Lechon Asado

★★★★4.9· 543 ratings

·Serves 10

About this Dish

Cuban roast suckling pig — marinated in mojo (sour orange juice, garlic and oregano), slow-roasted over a pit fire for hours until the skin shatters and the meat falls from the bone. The mojo marinade is uniquely Cuban — sour orange (naranja agria) is the essential ingredient that cannot be substituted. Eaten at Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) across Cuba.

IngredientsServes 10

🐷Whole suckling pig, 5–7kg (or bone-in pork shoulder, 3kg as home alternative)

🍊Sour orange (naranja agria) juice, 500ml freshly squeezed (about 8–10 sour oranges)

🧄Garlic cloves, 20 large cloves roughly chopped

🌿Dried oregano, 3 tablespoons

🧅White onion, 1 large thinly sliced

🫒Olive oil, 120ml

🧂Kosher salt, 3 tablespoons

🌶️Black pepper, 2 teaspoons freshly ground

🌱Fresh cumin, 1 teaspoon ground

🍃Fresh bay leaves, 4 leaves

Method

To make the mojo marinade, crush the garlic with the salt in a mortar until it becomes a rough paste, then stir in the sour orange juice, olive oil, oregano, cumin, black pepper and bay leaves. This is the soul of the dish — do not substitute the sour orange with regular orange or lime, as the unique bitter-sour flavour is irreplaceable.

Score the pig or pork shoulder deeply all over with a sharp knife, making cuts about 5cm apart and pushing right down to the bone. Pour the mojo generously into every cut, then rub the remainder all over the skin. Scatter the sliced onion over the meat, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, ideally 24 hours, turning once or twice.

Remove the meat from the refrigerator 2 hours before cooking to bring it closer to room temperature. Preheat your oven to its highest setting (250°C/480°F) if roasting indoors, or prepare your charcoal pit or grill for indirect low heat if cooking the traditional way.

For oven roasting, place the pig or shoulder skin-side up on a rack over a roasting tray, pour any remaining marinade and onions underneath, and blast at high heat for 30 minutes to begin crisping the skin. Then reduce the temperature to 150°C/300°F and roast slowly for 4–5 hours for a shoulder, or 5–6 hours for a whole pig, basting with the pan juices every hour.

The meat is ready when it is completely tender and falling away from the bone — a skewer should slide in with zero resistance. In the final 20 minutes, raise the heat back to 230°C/450°F to blister and shatter the skin into chicharrón (crackling); watch it closely so it crisps without burning.

Rest the meat uncovered for 20–30 minutes before pulling it apart by hand into rough chunks, keeping pieces of the crackling attached to each serving. Pour the warm roasting juices, strained and skimmed of excess fat, back over the pulled meat as a natural sauce.

Serve piled high on a platter with white rice, black beans, yuca con mojo and fried plantains — and gather the whole family around the table, because this is Nochebuena.

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