Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Easiest Ever Pulled Pork

Here's another crockpot recipe that is EASY.  I mean, really easy.  And there's only 3 ingredients.  I've made this 4 times since Theresa was born, because a big hunk of pork can feed us for a week.  This time, I divided the meal...half went to a friend who just had a baby, and half was for us. 

Of course, when I went to the store to get the pork butt, I asked the butcher for the biggest one.  He promptly wrapped up a 10 beast for me...wow! 

I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do.  I meant to start the pork right before I went to bed, forgot about it, and realized my oversight at midnight.  Yeah...midnight!  So there are no "before" pictures because I was yawning too hard to take pics at midnight.  I know y'all will forgive me. ;-)

Easiest Ever Pulled Pork

One Boston pork butt, about 6-8 pounds (bigger is fine too!)
BBQ spice blend
1 cup apple juice

The day before you want to cook the pork, remove it from the wrappings and trim off some of the fat.  It's really up to you how much you want to take off, but don't take off ALL of it.  You have to leave some on.  Fat = flavor, and you want some fat to flavor the meat while it's cooking.  There should be a large cap of fat on one side...I probably took off about 2/3rds of it. 

Take your favorite BBQ spice blend and rub it generously all over the meat.  Don't be shy, you want to use at least 4 tablespoons.  Honestly, I didn't even measure, I just sprinkled it on, all over, and made sure to rub it in really good.  I love, love, love Penzeys' BBQ 3000

Return the pork butt to the fridge and let it hang out for 12 hours or overnight. 

The next day (or that night, whatever floats your boat), set up your crockpot.  Pour in 1 cup of apple juice.  Lay the meat, fat side up in the slow cooker. 

Set your crock pot on "Low" for 8-10 hours.  And that's it...you don't even need to turn it over...I didn't. 

By the way, if you don't want to wake up to the smell of pork in the morning, don't do this the night before.  Rebecca told me she woke up in the middle of  the night, and could smell it all the way upstairs.  She didn't mind. ;-)  Some people prefer the smell of coffee...I can understand that!

After 10 hours, here's the finished product...I let mine go 10 hours because it was so big.

Doesn't that look DIVINE?  Porkalicious baby!

At this point you can leave it until dinnertime, or you can go ahead and remove the meat from the pot.  I use a really big cutting board and shredded it all up...it should be so tender, you barely have to touch it to break it up.

Oh, and don't forget to take out the big bone...nobody wants that. ;-)  The kids were impressed by the size of this one!

If I have time, I try to degrease the cooking juices with my degreaser cup.  I don't take off every drop of fat though...you gotta leave some it, because that's where most of the flavor is. 

We love to eat the shredded pork on little wheat rolls...I get 'em at Walmart.   Don't forget to pass around the BBQ sauce too.  I made some cucumber salad and baked beans on the side.  I've served the sandwiches with coleslaw too, (which is REALLY good if you put it in the sandwich) but nobody really cares for coleslaw in our house except me...hence the reason for the cucumber salad. 

This is always a sure thing meal at our house...everyone eats it.  Best of all, now that Theresa is eating some solid food, she can have the pork, baked beans, and a bit of the roll, no problem.  She is really a good feeder. :-)

I hope you can make this on a busy night and have an easy meal all ready to go for your family.  God bless your table tonight!  

2 comments:

Jenna said...

Oh delicious, I made a pork roast in my crockpot last week, yum. I love this simple version!

Susan said...

Making it for tonight. One question. What is degreasing?