I've seen pins all over Pinterest for making pulled pork (BBQ) in the crockpot but I must confess I've been way too intimidated to try it. Heck, I'm too intimidated to try my hand at anything pulled pork BBQ, quite frankly. I think this mostly lies in the fact that I was born, reared and live in the two states that could realistically be called the BBQ capital of the US...so...good BBQ is a way of life and bad BBQ...is for chain restaurants. (sorry?) Southerners BETTER know how to cook pulled pork BBQ if they attempt it...otherwise there's probably some sort of regional shunning that will occur.
Anywho, M and I decided to try our hand at cooking pulled pork in the crockpot and it turned out great! Very easy and not nearly as intimidating as I thought. Making it in a Crockpot was even better because you could leave it all day while you work or whatever. Side note: Crockpot is a brand name slow-cooker. I will call it Crockpot, because in the South we call things by their actual brand names and not generic names. (Coke, instead of Soda...for example.) So, just know when I say Crockpot, I mean any slow-cooker.
Also, second side note: I may use incorrect names for things like the proper cut of meat. Sorry.
Third side note: M and I both consulted our parents before making this. My father, the cook of our family and a bonafide Southerner, verified the exact cut of meat to use. M's mother, the cook of his family, and though not technically a Southerner by birth, has been indoctrinated simply because of her delicious pulled pork recipe, also provided some consultative advice. Also, dang that was a lot of commas.
Ingredients:
1 Boston butt, bone-in
1 jar of your favorite bbq sauce (see below for the one we used)
Water
Apple Cider Vinegar (this was not in our original recipe, but I would have added it if we had it)
Directions:
1. Unwrap and rinse off Boston butt
2. Place into a Crockpot. Make sure your Crockpot is large enough to comfortable hold your butt in with the lid on.
3. Cover the butt with enough water that it just covers the top of the meat. Here is where I would add a couple of tablespoons of the apple cider vinegar, for flavor, but it's optional.
4. Cover with lid and cook on high for at least 4-5 hours. Depending on the size of your butt, you may need to adjust the cooking time. Ours was about 5 hours and when the meat started to pull away from the bone, I figured it was done. Even if it's not completely done, it will be at the end.
5. Move butt to a large dish or cookie sheet and remove bone. (Ours literally just slid right out.)
(See?? Bone on cutting board and meat in dish.)
6. Taking smaller sections of the meat, "pull" with two forks. See the picture below for reference. Hold one fork on the meat and the other to sort of "scrape" against the grain of the meat and you'll see it start to pull into pieces.
7. Pull all of the meat, carefully separating and removing the fatty pieces. The fat on this looked white and gelantinous (I know, gross) so we could easily scrape it off and throw it away.
8. Put all of your pulled pork into a casserole dish that is oven-safe.
9. Preheat your oven to 400 degress.
10. While the oven preheats, add some of your favorite BBQ sauce. (See what we used below...being an SC gal, I love me some mustard-based sauce!)
11. We added a little less than half of the bottle before we put the dish in the oven to prevent it from drying out too much.
12. Mix in the BBQ sauce and put in the oven for about 15 minutes.
13. Remove BBQ from oven and add remaining sauce. Stir until sauce is completely incorporated and it's ready to eat!
That's it! So easy! I can't believe I was so intimidated to do it before. It almost seems ridiculous to dedicate an entire post to this, but I wanted to document it for future use. :) Enjoy!
I often put recipes up on my blog simply to have them for future reference. No shame!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you guys took the pulled pork plunge!
I hate the term "slow cooker." In my family we say crockpot.