Pork comes in all shapes and sizes. Chops, loins, butts and bellies seem to get the most love in the kitchen, but did you know that the shank can be a dandy piece of meat, too? It’s an excellent, but often-overlooked choice: When properly cooked, it’s full of flavor and super-easy to make.
So what exactly is a pork shank? It’s a cut of meat from the lower leg of a pig. It tends to be leaner because it doesn’t have much fat. As a result, if you cook it the wrong way, you’ll never tear that meat off the bone. Lucky for you, Lucky’s braising recipe will have you going “hog wild” for the pork shank!
Red-Eye Braised Pork Shank (Serves 4*)
4 each pork shank
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pepper
2/3 cup all purpose flour
4 fluid ounces canola oil
1 1/3 cup yellow onion – diced
1/2 pound carrots – sliced
4 stalks celery
3 each bay leaves
2 2/3 cup ham stock
2 cups double strength coffee
Salt
Pepper
Prep veggies, meat, stock and spices. Dredge pork shank in flour. Shake off excess flour, but reserve. Heat oil in a wide, heavy bottomed pot. Sear and brown shank on all sides over medium heat
When fully browned, remove shank from pot and let rest. Add reserved flour to pot and stir well to make brown roux. When brown color is achieved, add onions, celery and carrots to roux.
Add salt, pepper, bay leaves and ham stock, continuing to stir. Stir in coffee. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer. You have now made our modernized version of red-eye gravy.
Return pork shank to a pot and pour the red-eye gravy and vegetables over it. Partially cover the pot while simmering until meat is tender, about 2 hours.
*All our recipes were originally designed for much larger batch sizes. These recipes have been reduced – but not tested at this scale. Please adjust as to your taste and portion size.
