Cuban Lechón Asado: Three Guys From Miami’s Mojo Pork

Delicious roast pork served with colorful carrots on a wooden board.

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This recipe is taken from Three Guys From Miami — Raúl Musibay, Glenn Lindgren and Jorge Castillo’s long-running Cuban recipe site — specifically their Lechón Asado — Roast Pork Cuban-Style recipe. It’s the home-cook version of a dish that, in its full form, means roasting an entire pig.

What Lechón Asado Is

As the Three Guys tell it, lechón asado is what a Cuban household makes when there isn’t the time, or a big enough crowd on hand, to justify roasting a whole pig — so a fresh, bone-in ham stands in for the whole animal. A “fresh ham” here means an un-smoked, unprocessed leg of pork with the skin still on — what some U.S. butchers call a “green” ham — and the skin and fat layer underneath it are treated as essential, not optional. If a fresh ham isn’t available, the recipe substitutes a pork shoulder roast. This is specifically Cuba’s version of roast pork, built around a mojo of sour orange, garlic and oregano — a different tradition from Puerto Rican pernil, which Tasting Table describes as built on a thick adobo paste of garlic, oregano, vinegar and citrus pushed into slits in the meat, rather than a liquid marinade the pork soaks in.

Ingredients

  • 6-pound fresh ham or pork shoulder roast
  • 20 cloves garlic
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 1/2 cups sour orange juice (or 2 parts orange juice to 1 part lemon juice to 1 part lime juice)
  • 1 cup onion, minced
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 1/2 cups olive oil

Method

Make the mojo

  1. Mash the garlic, salt and peppercorns together with a mortar and pestle.
  2. Add the oregano, onion and sour orange juice to the mash and mix thoroughly.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan until hot but not deep-frying hot — around 220°F. Remove from the heat, carefully whisk in the garlic mash, and let it cool.

Marinate and cook

  1. Pierce the pork all over with a sharp knife or fork so the marinade can penetrate.
  2. Pour the mojo over the pork (reserving a little for basting), cover, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, preferably overnight.
  3. Oven: Preheat to 450°F, then place the pork fattest-side up in an open roasting pan and reduce the oven to 225°F. Baste occasionally with reserved marinade as it cooks.
  4. Grill: Use a covered grill with the coals banked to the sides (or a gas grill with only the outer burners lit) so the pork sits over indirect, low heat. Baste as it cooks and add charcoal as needed to hold the temperature.
  5. Cook until the internal temperature reaches 195°F for meat that pulls apart “pulled-pork” style, or pull it at 170°F if you want a roast you can slice.
  6. Cover with foil immediately and rest at least 10 minutes before serving. Allow about 1/4 to 1/2 pound of pork per person.

Getting the Temperature Right

This recipe’s own finishing points — 170°F for sliceable pork, 195°F for pulled — sit well above USDA’s minimum for whole cuts of pork, which is 145°F (62.8°C) followed by a 3-minute rest. The higher numbers here aren’t a safety requirement; they’re a texture choice, since a fresh ham or shoulder needs that extra time and heat to break down its connective tissue into something tender rather than just technically safe to eat.

Oven, Grill or Stovetop

The Three Guys give three ways to finish the roast: a low, slow oven at 225°F; a covered grill set up for indirect heat, banking the coals to each side and leaving the pork over the empty middle; or a covered Dutch oven on the stovetop with about a cup of marinade kept simmering at the bottom, topped up as needed so the pan doesn’t scorch. All three rely on the same basic idea — low heat and plenty of time — rather than the grill giving the pork anything the other methods can’t.

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