Slow Braised Boston Butt Pork Roast

If you’ve been following Lemony Thyme for a bit, you’ve probably picked up on our love for slow braising meats.  So much so, I added the category B is for Braising to our recipe roster.  Whether it be a Beef Pot Roast, Pork Chops, Beef Shanks, Chicken in a Pot, or this gorgeous Boston Butt Pork Roast, braising takes any cut of meat and turns it into tender love.

Here is our typical method…

To begin, assemble your favorite dry rub.  For us that consists of fairly equal amounts of dried thyme, sage, oregano, yellow mustard, garlic powder, Mrs. Dash Garlic Herb seasoning, salt & pepper.

Apply the rub to all sides of the roast, pressing it in as you go.  Then choose a dutch oven that is just a bit bigger than your roast and brown the roast in canola oil until it is deep brown on all six sides.  Once really nice and browned, remove the roast.  Add a generous amount of thickly sliced onions into the dutch oven and saute until just tender.

Often at this point we add 1 cup of dry red wine, stirring to deglaze the pan.  However for this roast, we used 1 cup of dry white wine and 3-4 minced garlic cloves before returning the roast to the pan.  We then added enough milk to raise the liquid level to half way up the roast.  When looking for alternate cooking methods for a Boston Butt, we came across the site Real Food Has Curves (Amen) and their recipe for Pork Butt Braised in Milk and Spices.  We already knew we loved Chicken in Milk and since these guys clearly understood the molecular structure of milk and protein…that was both intriguing and good enough for us.

Next comes the braising.  What you’re looking for is a slow burble not a boil.   Start out in a 300 degree oven and hourly adjust the temperature accordingly to maintain the slow burble.  (For a 6lb. roast, we started at 300 went to 275 then settled at 250 for about 3 hours total cooking time).

The end result was a succulent roast as always…because at the end of the day how do you mess up a pork roast?!

We bought the biggest roast we could find on that day (6 lbs.+)…so we could pull it into Pulled Pork Sliders to enjoy while watching the Great American Race.

We later transform the leftover roast into a giant pot of Pozole Rojo {Pork & Hominy Stew}, a favorite hearty winter dish.

Reserving a couple servings of pulled pork for a nice Mexican Breakfast with Pulled Pork and Eggs.

Why not make a batch of Homemade Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce to serve with your Slow Braised Boston Butt Roast.

A nice Slow Braised Boston Butt Pork Roast is so versatile and yields a bounty of tender pork goodness to be savored for days.

Slow Braised Boston Butt Pork Roast

Food Has Curves

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Entree

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 1 5-6 lb. Boston Butt Pork Roast

For the dry rub…

• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried sage
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. dry mustard
• 1 tsp. Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper

For the braising…

• 2 Tbl. canola oil
• 2 onions thick sliced
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 3-4 garlic cloves minced
• 2-3 cups milk

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

For the dry rub…

• Combine dry rub ingredients and apply to all sides of the roast, pressing it in as you go. Then brown the roast in a dutch oven with canola oil until it is deep brown on all six sides. Once browned remove the roast.

For the braising…

• Add sliced onions to the dutch oven and saute until just tender. Then add white wine wine and garlic, stirring to deglaze the pan.
• Next return the roast to the pan. Add enough milk to raise the liquid level to half way up the roast. Cover the dutch oven and start the braising process on the stove top, bringing the liquid to a gentle boil, then transfer to the oven.
• Plan on 2 1/2 – 3 hours of total cooking time. We started at 300 degrees. About 30 minutes in, we went down to 275 degrees, then 30 minutes later settled at 250 degrees for the duration of the cooking time. When the meat separates easily with a fork, remove it and allow to rest 15 minutes before slicing.