“Slap your mama” Boston butt
You have to love the Dutch oven for slow cooking roasts!
Welcome back to the work week, my friends. I hope you all had a lovely weekend.
As usual, I took advantage of the time off to do a lot of cooking. Last night, I made two chicken and broccoli casseroles – one for us and one for a neighbor – with my favorite made-up recipe that essentially results in macaroni and cheese studded with chicken and broccoli. It’s always a comforting meal.
The night before, however, someone had placed an order. A certain someone who lives with me bought a Boston butt at the grocery store and left it in the refrigerator as a big old hint. When it’s in the refrigerator instead of the freezer, I know someone is hoping I’ll cook it within the next day or so, so that’s what I did.
I’m always in search of different recipes for pork roasts, and this time I wasn’t in the mood to use a slow cooker. I wanted to use my Lodge cast iron Dutch oven. I settled on a Food.com recipe that caught my attention because of its silly name: “Make you wanna slap your mama Boston butt.” I’m not sure it was really good enough to make me want to do that, but it certainly turned out nicely. The cider vinegar, mustard and ketchup resulted in some nice pan juices that you could turn into a gravy or a quick barbecue sauce.
We had this with homemade potato salad and baked beans. I had a hankering for potato salad. All these picnic-style food cravings must mean we’re anxious for warm weather to roll back around.
I’ll share the recipe below. What wonderful eats did you have this weekend?
Make You Wanna Slap Your Mama Boston Butt
Adapted from Food.com
My roast was only 2.5 pounds. I used less garlic but otherwise stuck to the recipe and I didn’t think it had too much liquid.
2 Tbsp. canola oil
4 -6 lbs. Boston butt
1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
1 yellow onion, sliced into rings
1 (12 ounce) can beef broth or 1 (12 ounce) can chicken broth
1/2 cup hot sauce (I used Sriracha)
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons mustard
Salt and pepper
Cayenne pepper (optional, I didn’t use)
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Liberally salt and pepper the roast and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
3. Heat oil in a cast iron Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Get it really hot so that when you add the roast, it sizzles loudly. Brown well on all sides; remove to a plate and set aside.
4. With a small paring knife, make incisions deep enough all around the butt to insert a clove of garlic into each. Put the butt back in the Dutch oven and place the rest of the ingredients around it.
5. Cover pot with a tightly fitting lid or cover well with tin foil. Place in oven for 6 to 8 hours and cook until it falls apart (my roast, being smaller, took about 4 to 5 hours).
February 25, 2013 - 10:25 AM
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Venison Pot Roast at our house this weekend.
This sounds interesting…we just bought a beef pot roast last night and were trying to figure out what type of roast we would make…be it traditional pot roast, slow-cooker chili, or something else. Might have to try this as the ‘something else’ as my wife and I really enjoy spicy stuff…
I took advantage of a sale at Kroger last week and made pot roast in the slow cooker with a chuck roast on Friday night. Yum! Last night we had meatloaf, smashed butternut squash, and sauteed broccoli. I thought I had sated my comfort food cravings until I saw a post on The Kitchn about mac n’ cheese. Guess what I’m craving?? ;-0
I crave macaroni and cheese pretty much 24/7.
This sounds good, Lindsey. I bought a small pork roast this weekend, so maybe I’ll try your recipe with a little variation. I’m going to prepare the roast for my parents and my step-father isn’t too keen on a lot of garlic and neither he nor my mother care for hot spices, so I’m going to have to tone down those two things. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Now if we can just figure out how to add some Hickory smoke to the equation.
I tried this recipe as suggested by Lindsey (sans cayenne pepper). Invited three guests and they LOVVVVVEEEEDDDD it! Served with mashed taters, green beans, garden salad and a bottle of Merlot wine. The guests wasted NO time cleaning off their plates and almost demanding seconds. The roast size to begin with was 3.5 pounds and cooked for 5 hours (more than long enough). If I make it again I’ll serve over Japanese rice and some sort of fresh, quick stir-fried vegetables. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MEAL! By the way, the left over juice & stuff in the pot was great just the way it was as a gravy. Ummmmm….delicious!
I’m so GLAD everyone liked it, Ray. Our favorite part was the flavorful sauce this created as it cooked.
It reminds me of my new favorite pot roast recipe, which I’ve blabbed on about on this blog before. It’s the Savory and Sweet Pot Roast recipe in our Roanoke.com database. That can be made in the slow cooker or a Dutch oven.
It must be those similar flavors, with the sweetness and the tangy mustard and the onions, that I like so much.