Real Chics, Real Food: Skinny Taste Slow Cooked Pernil (Roasted Pork Shoulder)

I have a serious love for Latin inspired food. I think that all stems from a previous relationship I had in college where I was introduced to all of these yummy foods... but that is a story that I don't need to get into today...or ever on WIOG.

Traditionally, if you go into a Latin restaurant, the pernil would be roasted in the oven with a thick layer of fat  on top. This layer of fat turns into a crunchy chip that is normally broken up and added to the plate with rice and beans and chunks of the pernil. Gina over at the fabulous SkinnyTaste called for a boneless cut of pork shoulder that is as lean as possible. I was not able to find a boneless cut, so I opted for lean bone-in cut and simply cut off the layer of fat after cooking the meat in my crock pot. 

This was actually my first "long" recipe that I made in the crock pot. I was a bit nervous to leave it on while I was at work, so I cooked it overnight (while I was sleeping vs at work) for 8 hours on low as suggested. After it was done, I wasn't able to chop it up before heading to work, so I waited until I got home to remove the cooked meat from the crock pot and cut it up. Gina suggests that you shred the meat, but I just cut mine into bite size chunks. After cutting the meat, I placed it in a large frying pan with 1 cup of the juices and additional seasoning to re-heat the meat and make sure I had enough flavor. You will notice that on most crock pot recipes, the author suggests adding additional seasoning after cooking the recipe... I feel like the crock pot tends to evaporate the seasonings a bit, so more salt, black pepper, cumin, ect is always needed at the end. 

I followed the directions to a "T" except for reheating it in the crock pot. Since my crock was already cool from being left on the counter, I opted to use the frying pan instead. My wonderful husband also made some rice and beans to go with it! 

According to SkinnyTaste, a 4oz serving of pernil is 4WW P+ or 176calories. Pretty good right? Let me know if you try it!