Pulled Pork

Intro

Every time a slow cooker thread appears on GWS, this recipe crops up. Without fail. I'm befuddled as to why it hasn't been entered yet.

This recipe is crock-pot nirvana. It is nearly foolproof and is quite delicious. Do it Friday/Saturday night before football and you've got a gameday treat.

People tend to discard the released liquid at the bottom of the crock pot. I say this is a mistake. It easily becomes a wonderful sauce to the pork you just made. Take an additional 20 minutes and try the "advanced" recipe below.

Ingredients

• 5 lb of boston butt/pork shoulder (Honestly this recipe can be done with whatever your crockpot fits, you just may have to cook it longer)
• 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• ~1 cup dark brown sugar
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Salt & Pepper

Method

BASIC PULLED PORK

• Score the roast gently with a knife then rub liberally with Worchestershire sauce until coated.

• Place the quartered onion in the crock pot, place shoulder on top and cover the meat with a layer of brown sugar as a crust.

• Pour around 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar over top it (May vary based on roast size)

• Pour more worchestershire sauce over the meat as well, probably as much as 1/4 cup. (I generally use as much as 2/3 of the smallest bottle size making this with a decent sized roast)

• Cook on low for 8 hours. Flip it over half way through if you remember, but this isn't critical.

• Shred the meat, most easily done using two forks pulling apart. Toss any bone, fat, or gristle encountered during the shredding. Salt and pepper to taste.

ADVANCED PULLED PORK

Additional Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
• Garlic Powder
• Cayenne Pepper
• 1.5 tbsp cornstarch

Method

• Do all of the above. Set aside the shredded pork

• Take the juice at the bottom of the pot, ladle off the fat, and put it in a sauce pan. Discard the onion. Heat over medium till it simmers.

• Add 1/2 cup ketchup and 1 tbsp liquid smoke. Stir/whisk till combined.

• Take 1.5 tablespoons of cornstarch, and mix well with 1 cup cold water (DO NOT ADD DIRECTLY TO HOT JUICE OR IT WILL GET CLUMPY) Whisk into saucepan.

• Let it simmer till you like the consistency. Now it's time to season. Salt and pepper to taste. With no salt it will taste like blandness. Add garlic powder and cayenne pepper to taste (~1/2 teaspoon each). Don't salt it till you like the consistency or it will be too salty after it reduces/thickens. Pour the sauce over the shredded and seasoned pork, mix it all up.

Serving

• While it's good on it's own, I personally feel Pulled Pork is best served on a crusty bun covered with Carolina Red or some other BBQ sauce.

Notes

• You can easily adapt this to a tex mex style burrito filling pork by adjusting the ingredients slightly, but this depends on your tastes.