Authentic Costa Rican Pork Recipe - Taste the Pura Vida!

Name: Costa Rican Pork Recipe- For Tamales
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 6 h 4 s
Total time: 6 h 15 min 4 s
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Latin
Ingredients: 2-3 lbs pork meat cut into large chunks (see notes); 3 TBSP Salsa Lizano; 1/2 white or yellow onion, roughly chopped; 1/4 cup of cilantro, roughly chopped (leaves and stems); 1/2 red pepper, roughly chopped; 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled; 1 TB salt; 1 carrot roughly chopped; 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped; 6-8 cups of water; 2-3 TBSP achiote (see product recommendation below)

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Costa Rican pork is an important Costa Rican side dish as you can use it in all kinds of recipes. Traditional Costa Rican food doesn’t generally use as much pork as it does fish, beef, or chicken, but especially at Christmas, pork is a food we eat a lot.

This shredded pork recipe is the main filling for Christmas tamales, but you can also use it for taco night, or even as a side dish as the protein in a Costa Rican casado.

This simple Costa Rican pork recipe won’t disappoint.

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FREE COSTA RICAN RECIPES EBOOK

Costa Rican Pork Recipe

Ingredients

(printable recipe below)

pork meat cut into large chunks
Salsa Lizano
white or yellow onion, roughly chopped
cilantro, roughly chopped (leaves and stems)
red bell pepper, roughly chopped
garlic cloves, peeled
salt
carrot roughly chopped
celery, roughly chopped
water
achiote (see product recommendation below)

Sliced chunks of pork and whole cut of pork arranged on a white cutting board with a chef's knife.

Instructions

Cut pork into large chunks for shredding later.

Roughly chop the vegetables.

Brown the meat in the pot, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Cover the pot.

If cooking on the stovetop, simmer on low for 2-3 hours until everything is super tender. Gently shred meat.

If slow cooker, cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. Shred.

If using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, cook, sealed on high pressure for 30 minutes. You can then release the pressure or leave on warm.

Stir in achiote until pork is the desired color and there are no chunks of achiote in the meat. Shred and use the pork liberally in your Costa Rican tamales – or any other favorite Costa Rican recipe.

Sliced pork for Costa Rican Tamales on a green cutting board.

Serving Suggestions

The main serving suggestion I have is to make this for the Costa Rican tamales– it’s the main filling along with arroz a la jardinera.

You could serve this with some Costa Rican black beans and Costa Rican white rice and make your own casado- complete with a picadillo de chayote! Just don’t forget the Salsa Lizano!

Variations

In general, apart from the Christmas tamales I mentioned before, most pork eaten in Costa Rica is a pork belly made into chicharrones. This is part of a very popular dish called the Costa Rican chifrijo.

It’s essentially Costa Rican rice, red kidney beans, chicharrones, pico de gallo and tortilla chips in the same bowl. It’s delicious. You could easily substitute this shredded pork recipe for the fried pork chicharrones in the traditional chifrijo recipe.

ALSO TRY: 100% Authentic Arroz con Pollo Recipe

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Man holding pot of shredded pork in Costa Rica.

Costa Rican Pork FAQ

What type of pork should I buy?

I would use a pork shoulder or pork ribs but into large chunks and then shredded.

Where can I buy Salsa Lizano?

I buy Salsa Lizano on Amazon or at a local Hispanic grocery store.

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Printable Recipe – Costa Rican Pork

Yield: 2 lbs cooked pork