and cover with the boiling water
- Make mashed potato (see our how to video)
- Remember to add 1/2 cup milk and 4 tbsp butter to the potato and season with salt and pepper. And a pinch or two of ground nutmeg puts some real life into it.
- Now, choose whether to steam or boil your green beans. You've done both in previous recipes (if you're following the 10 Meal Challenge). You'll need a saucepan of boiling water (and a steamer if that's what you're using). Each will take slightly different amounts of time, but somewhere around 5-8 minutes. You're becoming a pro now, so get them on the go, and do your taste test! If they're too crunchy after this time, do them a bit longer. What you don't want to do is over cook them or they go all mushy and sometimes stringy.
- Remove the pork from the oven, wrap it in foil, then wrap a towel around that, and let it rest for 10 minutes. It'll still be warm when you eat it.
- Call the family to dinner!
- Slice the pork (or, if you've over done it and it's shreddable, then try shredding it with two forks!) and serve with mashed potatoes and green beans
- Garnish with chopped parsley if you have it
Please share with us how you went!We need your feedback so we can improve the recipes and help others succeed! Please let us know by leaving a comment 🙂