Roasted Pork Leg is a dish full of flavor and very popular during the holidays in Colombia and Latin America. Like many traditional dishes, there are many variations depending on the country and the cook.
Almost every Sunday afternoon while growing up in Colombia, my family would get together at my grandmother's house. Cousins, uncles, aunts, and my immediate family would all gather and enjoy Mamita's cooking. There were times those family gatherings would be for something special, like birthdays, holidays, or to celebrate an achievement. That’s when Mamita would pull out the best and most festive Colombian recipes. This Colombian-Style Pernil Asado is one of those dishes. Even today, it’s a family favorite, and my mom and aunts make it as wonderful as Mamita did way back when...
Pernil Asado Colombiano (Colombian-Style Roasted Pork Leg)
Ingredients
- 1 10 to 12 pounds bone-in pork leg
- 8 scallions chopped
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 large white onion diced
- 10 garlic cloves crushed
- 3 tablespoons of ground cumin
- 2 tablespoon of white vinegar
- Salt and pepper to your taste
- 6 cups of dark beer
- 1 tablespoons of ground achiote
Instructions
- Place pork in a large non-reactive roasting pan that fits in the fridge and your oven.
- To make the marinade: Place the scallions, red bell pepper, onion, crushed garlic, ground cumin, vinegar, salt and pepper in the blender or food processor. Process until well combined.
- Make deep incisions on both sides of pork leg and rub the marinade all over the pork. Cover pan with plastic wrap and let marinate for 24 hours in the fridge.
- Pour the beer and ground achiote over the pork leg and let it marinate for another 24 hours, turning the leg every 8 hours. When ready to cook, remove from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Pre-heat oven to 325F . Cover roasting pan tightly with foil and place in oven on lowest rack to bake for about 5 to 7 hours or until tender. To keep the pork leg from drying out you will need to bathe the pork leg with the pan sauces, using a soup ladle, about every 20 minutes.
- When the pork is tender remove foil from pan and let broil about 5 to 7 minutes, or until skin is crisp and crackling.
Notes
Nutrition
Pernil Asado, is pork leg, marinated in a sauce made with beer, onion, garlic, scallions, red bell pepper, achiote, cumin, then slow roasted in the oven for several hours. This recipe is time consuming, as the pork leg needs to marinate for at least two days to enhance the flavor. However, if you don't have the time, it is possible to marinate the pork just overnight. This is one dish that is definitely worth the wait!
Roasted Pork Leg is one of the most traditional and classic holiday dishes in Colombia and other Latin American countries, every country with its own version. It’s a popular dish to serve on Christmas Eve and at New Year’s Eve parties. Colombian Pernil Asado is not only served during the holiday season, but is also popular at other celebrations such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduations, weddings, baptisms and birthday parties. This is a delicious celebratory dish full of flavor that suits all occasions and festivities and will be the star of your dinner table. The leftovers are even better the next day for making sandwiches! I like to serve this dish with ripe plantains (tajadas de maduro), potato salad (ensalada rusa), and rice with cola (arroz con coca-cola) on the side. I hope you enjoy this pernil recipe as much as I do!
Buen provecho!
Other pork recipes perfect for dinner parties:
Evelyne@cheapethniceatz
That is just looks so 'meataly' luscious. Wow 2 days of marinating. It really looks amazing, wish I was at your family Sunday dinners.
Belinda @zomppa
I'm drooling drooling over this!!
Jorge Nunez
This recipe is amazing. Last year we cooked one and we are planning to repeat this year for Christmas. These flavors took me back to my childhood days.
Alan Bowman
Unfortunately, here in Spain, pork leg and shoulder joints are not easily found since they are usually used for making the delicious jamones ibericos. What we generally have to make do with is lomo.
It is normal, if one buys from the butcher, to get pork steaks that are ¼ inch thick for flash frying (avoids heating up the kitchen too much when it is over 35° in the shade) but we like our steaks to be ½ - ¾ inch thick and juicy inside. Therefore I usually buy cinta de lomo, that is the complete de-boned loin, from which I will usually cut two or three roasting joints plus any number of pork steaks. Any trimmings get ground down to make sausages. The roasting joints are often cut into a spiral and stuffed with various home dried fruits (raisins, peaches, apricots, dates, prunes, apples, etc). I also cook them in the slow cooker in summer (again avoids heating up the kitchen). This week the stuffed and rolled joint will be cooked 8 hours in a mixture of honey, orange peel and fresh ginger with red-wine.
Ivy
I must make this roasted pork leg as it looks delicious. I bought some achiote but didn't know how to use it 🙂
Angie@Angie's Recipes
That looks droolworthy, Erica.
rebecca
looks so good, bet you have amazing family memories have a lovely 4th July
Joanne
Sounds like a great dish! Happy 4th!
Chris
Is pork leg the same thing as the "picnic" which is the lower half of the shoulder? This sounds really good and the picnics are on sale right now.
Floralba
Thanks for that incredible page. To browse it took me back to my homeland and all the good memories for all those wonderful and warm festivities. It brought tears to my eyes...Wonderful and delicious recipies!
Dalila
Gracias! Tengo una reunion manana y pienso preparar este delicioso pernil. No tendre tiempo de adobar sino por 24h pero espero me quede igual de rico.
Feliz Navidad!
guillermo
49 años fuera de Colombia y por casualidad me encuentro esta receta de pernil a la colombiana , me parece fantastico gracias y felices fiestas a todos
Sheila Benetatou
Hola, gracias por tan rica receta, quería hacerle una pregunta y me gustaría tener una respuesta por favor, qué es el achiote? porque veo que es un ingrediente que ponen en muchas recetas y no he podido averiguar lo que es. Felices Navidades!!!!
Erica Dinho
Este es el link con la información:https://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/achiote-oil-aceite-de-achiote,/ pero si no encuentras achiote puedes utilizar sazón con color. El achiote lo puedes encontrar en mercdos latinos en polvo o entero.
Elisa
As the daughter of a Colombian father, I have scoured the internet for
recipes that often come up short. Until I found your website. THANK
YOU so much for the breadth of recipes, and please don't stop!
Sandra
Tendria manera de conseguirme una receta de frijoles verdes con bollos de maiz? Mi tia los preparaba exquisitos y no encuentro una receta que valga la pena...
Erica Dinho
Hola Sandra,tengo esta receta: https://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/frijoles-verdes-con-torticas-de-choclo-bean-soup-with-corn-fritters/
Aleja
Hola Erica,
Can you use pork shoulder instead of leg??
Mil Gracias,
Aleja
Erica Dinho
Yes.
K B
Sure is a lot of onion, plus the 8 scallions, is this correct?
Erica Dinho
Yes, but you can use less if you prefer,
K B
Thank you, Erica! I'm making just the way you have it. Beer and Achiote is going in now. My wife is from Medellin, she's excited. Thanks again!
Celina
Hola, yo tengo un convection oven y quisiera saber que temperatura uso y si uso broil, bake o roast para la receta de pernil asado. Gracias!
Adry
Hi thank you for sharing this recipe! I have a question can I use Shank ham as replacement for the pork leg? I live in USA and it is getting difficult to find the pork leg. Thank you!
Anonymous
Today 24 December 2019 at 10:00 EDT started shoulder following the recipe Pernil Colombian way. It look good but will be better the good results 7 hours from now, I will post how every thing went and I am looking forward Uhmmmmm.
Ana
Hola!
Do you know how long will it take if I use one of those bags for the oven? The ones that they sell for the turkeys also.
Erica Dinho
I don't know!