After taking several weeks off, I decided it was time to get back into the 40 recipe challenge. This was the first thing I’d done since coming back from California, and it may actually spawn one or two other really good recipes in the next week or two.
I had looked for crock pot pulled pork recipes previously, and most of the ones I had found called for either 12 or 18 hours of cooking time. I was a little dismayed with the time commitment, but ultimately decided a few days ago to just suck it up and start the pork at 10 at night on Friday with plans to eat it on Saturday night for dinner. Then I found a recipe (here) that only takes about 5 hours and decided to go with that.
Two notes on this recipe: I had some guests coming over (including 5 kids) and wanted leftovers, so I went with 6lbs of pork instead of 4 and scaled accordingly (the roast barely fit in my oval-shaped 4qt crock pot). Second, I elected to use up some of the quart of Payne’s Hot and Spicy Pig Sweat instead of barbecue sauce. If you’re in the Grand Rapids area, go to Delski’s and get some. It’s worth it. If you’re not…go ahead and reach for the Open Pit. We’ll be dressing up the sauce anyways.
Here’s what you’ll need:
4lbs of cheap pork (I went with a pork shoulder, but a butt roast or something else inexpensive works too)
1 C barbecue sauce
1/2 C apple cider vinegar
1/2 C chicken broth
1/4 C brown sugar
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 extra large onion
2 large cloves garlic, smashed
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
Spray the inside of the crock pot with some nonstick cooking spray, then get the roast in there. Pour the other ingredients on top. I’d recommend slicing the onion into a few large pieces and just dropping those in instead of trying to mince or dice. Cook on high for 5ish hours (more if you’re using a bigger piece of meat).
Once the meat is falling apart in the crock pot, remove from the pot and shred with forks. Serve on some nice large buns with barbecue sauce, if desired.
I was going to just toss the leftover juices, fat, bones, and onion, but my friend suggested that I instead make some pork stock from it. So now the crock pot is back on low overnight, and tomorrow we’ll see what we get. I’m sensing some kind of risotto with the stock, some bacon/pancetta, and mushrooms in the near future.
One final note: if you’re using a special/custom barbecue sauce like I did, don’t be afraid to dress up the sauce with the extra spices. Pig Sweat has some fairly distinct vinegar/molasses/sugar flavors to it, and I was concerned that adding more vinegar and sugar would overdo it. This was definitely not the case.
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