Cuban Pork (or Chicken) Bake
Description
Adapted from Half Baked Harvest, you can really play around with this and we loved it with pork (instead of her original chicken choice). Amp up the dill pickles! They make the dish!
Ingredients
1 large onion, diced
1 1/2 to 2 lbs. pork tenderloin, cubed (or a similar amount of chicken breast)
1 red pepper, cleaned and diced AND 2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 t. oregano AND 1 t. cumin AND 1/2 t. cayenne
1 t. EACH kosher salt AND freshly ground pepper (or more of either to taste)
1/2 c. orzo AND 1 c. long grain rice
1 can (156 mL) tomato paste
~1/2 c. chopped dill pickles AND 2 c. water
1 can (398 mL) black beans, drained
1/2 c. + chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for serving
zest and juice of 1 lime, plus more for serving
~2 c. grated Swiss cheese
more cheese, diced avocado, cilantro, hot sauce for serving
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 and heat up a bit of oil in a large, oven proof skillet. Add the diced onion and cook for a few minutes until softened, then stir in the pork (or chicken), red pepper, garlic, oregano, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper. Cook and stir another couple of minutes until the meat is a bit browned, then push all to one side, add in the orzo and rice to the open half of your skillet and cook them until both are lightly toasted.
Stir in the tomato paste, now combining everything in the skillet, and cook for a couple of minutes until the paste begins to darken slightly. Add as many dill pickles as you wish along with the 2 cups of water, bring it all to a boil and allow the mix to simmer for about 15 minutes until the rice is tender. At this point, most of the water should be evaporated, but you definitely don’t want things to be dry – add a bit more water if you feel moisture is required.
Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the beans, cilantro, lime zest and lime juice, then evenly cover it all with the grated Swiss. Bake for 10 to 30 minutes until the cheese has melted and the topping is as browned as you’d like – we love our cheese so I baked mine for about 30 minutes to get it all melted. Serve it up in big bowls with any/all toppings that you’d like to try and enjoy!
