Braised Pork Shoulder with Crackle

This beautiful slow-roasted pork shoulder yields juicy, fork-tender meat and crispy skin. Not only is it delicious, but it also requires only three simple ingredients - meat, salt, and beer.

Believe it or not, this flavor-packed picnic roast (also known as pork butt) might just be our easiest recipe yet. It even beats our easy honey-mustard pork roast.

I'm so excited about this pork dish because it is seriously the best roast I've ever made. One of the Serbian Christmas traditions is certainly a whole pork roast, but not everyone has the opportunity to roast a pig on a spit.

With this recipe, you'll get the same results. It is easy to make, and it looks impressive when brought out on its platter.

You can also prepare most of it ahead of time, making for less stress when your friends come over! Who doesn't love that?

📃 Why it Works

• Abundant: Pork roasts are always crowd-pleasers.
• Simple: This recipe has just three ingredients but delivers big on flavor! You'll find yourself coming back for seconds (and thirds).
• No-fuss prep: A delicious Sunday dinner is just a few simple steps away. No waiting hours for the meat to marinate! 
• Versatile: It tastes delicious, either warm or cold. 

Beer-Braised pork shoulder isn't just your average Sunday dinner either; this recipe is perfect for holidays or entertaining guests at home! We love this pork roast equally for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

The beer seeps into every bite and makes for a fantastic flavor. Add to that some perfectly crispy skin, and you have a winner!

What better way than getting together over some good old-fashioned Balkan-style cooking?

🛒 Ingredients and Notes

🍖 Meat

For this recipe, we used pork shoulder with skin. You can also use other skinless parts, but you won't get the crispy crackling without the skin. Shoulder options:

• The upper part of the shoulder, also called the Boston butt (blade shoulder), shoulder butt, or pork butt. It's meatier and less bony.
• The lower part of the shoulder is also called the picnic shoulder or arm shoulder (foreleg of the pig/hog). It's less meaty with a large bone. Because it's near the trotter (hock), it's relatively tough and fatty.

🍺 Beer

As the simmering liquid, beer brings out all the meat's richness, giving the skin a beautiful color. The alcohol evaporates in the cooking, leaving only a delicate flavor to intrigue your palate.

Any light beer will do (Miller Lite, Coors Light, Budweiser). You can use pilseners and pale ales but stay away from IPA and dark beer. If you don't cook with alcohol, you can omit the beer; no substitutions are necessary.

🔪 Instructions

1. Pat the roast dry. With a sharp knife, score ½-inch wide strips through skin and fat, but not into the meat.
2. Place a rack over the roasting pan. Place the shoulder on the top and rub it with salt, rubbing it into the skin slits.
3. Add water to the bottom of the pan. Put in a 480 degrees F preheated oven, then lower to 350 F and bake until skin is crispy and golden in color, about four hours. Pour beer over the roast. Bake 5 minutes longer. Let rest before slicing.

• Wire rack: This is the key to achieving that perfect crispy, browned exterior on your pork shoulder. The fat from pork will drip off and get cooked by hot pan juices ensuring every inch of meat has been given its time in this oven-basted dish!
• Patience: This is essential to a great dish. The meat will be perfectly tender when cooked low and slow in an oven-proof baking dish for hours. It guarantees a deliciously rich flavor that only time can provide.
• Heat: Why put the meat into a piping hot oven but then lower the temperature? Browning is a natural process that occurs when food meets high temperatures (ensures crispy skin). A low temperature helps to cook the roast more evenly and keeps it moist so that shrinkage is reduced. This improves juiciness!

🍽 How To Serve It

• Warm roast goes great with dairy-free mashed potatoes, pasta, or rice and your favorite vegetables.
• Serve it cold with creamy, mayo-based salads like mock-potato cauliflower salad. An authentic pairing would be Russian salad (aka Olivier salad) for the ultimate Serbian experience. They traditionally serve it on Orthodox Christmas, Slava (patron saint), and one's Name Day.

How to use leftover pork roast?

Leftover pork roast is super versatile! Here are some delicious ideas to use up:

• Serve leftovers with your favorite sides or sandwich filling.
• Mix it with BBQ sauce and toss it on a bun with coleslaw, or make Cubanos.
• Add shredded pork roast to soups such as chili or in casseroles.
• Make carnitas tacos or use for nachos and burritos.

How Much Pork Roast Per Person?

Cookbooks often recommend serving around 4 ounces of cooked pork shoulder roast per person. That's a lot less than other meats, but that should still do the trick for an average-sized household!

So if you have one 3 lb roast, then it will serve 8 to 12 people depending on how much fat is present in your piggy jiggling around outside its skin.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

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