Pork crown roast - A classic Holiday dish. What is a crown roast? It's a bone in pork loin that is frenched to expose the bones and wrapped in a circle like a crown with butcher's twine for presentation.
Around the holidays they are readily found at grocery stores, but you can also ask a butcher to prepare it for you. You can also french the loin yourself and create the crown with butcher twine. There any many videos on YouTube showing this process. Today we are going to focus on the cook!
Ingredients
- 1 crown roast of pork (or a bone in pork loin)
- Meat Church Honey Hog Rub
- Aluminum foil
- Roasting pan or disposable aluminum 1/2 pan
- Apple juice for spritzing
- Optional glaze
- 3/4 C Grade A maple syrup
- 1/2 C Bourbon (we use TX Bourbon)
- 1/2 C Brown sugar
- 1/4 C Brown mustard
- 1-2 T pepper jelly (depending on your heat preference)
Prepare your Smoker
Prepare smoker at a temperature of 250 degrees F. I recommend a medium smoking wood or pellet such as hickory for this cook.
Prepare the Crown Roast
Start with a frenched\tied crown roast. Easily obtained from a butcher shop upon request.
Apply the Meat Church Honey Hog rub liberally on all sides of the meat. Don't be bashful with the seasoning. Pull all of the slices of the loin apart to apply this fine grain seasoning in every crevice possible. Allow the seasoning to adhere for at least 15 - 20 minutes.
Wrap each tip of the crown roast in a small piece of aluminum foil. This will protect the bones during the cook process and prevent them from turning black.
We are shooting for a finished internal temperature of 140. Medium is 135 - 145 for pork. You don't want to dry this pork out!
Cook
Place the crown roast in the pan and put it on the smoker. Spritz the crown roast with apple juice every 30-45 minutes.
Optional Glaze
While the pork crown roast is cooking, prepare the glaze. Mix all glaze ingredients and reduce by 1/3 over medium heat.
Continue cooking the roast
Remove the roast from the pan as well as remove the aluminum foil from the bones when if reaches an internal temperature of 125 degrees. This will be approximately 90 minutes into the cook. Spritz and return to cooking.
If you are glazing you will want to apply during the last 10 - 15 minutes of the cook. This glaze has sugar in it and applying it too early will cause it to burn.
Remove the roast when you have reached an internal temperature of 135 degrees. Tent it with aluminum foil and allow it to rest for 15 - 20 minutes. Carefully remove the butcher's twine and slice into the juicy and succulent chops!
