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Carrillada is a melt in your mouth, get up and dance, and smack yourself in the head for not having eaten this earlier type of food.
Yes, it is that good. What is carrillada, you ask? Simply put, it is cheek-- beef cheek is carrillada de ternera, pork cheek is carrillada de cerdo, lamb cheek is carrillada de cordero...etc. And despite their differences in taste, all carrilladas are delicious.
The cut of meat is unique because it is quite meaty but surprisingly lean-- a rare marvel for many who expect it to be either fatty or tough. It does need to be braised, slow cooked over a low heat for at least a few hours, but the end result is a fork- tender piece of meat that is one of the best things I've ever eaten in Spain, and that is saying a lot!
Here is a delicious recipe for pork cheek (carrillada de cerdo) which I've adapted from the excellent Spanish food blog and cookbook author Recetas de Rechupete.
Braised Iberian Pork Cheek with Port Wine and Honey
I warn you, if you follow these instructions and make this amazing carrillada, you will probably cry tears of joy. Pork cheek will become your new favorite meat... you're welcome!
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Braised Iberian Pork Cheek with Port Wine and Honey
A delicious pork cheek recipe that's sure to convert any skeptic!
5 from 27 votes
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Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Spanish
Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours hours
Total Time: 3 hours hours 30 minutes minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 875.89kcal
Author: Lauren Aloise
Ingredients
- 12 iberian pork cheeks about 1 kilo or 2 lbs
- 1 onion
- 6 shallots
- 1 green apple
- 2 carrots
- 1 red pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 cups of port wine a very sweet dessert wine
- 24 fingerling potatoes or 4-5 normal potatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 Tablespoons of honey
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon parsley fresh if possible
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 Tablespoons of flour
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cups of beef stock
Instructions
Smash the garlic in a mortar and pestle and add in the thyme, honey, parsley and a tablespoon of water. Continue to smash some more until you achieve a nice paste.
Pat the pork cheeks completely dry with paper towels and then cover the pork cheeks with the paste and season with kosher salt and pepper. Let them marinate for at least an hour before cooking.
After allowing them to absorb the flavors for about an hour, quickly dredge the pork cheeks in flour (they shouldn't be coated in flour, just a hint should remain).
Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan on a medium high heat.
Sear the pork cheeks (about 30 seconds per each of its 3-4 sides) until all sides are browned.
After each cheek is seared, remove from the pan and reserve.
Dice the onion and red pepper to a small dice.
Peel the shallots and cut each one in half.
Cut the carrots into thin round slices.
Transfer the oil used to sear the meat into a large, heavy pot. Add a little more oil if necessary to completely cover the bottom about 1 cm.
On a low heat, sauté the onions, peppers, shallots and carrots for 15 minutes.
When the vegetables are golden, add the pork cheek and the 2 cups of port wine (any port will do, although there are various varieties of port wine and each will leave you with a slightly different dish)
Add the bay leaf and, over a medium heat, allow everything to reduce 50%, about 15 minutes. Make sure to stir while it is reducing or it will stick.
Peel the potatoes (if using large potatoes cut them into bite size chunks).
Peel the apple and dice it to a medium dice.
Add the beef stock to the pot and cook over a low heat for about 1.5 hours, until the carrilladas are completely tender. Twenty minutes before taking it off the heat add the potatoes and apple to the pot.
When everything is fork tender, take off the heat and serve.
Nutrition
Calories: 875.89kcal | Carbohydrates: 74.59g | Protein: 29.54g | Fat: 42.74g | Saturated Fat: 11.59g | Cholesterol: 81.65mg | Sodium: 540.79mg | Potassium: 2048.44mg | Fiber: 9.03g | Sugar: 23.77g | Vitamin A: 6051.37IU | Vitamin C: 90.54mg | Calcium: 101.14mg | Iron: 4.65mg
Did you make this recipe?Tag @spanishsabores on IG and hashtag it #spanishsabores!
See Also
Hot Wine Recipe
Cava Sangria Recipe
More Main Courses
- Spanish Albóndigas in Almond Sauce
- Huevos Rotos (Broken Eggs)
- Traditional Spanish Pisto Recipe
- Spanish Bull Tail Stew (Rabo de Toro Recipe)
Reader Interactions
Comments
Mindy
Thanks for sharing this recipe, else I am still cracking my head how to cook the pork jowl I bought. I halved your recipe & improvised by replacing port wine (which I didn’t have on-hand) with Shiraz Merlot. To shorten cooking time of 2nd last step which was 1.5 hours over small fire, I placed them in pressure cooker (low pressure mode) for 45min. Meat was very tender. Gravy was a bit sour probably because of the different wine I used & my green apple proportion was double. But my daughter said it was a hearty stew which whets her appetite, she finished drinking it all. So it’s 5-star.Reply
Marci
It seems to me that the dish might be a bit sweet from the port and honey?? Is that true?
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Lauren Aloise
Yes, a bit! You can always cut back on honey though!
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Paul
Can I slow cook this?
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Lauren Aloise
Yes of course!
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Paul
If you can, use lard sourced directly from your local farmer taken from the pig. It will drive you stratospheric.
Now I need to work on a slow cooking recipe.
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Marco Christo
Thanks Lauren,
Can pork cheeks also be called 'cabeza de cerdo'? Looks the same.Reply
Lauren Aloise
Cabeza de cerdo is generally the whole pig head (minus the snout usually) while the cheeks are only the cheeks/jowls. Hope that helps!
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Karen Redding
I am going to try this but using pork spare ribs. Going to cook them slowly.
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Lauren Aloise
Yum! Sounds awesome!
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CAROLE
HI:
Love this recipe. However, what is sitting on top of the cheeks? It looks like fried zucchini chips.
Also, what would you serve this with.
Thanks for your time.
Reply
Lauren Aloise
Yes-- lightly fried zucchini-- it was lovely! I'd serve it with a full-bodied red wine, and perhaps some sort of salad to start (since this is such a heavy dish). Enjoy!
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Val Westall
What veg would you serve. Was thinking of carrots, greens and potatoes
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Lauren Aloise
That sounds perfect!
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John
This is a great recipe. I didn't have apples, but had the rest and we loved it. Second round I didn't have the cheeks. At a Mexican grocer near me, they had pork belly so I got that, trimmed all the fat and it was very similar. It didn't cook down quite as tender (shredded into longer shreds when cutting it with a fork) but was a pretty good substitute.
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Lauren Aloise
So happy to hear it! Sounds delicious!
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Lucinda
The original recipe called for honey but didn't include the apple. I thought you were substituting the honey with the apple, but now I see that you call for both. I fear that will make it too sweet. I guess I'll have to try it both ways.
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Lauren Aloise
Both ways would work well-- and yes, with both it is a bit on the sweet side! Let me know what you think!
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Anne-Marie Maes
Eaten several times in Sevilla, great!
I'm going tomorrow to prepare this recipe ... and compare.
A good substitute is beef stew when you can't achieve pigs cheeks
We have friends from Seville, they prefer our beef stew, well ...Reply
Alan Calder
Lauren, this is a fantastic recipe, easily the best pork cheek that we've ever made. This is my second attempt and I'm making a large batch with 40 cheeks (obtained from Morrison's supermarket at £5.89/Kilo). I like to fillet off the fatty membrane on one side before browning. I tweeked it slightly adding some buerre manie at the end to thicken a little and doing the potatoes separately because we'll be freezing the dish. I also put the shallots in much nearer the end so that they don't break up. The cheeks present beautifully on a modern rectangular plate, two per serving. Thanks for a wonderful recipe.
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Lauren Aloise
I'm so happy you enjoyed! That's a lot of cheeks-- big event? Your additions also sound fantastic!
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RGSpore
This was excellent. The meat is dirt cheap. Rub it and leave over night if U want to do it in stages. The pic looks like the meat sits in a bed of mash which the recipe makes no mention of. ..Anyway. I got the pork cheeks from the butcher with the skin off but the fat on. Next time I would trim more of the fat but no biggy. The butcher also removed some of the bumps that are found in the cheeks. I threw in carmalized onions I had laying around. To thicken the sauce as i got down to the 2 min warning I added the 1T:1T flour to butter ball trick. Next time I will add some mustard powder or some grainy mustard to the rub. I'm a huge fan of pork and mustard.
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Lynn
I think this is what I had last Fall in Madrid. I was told the meat was from the cheek, and as you say, it was melt in your mouth get up and dance spectacular! How many servings is your recipe?
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Lauren Aloise
Yes, it is so delicious! There are about 4 servings to this recipe, depending on if you are making it a meal or a tapa. Let me know when you try it!
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Lynn
I made this a few times, fabulous. And living in Bordeaux since 2016 it's easy to get pork cheeks. You just popped up and I'm reminded I need to make this again soon... and we need to get together the next time I'm in Madrid!Reply
Lauren Aloise
Absolutely! I need to make it to Bordeaux too!
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Ann Shaw
This looks delicious and has given me inspiration for a paella recipe for a paella party. Incidentally, have you seen the new paella recipe book by Herraiz - it's got recipes in there for paella puddings. Have you come across any of these in Spain?
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Michelle
Hehehehe, I'm giving David this recipe so he can cook it. He's really good at preparing meat dishes, and meat cooked with port wine (like Solomillo al Pedro Ximénez, mmmmm) is one of our top favorites! I'll let you know how it turns out! 😉
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Lauren Aloise
Please do-- it is so yummy!
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Kaley [Y Mucho Más]
Yum! Sounds delicious. Mario's mom makes something similar, but calls it "carrillera." Slightly different, but the same dish!
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Andrew
This sounds fantastic, I just wish I could get pork cheek around here. These sorts of ingredients are hard to come by in a lot of places in the U.S. simply because people perceive them as "icky" or simply not something you would eat, it's the same story with sweet breads, kidneys, liver, tripe, tongue, heart, etc. It's a shame 🙁
Watching No Reservations has made my realize how much I'm missing out on and how silly a lot of us are for not wanting to try such things.
Cheers,
AndrewReply
Lauren Aloise
Hi Andrew, Have you tried asking your local supermarket's butcher? Sometimes they can special order or save things like that for you. What part of the US do you live in? Good luck!
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Andrew
I'm in East Texas, regrettably we don't have any dedicated butcher shops here but we've got a couple places with a pretty good meat selection, I'll ask them and see what they can do, thank you.
Cheers,
AndrewReply
Kenny
Try Hispanic and Asian markets since those cultures tend to be less wasteful and picky about what cuts are eaten. I recently saw pork uterus in an Asian markets meat section. if you can find that in the US i think you can find cheek.
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Donna
I live in a small town in Iowa, and our grocery store has them occasionally, but calls them "temple cutlets". Try asking for those, maybe.
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Sr Tocino
Heritage Berkshire Pork offers cheeks frozen mail/orderemail.I have bought them and they are good. Also go to a Asian grocery they sell a lot of pork and pork parts.
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RGSpore
Any mexican grocery store will have pork cheek.
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