You can get pulled pork in the frozen foods section at your local grocery store. Couple minutes in the microwave and it’s ready to go. How great is that? And it’s going to taste just as good as … well, it tastes nearly as … umm, it’s filling I suppose. Or if you want something that’s worth eating, you can spend an entire day filling your house with a smell that would make a vegan cry.
Ingredients
3-5 pound pork butt
apple cider vinegar
brown sugar
mustard powder
cardamom
onion sauce
salt & pepper
see below for amounts
Directions
Before you start, turn the crock pot on high. (Alternatively you can do this in a dutch oven. If you do, for the rest of these directions “high” means “medium”.) You can see in the picture above that the pork butt comes from the butcher tied up and ready to roast. Since we’re not roasting, the first step is to cut the twine off so you can season the inside as well as the outside.
Coat it inside and out with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. If you’re right handed, handle the meat only with your left hand, and use a paper towel if you have to pick anything up with it.
Lay the pork in the crock pot fat side down. If there’s any fat at all on the roast, you won’t need any oil for it to brown up nicely.
I can’t tell you exactly how much mustard I used, because I used the built-in shaker. But I covered the whole pork butt pretty well.
Same for the cardamom. I used my mini measuring spoons, but I’ve got no idea exactly how much it was. It’s the ratio that’s important anyway. Just use enough to cover the whole butt.
Note for the stupid and careless:
See that metal ring, just under the stoneware part in the crockpot? That gets hot really, really fast. Use the handles. That’s what they’re there for.
Check after about 15 minutes, and once the bottom starts to brown up flip it over. Season the other side with mustard and cardamom.
Fill the crock pot with liquid until the pork is halfway submerged. I was originally going to add a cup of the apple cider onion sauce and then fill the rest of the way with water. Then I wondered, “Why add water when I’ve got more onion sauce?” So I used all I had left. This is also why I didn’t add any more of the apple cider vinegar. If you aren’t adding the onion sauce, deglaze the crock pot with the vinegarbefore filling with liquid.
Turn the crock pot to low, put the lid on, and leave it for at least eight hours. Twelve is better. You can turn the meat over once about halfway through, but it’s okay if you don’t. It’s better to leave it completely alone than to keep checking on it. That means you can start this before work and let it cook all day. Or put it in at night and have it for lunch the next day.
When you’ve waited as long as you can, pull the meat out and put the lid back on the crock pot. No, this doesn’t look good just yet.
Shred the meat with a pair of forks. If you managed to leave it in for twelve hours or more, you should be able to do this with your bare hands.
Put the shredded meat back in the pot and add a cup of brown sugar.
Check the salt and pepper. Decide if it needs more sugar. Put the lid back on and let it simmer on high for another half hour. Yeah, it’s slow. But when it’s done, you can put it on a kaiser roll and do this.
And that, finally, is it.
So is that sauce good? Let’s just say I didn’t do this because my mother taught me to clean my plate.
Are all the southerners gone? Okay, here’s a secret. You can do this in six hours if you leave the crock pot on high the whole time. It won’t be tender enough to shred by hand, but it’ll be close. And if you want to say I’m being lazy by only spending seven hours on this, I can live with that.
Coming up this week I’ll have a dinner salad that’s light enough for hot summer nights, but won’t leave you hungry. And just in case you do crave a little desert, I’m showing the richest pie I’ve ever tasted. Ever. And I’ve eaten eight-dollar pie at nice restaurants. Even Paula Deen would think this pie is a little over the top. And that’s just where I like it.
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12 Comments
I had to delete my first comment because it had a typo. I can’t have that. Once a proofreader, always a proofreader. Anyway, what I said was you can also use part of the pork to make an excellent filling for tortillas. You just mix the shredded meat with cumin, green chilis, and chili powder. And then have a margarita.
These looks great. We did pulled pork on the grill last week – was really easy despite the fire and it even tasted great!
The tortillas are definitely on tap for the next shot at this one. I’ve got a Cuban version I want to do, should work great for it.
Chez, how long did you have them on the grill? I’d be afraid to run out of propane halfway through.
I have a real soft spot for pulled pork. There are few finer meats than those which have been ripped to shreds by a few forks.
http://www.weber.com has a great grill based pulled pork recipe. Takes about 3-4 hours on the grill, but the charred smoky bits are to die for!
I should also note that you need some cole slaw on that sammich, along with some NC vinegar BBQ sauce.
Your stomach will thank me
Graeme, I couldn’t agree more. Although the grilled pork chop I just finished was a surprisingly good candidate to fit into that “few”. And let’s not mention the grilled rib-eye I’ll be doing on Father’s Day. In fairness to other foods, that needs to be in a category unto itself.
Topper, normally I’d agree on the slaw. But this version came out so tasty I wouldn’t want to cover it up with anything. My next batch will be a Cuban version, then I’ll do the Carolina style. And when I do, there’s a no-mayo slaw recipe I’ve been meaning to try.
Whats with the whole only using left hand business?
Oops, thought I explained that. I see that I didn’t.
Every time you handle raw meat you have to wash your hands before handling anything else. If you only handle the meat with one hand, you can use the other one for the salt and pepper, getting the pans ready, etc. Then you can just wash up once when you’re done.
Thanks for asking, I’ll go back and update the main post shortly.
what size crookpot
That’s a good question. I don’t have the packaging, but I’m pretty sure mine is a 6-quart. The largest round ones I see online are 5-quart, and the smallest oval are 6.
Holee crap, I just made gravy. Made it with the leftover juices and detritus of the pulled pork I also made today using this recipe. Go me!
I'd love to see the word "detritus" in a recipe.