Slow-Cookered BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Simple, Not Plain

If you've read my posts over the last couple years, you probably noticed a pattern. I often reinvent the wheel, publicly laud my accomplishment, then loudly urge others to try it. Guess what? I've done it again! After a couple test runs, I now make BBQ pork sandwiches that a real Texan admitted were better than what's served in Texas! (As a North Carolinian, I hate even using them as a standard by which to measure BBQ. Ours is a BBQ rivalry akin to the Hatfields and McCoys in historical proportions, but I concede to use Texas here as a measuring standard purely in order to gloat. Ok?)

Let me come to the point. You can make these too. It's so easy, it's almost guilt-provoking. Listening to people holler "MMMMM" in all caps and slap the table when chewing one of my sandwiches makes me feel like I should have worked harder to earn the response. I am to guilt what rabbits are to progeny, so I dilute the praise with ideas like "Gosh, they probably like it so much because it's pure fat and flavor, which people more often than not are withholding from themselves these days in favor of healthier eating. I guess when they eat a succulent saucy sandwich with a side of home-made french fries, sliced thin and fried in oil, with plenty of salt and pepper, they're surprised, or really just reminded. They haven't had such fare in so long, they've forgotten. Absence has made these hardy overly-nutritious Northwesterners' hearts grow fonder." To which my husband will say, "Shut up. They're just good, that's all."

The sauce is definitely a make or break ingredient. I use a good ol' store-bought bottle of Annie's Naturals Organic BBQ, Original Recipe. While Annie's does offer a myriad of flavorful BBQ sauces, I like the Original Recipe the best. It's just the right spice and tang. It's richly flavored without knocking out the kids' little taste buds. It's the best for the whole family. And, as usual, I first bought a bottle because it was the least expensive on the shelf, but now I buy it because it's the best. And I have tried plenty others.

Here's how you do it:

Shredded BBQ Pork Sandwiches

Ingredients:
3-4 pound pork butt (buy big and plan for extremely delicious leftovers)
About 1 cup (an 8-ounce box) of broth (chicken, vegetable, beef, water + bouillon, or whatever)
Your favorite dry spice rub (I use Rub with Love Pork Rub by Tom Douglas)
Annie's Naturals Organic BBQ, Original Recipe, 12-ounce bottle
Package of organic whole wheat hamburger buns

Directions:
1. Rub plenty of dry rub on all sides of the pork.

2. Place it in the slow cooker with the broth.

3. Cook about 4-5 hours on high, or 8-10 on low. It tastes the same either way. Just cook it till it shreds easily with a fork.

4. Remove pork to an oven-safe dish in which you can shred it. I remove all the enormous chunks of fat, but some people leave some in for flavor.

5. Pour the WHOLE bottle of Annie's sauce on the shredded pork and stir it up.

6. Bake in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 20 or 30 minutes to cook in the sauce and let the pork absorb it. Add dollops of cooking broth if pork gets dry-seeming. It shouldn't though. Sometimes I add a little cooking broth just to keep it extra juicy.

7. Put a heaping stack of pork on a bun and top with more sauce if desired. That means you have to have another bottle handy, because you need all of one for step 6. And truly, do stack it high, because it would be a shame to taste bun more than pork.

Really, this dish could be considered healthy, right? I mean it has organic whole-wheat buns. And Annie's products are all-natural. This sauce is organic and even vegan...course, the concept of a vegan sauce on shredded pork is not lost on me. I appreciate the contrast and all. And while I do enjoy my home-made French fries, they are easily replaced by more figure-friendly sides like potato salad, cole slaw, baked sweet-potato fries, bakes beans, etc.

--Sweet B

Image courtesy of http://sungkang.com/comfort-food-pork-sandwich/

Comments

[StellaCadente* on March 25, 2010 at 10:14 PM]

This sounds so good, and not just because I am starving right now. I cannot wait to try this out.

[Charles on March 26, 2010 at 09:10 AM]

If you don't have a slow cooker, what might you do in lieu of step 3?

[Sweet B on March 26, 2010 at 10:50 AM]

Charles, sure you could do this in a regular oven. Just cook it until the pork is falling apart and shreds easily. Tyler Florence of The Food Network says that for a 5-7 pound pork roast, "Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Put the pork in a roasting pan and bake for about 6 hours." If it's smaller than that, you can roast it for less time, checking it with a fork to see if it's falling apart yet. You can see his recipe at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/oven-roasted-pulled-pork-sandwiches-recipe/index.html.

[defined benefit plan on January 10, 2011 at 11:04 AM]

I tried it in my regular oven and it came out just great. The whole family loved the pulled pork sandwiches