With plantains, roasted red bell pepper, and seasoned shredded pork, this Cuban-Inspired Pork Casserole has the potential to become a family dinner classic. It’s also the first recipe in this week’s Cook Once, Eat All Week meal prep series!
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This recipe is…
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this Cuban-inspired pork casserole. If you’re NOT new here, you’re already well-acquainted with my love of casseroles in general. I love that you can make a BIG meal in a single pot, with all the important nutrition boxes checked, and it feeds a crowd. I also love that casseroles tend to taste even better as leftovers and freeze EXCEPTIONALLY well, making them the perfect meal prep option. This cuban pork casserole has my heart because it fills all those needs …but it’s also SO DIFFERENT. The flavors are in a league of their own and, if you enjoy food with depth and personality, you will love this dish.
Meal Prep
If you’re following along on our Cook Once, Eat All Week healthy meal prep series, this casserole couldn’t be easier to make after you’ve prepped your base components (see this Cook Once Eat All Week (Week 3) post). If you’re not following along on that week of meal prep OR if you’re just revisiting this post because this casserole was just THAT GOOD and you need to make it again (word), we’ve got you covered with some from-scratch instructions below.
Cuban-Inspired Pork Casserole Ingredients
Either way, this dish is fresh, balanced, and delicious. Plantains are used for starch, red bell peppers for flavor + a veggie boost, and seasoned shredded pork for protein. The whole thing is baked and then topped with a fresh mango salsa for a true flavor explosion. We hope you love this Cuban-inspired pork casserole as much as we do!
Insider “get dinner on the table” tip: if you don’t want to make your own mango salsa (word, again), I won’t tell if you grab that jar of pre-made mango salsa from the grocery store produce section!
Cook Once, Eat All Week Meal Prep Series
If you’re new here, THIS POST is a great introduction to our Cook Once, Eat All Week series!
Here are the other recipes in our COEAW: Week 3 meal prep series:
- Base Recipes of bulk-prepared pulled pork, plantains, and red bell peppers: click HERE!
- BBQ Pork Plantain Pizza
- Carnitas-Stuffed Peppers
Note: if you’ve enjoyed the Cook Once, Eat All Week series, we’ve created an entire book with 26 week’s worth of healthy meal prep recipes. You can click here to purchase your copy today!
More Favorite Pork Recipes
Cuban-Inspired Pork Casserole
Ingredients
For the Pork:
- 1, 3 pound pork shoulder
- 1/2 tablespoon coarse sea salt
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
For the bell peppers:
- 4 red bell peppers cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of lime juice about one lime
For the plantains:
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 3 green plantains diced into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
For the Mango Salsa:
- 3/4 cup mango medium dice
- 1 deseeded jalapeno small dice
- 1/2 small red onion finely diced
- 2 tablespoons lime juice or juice of one lime
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Season pork shoulder with 1/2 tablespoon coarse sea salt. Place in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours on low, or about 6 hours on high, until pork easily shreds apart. See here for Instant Pot method.
- Combine 4 cups shredded pork with remaining seasonings, and taste to see if additional salt is needed.
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Toss bell peppers with one teaspoon olive oil. Spread out onto a sheet pan and roast for 30-40 minutes, until skins are slightly blackened and wrinkled.
- Toss cubed plantains with one teaspoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. Spread out onto a sheet pan and roast for 30-40 minutes, until cubes are slightly browned. These can roast at the same time as the peppers if your oven has room.
- Once peppers and plantains have finished roasting, reduce the oven heat to 350 F. Toss the peppers in the lime juice and then spread them in an 8×8 pan, top with the plantains, and then top with the shredded pork. Bake for 30 minutes.
- While the casserole is baking, combine all ingredients for the mango salsa in a medium-sized bowl.
- To serve, spoon salsa on top of individual servings of casserole.
Recipe Notes
- 3 cups pre-cooked cubed, roasted plantains
- 1.5 cups roasted red peppers
- 4 cups pre-cooked shredded pork shoulder
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Toss roasted plantains with olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Spread in the bottom of an 8×8 pan.
- Toss roasted red peppers with lime juice and layer on top of plantains.
- Combine shredded pork, oregano, parsley, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, and remaining salt in a medium sized bowl and layer on top of the peppers. Bake for 30 minutes.
- While the casserole is baking, combine all ingredients for the mango salsa in a medium-sized bowl.
- To serve, spoon salsa on top of individual servings of casserole. Store salsa and casserole separately in air-tight containers.
Nutrition
I made this in the IP and the meat was not dry. The plantains were a bit dry but with the moistness of the meat and the salsa, it provided a nice structural starch. However, everything needs seasoning, especially the pork. I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, cinnamon.
Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback, Kara! -Team FF
After reading the issues others have had with dryness. I figured out what was missing for the meat specifically.
The lack of moisture. They forgot to list what liquid was used in the crockpot.
Being Cuban inspired I added equal parts pineapple juice and chicken broth. Depending on the size of your pork I filled pot to half way up the meat.
The meat just fell apart with a fork once it was done. Added the rest of the seasoning and it was perfect,
I don’t care for plantains so I made this into tacos.
And put the salsa as a topper. It was delicious and very juicy.
Read the reviews and took the advice of adding a jar of salsa verde to help with the dryness and I added brother from the pork. The plantains still are so dry. Good otherwise.
So sorry the plantains were dry! Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We are making some notes for when we re-test this recipe. Thank you so much! -Team FF
I started this recipe and it looked like it was going to be dry. I cut the plantains down to 1/2” chunks before roasting. That helped with the firmness. Because it looked dry, I mixed all the plantains peppers and pork together, and I had 1 cup of leftover tomatillo green enchilada sauce that I mixed in. I loaded all that into the dish and cooked for 30 minutes at 350. It turned out really well!!!!
So glad you enjoyed it, Rob! Thanks for your tips!
I like a lot of the Cook Once recipes but this a the driest thing my husband and I have ever choked down. So disappointed. I keep checking the recipe to see if I did something wrong, but I followed exactly. Dried out pork, rock hard plantains, and just blah with no sauce or flavor!
HELP. I have made this twice now and BOTH times I ended up with plantains as hard as rocks and a dry dish overall. The first time I followed the recipe to a T and the red peppers were mushy, rock hard plantains and overcooked pork (from the second bake I imagine). The second time I skipped the first bake of the peppers which was a vast improvement to the end result but the plantains were still a disaster. I covered the casserole dish when I added the pork and cut the bake time down to 20 minutes at 325 instead of 350 and the pork stayed juicy.
what is going wrong? i want this dish to work!
I assume I should peel the red peppers?
I don’t typically peel red peppers, just peppers with tougher skins like poblanos!
I have shredded pork I made earlier this week. Do you know what quantity you would use if you aren’t making the pork from scratch? 2 cups or 3 cups? Thank you
I’d go with 3 cups, but my bias is for bigger dishes 🙂