Wednesday, January 7, 2015

New Year's Pulled Pork

So this year, for New Year's, my sister and I were still turkeyed out after Thanksgiving, so I wanted to do something different. I decided on pulled pork, so we went to Central Market and bought a huge pork roast. I always splurge and get the Niman Ranch, free-range pork. It was about 4.5 lbs in weight, with a good layer of fat on the top, but not so much that I needed to trim it down at all.

Originally I was going to do it in the slow cooker, but when I realized that we had to do it for a lunch earlier in the day I scrapped that idea at the last minute and did it in the oven instead. I had three bbq rub recipes I looked at and based my own recipe off of them. I didn't measure anything, but the base of the rub was smoked paprika. The rest of the rub consisted of: kosher salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, dried oregano, and dried thyme. Rub this into every side of the meat and place it in a large baking dish. Mine was a 9"x13" Pyrex dish. I poured some water into the dish, about a half inch up the side, and then put several shots of Tabasco sauce into the water. Cover with foil and place in a 350 degree oven for three hours.

After three hours, remove the dish from the oven and take off the foil. The water will be infused with the juices from the pork. Carefully drain this into a saucepan and add the pre-made bbq sauce of your choice. I used a combination of two kinds that I had on hand. With the liquid drained from the dish and the foil off, return dish to the pan to allow the meat to cook longer and to crisp up on the outsides for about a half hour more.

When the meat is done, remove from the oven and let sit for at least 15 minutes before touching it. When it's time, take two forks and shred the meat. This will take some time. When it's shredded, pour in some of the sauce and mix to moisten the meat but let other people add the sauce to their liking. Some people don't like sauce at all and some people like to drown it. I served this with rice, cornbread, and salad and it was soooo nummy!

 Pre-shred
Post-shred

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