crock pot pulled pork.

I made this pulled pork for the first time on New Years Day — following the biscuit disaster. I’ve not attempted the biscuits again, but this recipe made its way into my collection. Now, this is no low-cal weeknight supper, so if you’re into that sort of thing, you might save it for a weekend when you are more likely to throw caution calorie-counts to the wind.

I will encourage you to pay close attention to the addition of SALT in this recipe. In my early morning haze yesterday, I left it out and we were very, very sad when we sat down to supper. Cooking with salt – even just a little bit – makes all the difference in the world, and it’s very hard to add it once the food is cooked without tasting every granule.
{Tina’s Editors Note: people tend to think that adding salt just makes food taste like salt – when, in fact, if added during the cooking process, it just intensifies the flavor of the food itself. So cook with salt, friends.}

photographs beautifully, no? (NOT)

Crock Pot Pulled Pork
via 20 Something Cupcakes

• 6 pounds boneless pork shoulder roast
• 12 – 15 slider buns {you can use dinner rolls}
• 1 1/2 cups ketchup
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons dry mustard
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

Add ingredients for BBQ sauce to your crock pot. Give it a stir, and turn the heat to low. Add meat to the crock pot. Make sure the meat is coated in the sauce, put the cover on, and leave it be for about 8 to 10 hours.

Remove the meat from the crock pot with tongs and let it cool on a large platter or clean surface. Pour the sauce from the crock pot into a saucepan and boil it down so that it thickens. If there is fat sitting on the top of the sauce, skim it off.

Meanwhile, when cool enough to handle, shred the meat using two forks. As you’re doing this, you can remove any additional fat as you go. Add the shredded meat to the sauce and give it a mix.

My Notes:

• I buy a 2-3 pound Boston Butt and there is probably enough for 6 people.  If I used a 6 pound Butt, we’d be drowning in BBQ. I reduced the sauce ingredients by about half.
• I’ve made these as both sliders and full-size sandwiches, and I almost love these as sliders more. This could also just be the replacement of the delicious, buttery white slider rolls with delicious, dry wheat hamburger buns. Hard to say.
• Shocking no one, my husband is decidedly AGAINST trimming the fat from a Butt, as that is where both the moisture and flavor come from. When he’s not looking, I cut a little bit off, just to make myself feel better about life.
• The blue cheese coleslaw in the link above is pretty good, but very heavy. I opted not to make it this time, and would add more cabbage to thin it out if I made it again.

Salt is my friend – in reasonable doses, of course,
jcristg

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