Spicy Citrus Pork Roast (Crock Pot)

appleydapply's Note:

This pork roast is a non-traditional twist on Mexican cooking from a book by Judith Finlayson. My husband, who grew up in Mexico, says it is his new favorite recipe! It took about 40 minutes to get this all in the crock pot in the morning, but that included all the roast preparation and vegetable dicing. If you trimmed your roast the night before and sliced the onions, bacon, & peppers, that would save some time in the morning. Serve with rice. We ate leftovers the next day on tortillas with guacamole & lettuce.

• Total Time: 8 hrs 40 mins
• Prep Time: 40 mins
• Cook Time: 8 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

• 4 slices bacon , chopped
• 3 lbs boneless pork shoulder , trimmed of excess fat
• 2 medium onions , thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves , minced
• 1 jalapeno pepper , finely chopped
• 1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns (or coarsely ground pepper)
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 ½ cups orange juice
• 2 bananas , peeled and thinly sliced

Directions:

1. Cook bacon until crisp in a skillet over medium high heat. Remove bacon pieces from skillet and set aside, leaving fat in skillet.
2. In same pan, brown roast on all sides. Transfer to slow cooker.
3. Remove all but 1 TB of bacon fat from pan. Reduce heat to medium. Add onions and cook, stirring, until slightly wilted.
4. Add garlic, jalapeno, chili powder, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
5. Sprinkle in flour and cook, stirring, one more minute.
6. Add orange zest, juice, and bananas, and cook, stirring to scrape up any bits stuck to the skillet. Mash bananas into sauce as you stir (but it's OK if some chunks/slices remain - these will disintegrate during the slow cooking).
7. Stir in bacon pieces. Pour contents of skillet over pork.
8. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Note that the original recipe indicated that this could be cooked on high for 4-5 hours, but I'm afraid that my slow cooker would burn this due to the high sugar content of the fruit. You can use your judgment based on your knowledge of your slow cooker - I needed to save some time so I started on high for 1 hour and switched to low for 4 1/2 hours and it turned out perfectly.

Reviews

[NorthwestGal]

The pork was quite tender and flavorful. The orange juice and bananas melded with the spices quite nicely to make a very savory sauce to serve over the pork. It is an interesting combination of sweet and spicy that really worked well here.

[Sydney Mike]

Although I did make a couple of changes, THIS PORK ROAST IS GREAT! I substituted 2 rounded tablespoons of green chilies for the jalapeno pepper, cut the chili powder back to a scant tablespoon & then used lemon pepper instead of the S&P! We really enjoyed the combo of of OJ, chili & garlic & would be happy to make this yet again for company in the future! Thanks for sharing the recipe! [Tagged, made & reviewed in Please Review My Recipe]

[cookingforfour]

Made this last night. Perfect sweet & spicy flavor.