BBQ Pulled Pork

BBQ Pulled Pork

Adapted by America's Test Kitchen - Slow Cooker Revolution

Printable Recipe

I love this cookbook and if you are from the school of thought that all crock-pot meals taste the same (I was) or don't like that a lot of crock-pot recipes have a lot of ready made or processed ingredients (I did) but want to use your crock-pot, this is worth picking up.  I love ATK, I know some people have hard time with it because their tends to be a lot of steps, but I find the show & cookbooks fascinating.  The adjustments I made to this recipe were to use boneless pork loin (the recipe calls for boneless pork butt) and less of it (recipe calls for 5lbs and I used 2.5) 

Ingredients:

• Barbecue Rub (see below)
• 1 (2.5 lb) boneless pork loin roast
• 1 cup Barbecue  sauce
• Cider Vinegar (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• Brown Sugar (to taste)

BBQ Rub (makes enough for 5lbs pork)

• 1/4 Cup packed brown sugar (I used light brown)
• 1/4 Cup sweet paprika (I used regular)
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 Tablespoon onion powder
• 1 Teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon salt

Using a fork, prick pork all over. Rub the pork loin with 1/2 the rub noted.  Save the rest of that rub for another time.  Wrap pork loin in plastic wrap and refrigerated from 8 to 24 hours.  Unwrap pork and place in crock-pot.  

Spread barbeque sauce evenly over pork, cover and cooke until pork is tender, 9 to 11 hours on low or 5 to 7 hours on high.

Transfer pork to bowl, let cool slightly, then shred into bite size pieces.  Discard excess fat; cover to keep warm.  Let braising liquid settle for 5 minutes, then remove fat from surface using large spoon.  Season with salt, pepper, sugar & vinegar to taste.

Toss shredded pork with 1 cup of braising liquid, add more liquid as needed to keep meat moist.  Serve with barbecue sauce

The verdict:

We'll be using this recipe for years to come.  It's great for prepping the night before we have it (10 minutes tops) and while the coffee is brewing in the morning the prep is super easy (maybe 3 minutes)  Getting home from work to the smell is priceless and in less than 10 minutes its on the table.  As noted, we used this in a variety of ways, we had it on the night we made it as a sandwich, we brought it to work with a side salad for lunch, and it arrived in pizza form later in the week.  What other ways can you use this dish?