Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Blog: Nosh On
March 15, 2010
Saturday started out so promising. As my mom and I sat drinking coffee on Saturday morning, she told me that my brother had requested pulled pork for his birthday dinner. He told her how he makes it in the slow-cooker and leaves it to cook for eight to 10 hours. Dinner was supposed to be ready by 4:30 p.m. It was about 10 a.m. when mom was telling me that she needed to go to the store to get the pork shoulder. That's only six and a half hours. We agreed that it might still work.
After we returned from the grocery store, I cut the pork into smaller chunks, browned them and placed them in the slow-cooker. It looked promising. An hour later, though, we discovered that I had failed to plug-in the slow cooker. Oops. Convinced that we still had time, I just plugged it in.
Fast foward 2 hours and the meat didn't look anywhere near done. This was turning into a pulled pork epic fail. In an attempt to save it, I dumped the pork into a large cast-iron casserole dish and placed it in the oven. My mom was rightly convinced that we should probably buy pulled pork if people were planning to eat dinner at the agreed-upon time. So, we bought enough pulled pork to feed the family despite the fact there was plenty in the oven, baking away.
An hour after dinner ... the homemade pulled pork was done, pull-apart tender, juicy and flavorful. If I do it again, I'll stay away from the slow cooker (I don't own one anyway) and stick with the oven. It's always plugged in.
Scott's Pulled Pork
My oven-method of my brother's pulled pork.
4-5 pounds pork shoulder
2-3 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
2 cups barbecue sauce
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut pork shoulder into large chunks, about 3- or 4-inch squares and rub with Cajun seasoning. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown the meat chunks in batches on all sides, 30 seconds to 1 minute per side. Turn off heat and add meat chunks back into Dutch oven. Add barbecue sauce. Cover and cook for three hours or until pork falls apart with fork.
Serve with more barbecue sauce, cole slaw, beans. The pork makes a nice sandwich on soft hamburger buns.
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Mom 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
You forgot the onion that we cut up and put in from the start. It was better than the restaurant-bought variety. I feel I can say this since you made it with little help from me.
Webfoot 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
OH--Ladies, what time did you say dinner is?? Is that tonight?? Mmmmm-Pulled Pork--one of my fav's.
scottworthy 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
If you really want to call it my pulled pork, you should give them my real recipe (which I can't really claim since I found it online). Although, I think yours was very good and you didn't need to buy liquid smoke. Here are the differences:
After browning the pork, in the same pan, saute half of a chopped onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic in a little oil. Mix in a couple of cups of water and a tablespoon of liquid smoke. Then pour it over your pork. Don't add the BBQ sauce yet. Later, when the pork is done, you'll have too much liquid, so drain most or all of it off. Then pull your pork apart and now either add the BBQ sauce, or just let people add their own.
Mom 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Scott, I forgot the liquid smoke, but you said it wasn't necessary. And I didn't remember the cloves of garlic. Next time. Dennis, It was very good but I am pulled porked out after two days of eating it to get rid of it :-)
Webfoot 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Susan--I would have GLADLY helped out!!
Thanks for all the good tips.
Mom 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Martin, Too much work for me! Rochelle might want to try your tips, though, or Scott. Rochelle made a good cole slaw and baked beans to go with it. Of course she did learn the baked beans from me or I should say, my mother. Thanks for the tips, and Dennis, I would have happily shared:)
scottworthy 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Martin,
Your way sounds fantastic. I started cutting up the pork butt when I didn't have a pot big enough for the whole thing. I sure made a mess of it the first time I hacked at it. I recently got a larger pot and haven't made it since.
I'm with you on leaving out the barbecue sauce, but I do like having something smoky (whether sauce or liquid smoke) to make up for not being truly barbecued.
Good tip on the gloves, I've got to get myself some for pulling job. The way I've been doing it takes forever.
Scott
Mom 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Martin and Scott, Just the same, I think I'll just be available to eat it:-)
feil 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Scott: Yeah, I should have remembered every aspect to your recipe, alas. Martin: I'm happy to admit that I have far to go to reach your level of pulled pork mastery, next time, next time. I'm humbled (and hungry). — Rochelle :)
KLC 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Martin, I copy and pasted that sucker to my computer!! Definitely going to have to try this recipe :) Thanks for sharing
Trishk 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Now, don't forget to serve it on a hamburger bun, with the cole slaw on top of the meat!! Yum!! North Carolina style!!
Mom 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Trishk, Rochelle's husband from New Jersey clued us in that we should put cole slaw on the meat which I had already planned on doing. It is delicious that way. Oh, then I used the pulled pork in a ban mei style sandwich. I'm sure my spelling is wrong but it's a Vietnamese sandwich with raw cucumber, Sriricha sauce, sweet chile sauce, meat, mayo, lettuce, cilantro, mint and a little vinegar. I didn't have all the ingredients, but just the same, it was really good with the pulled pork. Martin, that would be another reason not to cook it with the barbecue sauce, it is more versatile without the barbecue sauce and with your dry rub. Susan
Tubesock 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
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Tubesock 1 year, 11 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
KariLynn 1 year, 10 months ago
Pulled pork fail ... kind of
Pulled pork is one of the few "true" barbecue dishes that can be cooked successfully on a gas grill. You'll need a lot of soaked hickory or mesquite wood chips, heavy duty foil and a full tank of propane. LOL
Put a drip pan with your seasoned pork butt on one side of the grill and fire up the other side to high, and then set on med-low heat. (The temp should be between 250 and 275.) Create a foil packet filled with soaked wood chips and poke a few holes in it. Place the packet directly on the gas burner and let it burn, baby burn. Add about a 1/2 C of beer to the drip pan, and let it smoke away for at least 2 -3 hours. You'll have to replace the packet half-way through - or when there's no smoke billowing out.
Now. At this point you can either continue to cook your roast on the grill, (hence the full tank of propane) or you can take the easy way out (my preference) and transfer it to a 250 degree oven. Either way, the roast will have to cook overnight. Both methods will result in a wonderful roast.
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