Who knew a pork roast could taste so moist and flavorful, and that black beans and rice cooked underneath the pork could absorb so much flavor from the meat drippings?
My friend Cherrie gave me a cookbook called Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers
We were having Cherrie and Bud over for dinner, so it was a perfect opportunity to try something from this cookbook. I told my DH about 2 recipes – a stuffed chicken breast and a stuffed pork loin and gave him the choice. He chose the pork. He went off shopping for me (bless his heart – he loves to go grocery shopping!).
It’s kind of a long story, but my DH could not find the long, long package of boneless pork loin at Costco. He phoned me in distress – what should he do? I finally told him to buy a sirloin package he’d found instead. But truthfully, I’d never fixed a sirloin pork roast before, so didn’t know how I was going to adapt the recipe. As it turned out, it wasn’t a problem. We found an illustration of a pig (butchered), and I ended up following the directions just as if it was a boneless pork loin and it cooked the same. But instead of a longer roast in one piece, I actually cooked 2 of the sirloin roasts (way too much for 4 people – the Costco package contains 4 chubs of sirloin roast and I’d say each one easily serves 4 people).
First I made up the adobo-chorizo stuffing. I used the dry Spanish chorizo – the recipe doesn’t specify, but just called for fully-cooked chorizo. Anyway, that was cut up into chunks (after peeling off the skin). It gets whizzed up in the food processor with fresh cilantro, some garlic you’ve cooked in olive oil, some chipotle chiles in adobo, dry bread crumbs and ground cumin. I cut deep slits in the pork roast and gently opened it up to push in the stuffing.
My DH helped me tie up the roasts – you don’t want the filling to leak out. It’s a dry kind of filling, so it really shouldn’t leak, exactly.
Then you mix up some spices – also adobo style – cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, brown sugar – and gently roll the roast in those seasonings. Including the ends, which often get overlooked. They were now ready for baking.
In the bottom photo you can see the roast is sitting on a rack and it’s in a roasting pan (mine is nonstick). It went into a 250° oven for about 1 1/2 hours – until the meat had reached about 125° (not cooked sufficiently yet). Then, you remove the meat and the rack and set it aside momentarily. Tick the oven up to 400°. Everything was all ready to go – I’d pressure cooked some black beans (11 minutes after a 1-hour water soak), measured long grain rice and opened a can of diced tomatoes. And measured out chicken broth. All that was dumped into the bottom of the pan and stirred around. There were a few – really very few drips on the pan bottom – just enough to give some flavorful Chorizo and cumin flavoring to the rice. The roast went back in with the rack, which sat just above the beans and rice below. Back into the oven it went, and the rice was done in exactly 20 minutes, just as the recipe indicated.
The pan was removed from the oven, the roast set aside for a few minutes to rest, and I covered the beans and rice with foil so it wouldn’t get cold. Meanwhile I mixed up the salad and got everything all ready. The meat was sliced and I quickly poured the beans and rice down both sides and served it. I sprinkled on some cilantro, but forgot the green onions! I didn’t make anything other than the salad.
What’s good: that it cooked all in one pan. I won’t exactly call this a cinchy, easy dish, but it’s not all that difficult, either. Much of it could be done ahead of time. The pork roast bakes untended for 90 minutes or so, and then another 20 minutes once you add the beans and rice. So the labor part can all be done at the beginning, or earlier in the day, or even the day before. It makes a lovely presentation – especially on a bright contrasting platter. And the flavor was wonderful. I’d definitely make this again and especially for guests. Next time I would probably make some kind of colorful veggie (broccoli? asparagus? red bell peppers?), although it really doesn’t need it. We just like veggies and prefer them to carbs. But oh, these carbs were delish and especially good along side the slices of pork. And even though this recipe is long and has a rather long list of directions, it’s not hard.
What’s not: absolutely nothing at all.
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Roast Chorizo-Stuffed Adobo Pork Loin With Black Beans And Rice
Recipe By: Adapted from Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers by Pam Anderson.
Serving Size: 16
NOTES: If you can’t find a whole pork loin, you can use the chubby sirloin roasts; you’ll just need to cut a big pocket in each one to insert the chorizo filling. The cooking time is about the same.
16 large garlic cloves — peeled
6 tablespoons olive oil — divided
3/4 pound Spanish chorizo, dry — fully cooked, peeled, cut into large chunks
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves — plus 1 cup chopped
2 tablespoons chipotle chile canned in adobo — or more if you like heat
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs — plain, not flavored
3 tablespoons ground cumin — divided
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt — plus 2 teaspoons, divided
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper — plus 1 1/2 teaspoons, divided
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons light brown sugar — packed
6 pounds boneless pork top loin — (see Notes)
4 pounds canned black beans — (15 to 16 ounces each) drained
1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups long-grain rice
14 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes — undrained
1 bunch scallions — thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
1. Heat garlic cloves and 3 tablespoons oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Once garlic starts to sizzle, reduce heat to low and continue to cook, turning cloves once or twice, until soft and golden, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place chorizo, 1 cup whole cilantro leaves, chipotles, bread crumbs, and 1 tablespoon cumin in a food processor bowl. Add garlic and its oil and process until ingredients are finely ground; set aside.
3. Mix remaining 2 tablespoons cumin with 2 tablespoons salt, 1 tablespoon pepper, paprika, and brown sugar in a small bowl.
4. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 250 degrees. Lay pork loin on a sheet of plastic wrap, fat side down. Slit pork loin lengthwise down center almost — but not quite — all the way through to form a long pocket. Brush cavity with 1 tablespoon oil and sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons salt and remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper.
5. Line cavity with sausage mixture. Tie roast crosswise with butcher’s twine at 1 1/2-inch intervals, alternating between one end and the other so stuffing remains even.
6. Brush roast with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle all over with cumin-paprika mixture.
7. Place roast on a wire rack set over a large heavy roasting pan and roast until a meat thermometer stuck into center registers 125 to 130 degrees, about 1 1/2 hours. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Remove rack with pork from pan and add beans, broth, rice, and tomatoes.
8. Stir and return rack with roast to pan and return pan to oven. Continue to roast until a meat thermometer stuck into center of pork registers 155 to 160 degrees, about 20 minutes longer.
9. Transfer to a carving board and let rest, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, stir scallions and remaining 1 cup chopped cilantro into beans and rice; taste for seasoning (will probably need salt) cover and keep warm. Just before serving, cut roast into 1/2-inch-thick slices, place on individual dinner plates and spoon some rice and beans alongside. Or, place slices in the center of a long platter and pour beans and rice along each side. Sprinkle with additional cilantro.
Per Serving: 467 Calories; 15g Fat (28.2% calories from fat); 42g Protein; 42g Carbohydrate; 7g Dietary Fiber; 75mg Cholesterol; 1007mg Sodium.
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