Chef John's Pumpkin-Braised Pork

Chef John's pumpkin-braised pork takes a cooking pumpkin and fills it with seasoned pork shoulder and hard cider to make this easy, slow-baked dish.

• Preparation Time: 15 mins
• Cooking Time: 4 hr 15 mins
• Total Time: 4 hr 30 mins
• Calories: 348 Calories

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds
• 1 volleyball-sized sugar pumpkin
• 2 cups hard apple cider, or more as needed
• 0.5 teaspoon dried thyme
• 0.25 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3.5 pounds boneless pork shoulder
• 0.33333334326744 cup thinly sliced shallots

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Step 2

Cut pork into large chunks; place in a bowl. Add shallots, salt, rosemary, black pepper, fennel seeds, thyme, and cayenne. Mix thoroughly; cover pork with parchment paper. Refrigerate to let flavors develop, 8 hours to overnight.

Step 3

Add flour to pork; toss to coat. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork in 2 batches until browned, about 3 minutes per side.

Step 4

Slowly cut top off pumpkin by inserting the tip of a knife at a 45-degree angle into top; cut all the way around to remove "lid" with stem. Scrape seeds and fibers off bottom of lid and inside pumpkin using a large spoon or ice cream scoop.

Step 5

Line bottom of a baking pan with parchment paper; place pumpkin on top. Stuff pumpkin with browned pork; pour in cider. Cover with pumpkin lid.

Step 6

Bake in the preheated oven until pork is very tender, about 4 hours, adding a little more cider after a few hours, since it evaporates a lot. Remove from oven; let rest. Brush pumpkin with some rendered fat from bottom of the pan.

Step 7

Scoop pork onto serving plates; cut out pieces of pumpkin to serve alongside. Combine remaining rendered fat with cooking liquid from inside pumpkin; let rest a few minutes. Skim most fat off top of sauce; spoon over pork.