Sticky and Sweet Grilled Pork Shoulder

Summertime calls for grilling and this is a perfect recipe for it. I use a boneless butt roast for this, which I trim of excess fat and cut into smaller chunks for a faster cook time and more intense meat-to-sauce-to-grill flavor ratio. This is also great with chicken so don’t be afraid to mix up your meat. If you want to use a pork tenderloin you certainly can and the cooking time will be a lot shorter, I just tend to like the shoulder cut for this as it has more flavor and also tends to be more forgiving if the grill gets too hot.

This recipe is my ode to many a Chinese BBQ char siu recipe and has not just sticky and sweet to it, but a little bit of heat, also. It’s perfect when topped with fresh cilantro like I do here, and a side of broccoli rabe adds a bit of barely-bitter balance.

Sticky and Sweet Grilled Pork Shoulder (aka Pork Butt) Recipe

• 18 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• 3/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (I prefer Red Boat)
• 2/3 cup white wine (I typically use a pinot grigio but any white wine worth drinking will work)
• 2 tablespoons Thai chili garlic paste
• 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
• 3 1/2 lb boneless pork butt roast (these smaller roasts are also often called half butt roasts – perfect for 2 people with some leftovers)
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• Fresh cilantro for serving

Directions

• Trim pork roast of excess fat and cut into 4-5 equal-thickness pieces (or as equal as you can make them).
• Whisk together the first 7 ingredients in a bowl.
• Reserve 1 cup of the marinade and pour the remaining marinade into a gallon-size resealable bag.
• Add pork roast pieces and toss pork well with the marinade, squeeze out excess air, and seal. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.
• Preheat gas grill to 350º, using just the front and back burners if you have that option.
• Brush a sheet pan with oil.
• Pull each piece of pork from the marinade, letting the excess marinade run off, and then place on pan.
• Put the pan of pork on grill and replace grill cover.
• Grill on the pan at 350º for about 25 minutes.

In the meantime, finish off the BBQ grilling sauce:

• Place reserved marinade in a small saucepan.
• Add brown sugar and soy sauce and stir well.
• Heat to a healthy simmer, uncovered, and cook for 12-15 minutes until reduced by almost half. You want a nice, thickened, sticky glaze. If you have black vinegar and ever wanted to know what to do with it, add a tablespoon of it while this is reducing…it’s divine.
• Remove from heat.

Back to the pork on the grill:

• After the pork has cooked for 25 minutes, brush each piece generously with the barbecue sauce.
• Flip pork and brush the other side with sauce.
• Cook for about 10 more minutes and then, using tongs, place pork directly on the grill
• Turn on the center burner (if an option)
• Turn all burners on high – this is because you’re going to constantly be opening the grill lid and also to help char the sauce before the meat overcooks
• Brush with BBQ sauce and flip every few minutes, being sure to move the pieces around if you have hot spots on your grill.
• Cook until all pieces are well coated and charred; total cooking time is about 1 hour.  Thinner, smaller pieces are going to cook faster than your thicker, bigger pieces so keep on eye on the thin ones and remove them earlier if needed. (if using pork shoulder like I do here, the internal temp should be around 170º but if using pork loin, only cook to 150º)
• Remove from heat.
• Let pork rest about 10 minutes, slice, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve.

See? Cutting up the pork roast makes quick time of this and you have lots of pieces covered in sticky, sweet barbecue sauce. This is only part of the pork in the photo, by the way…there were 3 more pieces where that came from. 🙂 Since it’s just the two of us, this grilled pork roast makes for some mean and much-loved leftovers.

The cilantro adds a nice fresh flavor to this but if you don’t like cilantro (or don’t have it on hand), fresh parsley works just as well.

Now you know how to make a sticky sweet glazed pork butt roast on the grill in no time at all!

Oh, and were you wondering how to cook broccoli rabe, also known as rapini? I grow this in my garden every year as, sadly, it’s almost impossible to find in the sticks where I now reside. It’s one of my favorite greens, due to its slight bitterness and deep, green flavor. (If green has a flavor, it’s definitely broccoli rabe)

If the broccoli rabe has thick stems and large leaves, which means it’s mature, it’s best to blanch it briefly in boiling water for a minute or two and then drain it well. Then just saute it up with some olive oil and garlic, with a little salt and pepper thrown in. The batch pictured here was blanched for 2 minutes, drained well, then placed in a foil packet and thrown on the grill for about 15 minutes. You want the stems to be cooked but not so overly-cooked that they’re mushy.

I hope you’ll try this pork roast – and the broccoli rabe – while the weather is warm and the grill is hot.

Enjoy!