Bacon and Mushroom Stuffed Pork Rib Roast
A stuffed pork rib roast is a show stopping way to serve a crowd without breaking the bank. You may need to coordinate with your local butcher to put aside the blade end of a rib roast for this. If you have a good relationship with your butcher, they will likely be happy to peel back the cap for you and include some butcher’s twine as well. Other than being tasty on its own – a rich bread stuffing serves two purposes for a roast like this – the bread soaks up any juices from the meat and the butter and bacon baste the meat from within as it cooks.
Ingredients
- 1 Bone in, blade-end Johnston’s Pork Rib Roast frenched, 4-5 ribs, rib cap butterflied
- 1 loaf focaccia bread cubed and toasted in oven
- ½ cup butter
- 227 grams bacon sliced thick and cut into lardons
- 1 pound button mushroom quartered
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 1.5 tablespoons fresh thyme chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup chicken stock
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- First, make the stuffing. Melt butter in a large sauté pan until sizzling, brown mushrooms and bacon together in butter, reduce heat, and add onions, thyme, and bay leaf. Cook together until onions are soft. Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer.
- Remove from heat and combine with toasted cubes of focaccia. Stuffing mixture should be moist enough to stick together without the bread being completely saturated.
- Season with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Allow stuffing to cool enough to handle.
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- In the meantime, season roast inside and out generously with salt. When stuffing is cool, peel back rib cap and stuff with an even layer of bread mixture.
- Cover stuffing with rib cap and place fat side down on your cutting board. Tie roast with butcher’s twine between each rib. Brown the fat side of roast in a large sauté pan until it is a rich brown colour.
- Stand your roast ribs pointing straight up in an oven ready dish and bake uncovered until a meat thermometer registers 135°F, approximately 20 minutes per pound.
- Remove roast from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes per pound before slicing between the ribs.
