Mojo Cuban Sandwich
08/23/2017
During a recent Saturday sofa movie night, I stumbled across the film Chef. It was written, directed by, and starring Jon Favreau. It came out a few years ago, but I somehow managed to miss it until now. They cooked up so many delicious looking Cuban sandwiches in the film that of course I had to make them myself the next day.
The secret to a good Cuban sandwich is the mojo marinade for the pork, which is easy to throw together. The result is some seriously flavorful pulled pork. If you have leftover pork after you've had your fill of Cuban sandwiches, try making mojo pulled pork nachos. Mind blowing goodness, I kid you not.
Mojo Cuban Sandwich
Mojo pork:
- 1 3-5 lb pork butt (shoulder)
- 1 cup lime juice
- 3 cups orange juice
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1 medium size yellow onion (quartered)
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon smoked chili powder
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Sandwich fixings:
- Sliced deli ham
- French or Italian bread
- Yellow mustard
- Pickle slices
- Swiss cheese
- Butter for the bread
Throw the pork butt/shoulder into a freezer bag with all of the mojo marinade ingredients (hold the olive oil for browning later). Stick this in the fridge for at least one hour. I let mine hang out for about five hours while I ran Saturday errands.
You can prepare the pork in a crock pot with the marinade, but I used my pressure cooker to speed up the process. First, take the pork out and dry it off. Heat a skillet and brown all sides in olive oil, then place in pressure cooker with marinade mixture. The pressure cooker cook time and process may vary depending on what kind you have (electric, stove top). Mine is a stove top and I let it go on medium low for a little over an hour. You can cut the meat into smaller portions to cook faster as well. Just make sure it reaches an internal temp of 190-195.
When the pork is cooked through, remove and let it rest at least 10 minutes, then shred it up using forks (if you don't have pulled pork shredding claws).
Slice up the bread loaf and assemble the sandwiches with all of the sandwich fixings and pulled pork. Slather the outside of the loaf in butter, then heat press the sandwich. You can do this with a sandwich press if you have one, or if you don't (like me), just use a skillet and something to weight it down with. I applied pressure with a cast iron pan. When the outside of the bread is golden on each side and the Swiss is bubbly, it is time to plate and enjoy!
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