Bangin’ BBQ Pulled Pork

Some years ago I discovered the versatility and simplicity of a curious meat I never had growing up, the Pork Shoulder, aka: Boston, butt, Pork picnic, as it is also referred to.  This is the basis for many of my sinfully-spectacular, sooth the soul recipes. I use pork shoulder to make, pork carnitas, a heavenly Mexican melding of slow cooked goodness that I use to make the most amazing pork tamales and tacos.  I use the pork shoulder when I am making an Italian Ragu because the meat just falls apart into the gravy and it is sinfully succulent! Sometimes I just roast with some spices and serve without much fanfare, but my boys have come to love my BBQ pulled pork so much, that I find myself making this quite a bit.

My very most favorite way to accomplish this is my slow cooker.  For one I can make it in the morning and have it ready by the time I come home from work, second I think the slow cooker makes the most amazingly tender fall off the bone, taste so damn good pork.  I like to make a dry rub of spices and slather it on the meat and let it sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours but overnight is the ideal! I then layer onion slices on the bottom of the slow cooker place the meat on it with some apple juice, and apple cider vinegar slow cook for several hours then remove and shred and simmer another few min. in some of my homemade BBQ sauce, and you have yourself a true southern classic.  I like to eat this with my Asian coleslaw, piled high with a bread and butter pickle round on a nice sesame seed or potato roll and it is so delish! This is a great recipe for Super Bowl Sunday because you can feed a crowd for cheap!  I make this for parties all the time and have even made it for hungry, appreciative firefighters.  I hope you will try it and let me know what you think!

Sinfully,

Susan xoxo

 

 

Bangin' BBQ Pulled Pork

A slow cooked BBQ feast for busy nights, and a hungry crowd!

Credit: CrazySexySavor.com/Susan Maurath

Ingredients

  • 5-7 lb. pork shoulder
  • 2 cups of apple juice,
  • 3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke
  • one whole onion sliced thinly
  • spice rub recipe as follows: (2 tbsp. of brown sugar,  1 tbsp. each of c smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, 1/2 tbsp. of cayenne pepper,  1 tbsp. of chili powder, 1 tsp.of cinnamon, salt and pepper) mix in bowl to combine then rub generously over the pork.  Place in refrigerator at least 2 hours, preferably over night.
  • 2 cups of homemade or bottled BBQ sauce I almost always make my own
  • Bread and butter pickle slices for atop the coleslaw (optional but oh so tasty)
  • 3/4 cup of mayonaise
  • 4 tbs. of buttermilk you can use more if you like it wetter (I make my own by souring whole milk with apple cider vinegar)
  • pre packaged coleslaw mix, I make my own by shredding two carrots, 1 small head each of savoy cabbage and red cabbage
  • 1 1/2 tsp. of celery salt
  • 2 tsp. of celery seed
  • 2 tbs. of poppy seeds
  • 2 tbs. of sugar
  • splash of rice wine vinegar
  • two splashes of apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp. of Chinese 5 spice
  • salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions

  1. Line the bottom of a slow cooker with the onion slices
  2. In a bowl mix the liquid ingredients to combine
  3. Place liquid in the slow cooker, add pork
  4. Cook in slow cooker on low for 7 hours or high for 5 hours
  5. Pork will be fork tender and falling off the bone, place on cutting board and shred with two forks, reserve a cup of the cooking liquid discard the rest, place pork and bbq sauce in slow cooker and simmer until sauce is heated through
  6. Serve on buns piled high with coleslaw and a bread and butter pickle

For the Asian Coleslaw

  1. In a bowl combine mayonnaise, buttermilk, sugar, vinegars, Chinese 5 spice, poppy seeds, celery salt, celery seed, salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Add the coleslaw mix if using or shredded cabbages and carrots.  Mix well.  Refrigerate for at least two hours for flavors to meld.  Serve on top of BBQ pulled pork or on the side and devour!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.