Hello, and Happy Monday! I usually keep up with blogging over the weekend, but this weekend, I took a much needed computer break, although I’ll admit I did answer a few comments. (I thoroughly enjoy communicating with my readers, so it’s hard to abstain completely.)Last Friday, I purchased three pounds of pork shoulder and decided to create my own slow cooker pulled pork recipe. I was a little weary, but it ended up turning out great! Here’s the tutorial.
3-lb pork shoulder
2 teaspoons oil (I use canola or olive)
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
3 medium-sized garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
Step 1: Cover the bottom of your slow cooker with 2 teaspoons oil and then with onion chunks. Lay pork shoulder (with all packaging removed) on top of onion.
Step 2: Drizzle with 1/4 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce. (I currently have two homemade BBQ sauce recipes that I use. You’ll find one with my “Buffalo Wild Wings Style Chicken Wings” recipe. I have yet to post the other one.) Sprinkle minced garlic on top of meat.
Step 3: In a small bowl, mix the following:
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
Pour mixture over meat. Cook on high for 7-8 hours, basting liquid over meat ever few hours (if possible). Thirty minutes before serving, pull meat with a fork, stir into existing liquid, and allow meat to cook 30 minutes immersed in liquid.
Step 4: Serve with BBQ sauce and buns (if desired).
I don't like BBQ sauce. It makes everything taste like BBQ sauce! Too overpowering and too salty. I'd use no-salt added tomato sauce and adjust the seasonings to taste. Bump up the chili powder, toss in some pepper, dried cilantro, and cumin. Maybe a little oregano. Also would leave out the liquid smoke (ugh). How about a shot of beer in it?? Long ago, before slow cookers, we made stuff like this in the oven or in a Dutch oven on the stove top (still my preferred method).
Thanks for this comment because it addresses the question of options for liquid smoke, which is what I wanted to know.
You should try making Eastern Carolina bbq then! Are there any fans of Eastern Carolina bbq out there? I never heard of making chili with pork.
I would use onion, garlic, tomatoes (a can or two of petite diced, no salt added), a small can of tomato sauce, chili powder, dried cilantro (which is nowhere near as pungent as the fresh), ground cumin, and black pepper. A little oregano would be good, or you could use 2 bay leaves. Or use both. In a Dutch oven, I'd brown the pork on all sides in a little oil first, then add everything else (including a little water or white wine or beer, if it needed more liquid), bring to a boil, put the lid on, and let it simmer for about 2 hours for a small roast, 3 hours for a larger one. Test it after that time and see if it's fork-tender. If not, add another 30 minutes. Then remove meat to a cutting board, and while that's cooling enough to handle, de-fat the liquid left in the pot (fat will have risen to the surface; skim it off with a spoon and discard it onto paper towels you can throw in the trash, not down the drain). You can thicken the liquid if you want with a slurry of flour and water (like thickening any gravy), or cornstarch and water. Shred the pork, discarding any fat or gristle, and put back in the liquid. I'd serve it over yellow Basmati rice, which I make by adding a packet of no-sodium chicken bouillon and a dash of turmeric to the water (rice will come out a nice golden yellow). You can freeze the leftovers of meat cooked this way. I've made pork like this and also beef. It's one of those recipes where all you really need is the technique, and you can change the ingredients you simmer the meat in. No particular measurements required. I'm a "toss it in and let it fly" cook.
I am familiar with Eastern Carolina BBQ. It's the kind with vinegar-based sauce, usually on pork. Not a fan of it. Yes, you could make "chili" with pork. To me, that's a broad term for spiced cooked meat. There's chicken chili, turkey chili…
Ellie. What is liquid smoke?
It comes in a bottle in the herb & spice part of the supermarket and makes everything you cook taste like you had a kitchen fire while making it!
I love liquid smoke!!!! You could also use smoked paprika if you can't find liquid smoke.
Ellie I ask the same question again with a different emphasis liquid smoke, what IS it?!
Liquid smoke is made by funneling wood smoke through a condenser. The accumulated moisture is then filtered and concentrated. It's a pungent flavoring, easily overpowering everything else if you add too much. It's like eating wood smoke aroma. I don't care for it at all. Smoke is the last thing I like to put up my nose (my lungs hate it and react horribly to it), so I will not put liquid smoke in my food. You can get enough BBQ flavor from chili powder. There's also smoked paprika, smoked salt, and smoked pepper. Smoked flavorings can make things taste like you dropped your marshmallow in the ashes of the grill as you were trying to toast it. I'm sure we've all tasted the results of that sooty disaster.
Thanks for explaining the process of how liquid smoke is made! All I knew was that it's smoke flavoring. It's totally optional in this recipe. It would still be tasty without it. 🙂
Ellie
Thank you for the delicious recipe I lovvvvve pulled pork but have never attempted to make it yet, I need to! Also, I love all your pictures but your recipe post was a nice break up in between the photos. Have a lovely day!
My pleasure! I'm glad to hear that. I still have San Francisco pictures to post, as well as some other random pictures that I've been taking. 🙂
Ellie
Really good and easy recipe thank you!
Really good and easy recipe thank you!
I think I should do this for my adult sons before I invite them over. I like that you say you were creative and inventive, that encourages adaptations.
Ellie I baked a turkey with lots of care, brined, her bed, buttered, covered with foil and it turned out well cooked, moist, tender, flavorful and better than my usual roast turkey that had never been anything to boast about. Why don't you prepare a turkey for practice for Thanksgiving and post about it?
That's a good idea. There's only two of us, so I'm not sure we could eat an entire turkey, but maybe I could find a small one. I cooked a whole chicken the other day, and it turned out great.
Ellie
A turkey is no different than a chicken. People try to make turkey cooking into some sort of big scary venture. It's not. It's just a big chicken! My advice for the novice is to buy the Reynold's turkey cooking bags and follow their instructions TO THE LETTER. Especially the parts about flouring the bag, slitting it, not letting it touch oven walls, and using their recommended temperature. You probably won't end up with a Norman Rockwell looking golden bird but it will be fine (we don't eat the skin anyway, so who cares if it's perfectly golden). Also, I've found that store brand turkeys often are juicier than Butterball. Don't know what it is about that national brand now, but it's not what it used to be 50 years ago. My best turkeys have been the el-cheapo store brand ones! You could also roast turkey legs, not in a bag, if it's just the two of you. I do those @ 350 degrees for about an hour and 10-15 min., or until they test done on a thermometer. You do have an instant-read thermometer? Can't really cook poultry without one!
But you can do a lot with the leftovers! Chicken pot pies (you can easily freeze those), sandwiches, soup, etc..!
Ellie, Their only 1 of me and I cook a big turkey and freeze the rest and when I want turkey again I just take so out the night before and defrost it in the refrigerator overnight and have it for dinner another night.
Yum ! Thanks for posting, Ellie 🙂 I'll have to get the slow cooker out of storage and get onto this one! I'm trying to only use free range pork these days (after having a pet pig and feeling that they deserve to be treated as well as possible), so I don't buy it often – but this looks a worthy dish!
Hint to anyone outside of the states: you might have to go to a specialty American food store to get the liquid smoke. I'm in Melbourne Aus, and bought mine at 'USA Foods' in Moorabbin.
Hi Shell,
A pet pig? That's neat! Do you live on a farm or does the pig live in your house?
Ellie
Hi Ellie 🙂
Yep, our Pigsy was an interesting pet – he outsmarted our beagle all the time ! He was a normal farm pig that we got as a piglet, planning to eat him for Christmas, but we just couldn't do it after we got to know him. He lived in our suburban backyard, but got brought inside a couple of times for a shower ! He grew so fast- by the time we gave him away he was probably 3 or 4 foot long. Happily, he got to live a longer (and hopefully happy) life as a breeding pig 🙂
Pigsy, what a cute name! You must have some pretty great stories raising a big on a suburban property. I'm not surprised you weren't able to eat him. I wouldn't be able to either. 🙂
Ellie
Do you feel guilty for eating so much meat? Please consider going vegetarian. It is better for your health and innocent, beautiful animals don't have to die for no reason.
Vegetarianism and the similar -isms are good for your health only if you very carefully monitor your intake of iron (that you can absorb) and B vitamins. When you cut out meat as those sources, you have to be mindful of what you use for substitutions and in what combination you eat them. Same with proteins, unless you're consuming dairy and eggs, too.
I love animals, too, but they don't get a guilty conscious when they kill other animals for their food (or through instinct, like a cat going after a mouse). There is a natural food chain. I agree that we could go easier on the ecosystem with our demand for meat, but I don't fault those who choose to eat it.
Conscience, not conscious. Darn corrector. Thinks it knows everything but doesn't really speak the language, LOL!
Mr Handsome really likes his meat, so going vegetarian isn't really an option for us. My makeup is cruelty-free and all-natural though. 🙂
Ellie
Diabetics have to have meat or their blood sugar Would go low. Even my doctor said thst.
I hope the animals are humanely raised at least and enjoy living before their lives are terminated to feed 'human(e?)'
beings.
Dear Ellie! It is so nuce with blogs written by God- believing persons! Very rare here in Sweden! I have read your blog for a while and enjoy it! May I ask a question? I understand that some Christians do not eat pig and some do. Could you clarify why? It is not important, but I am a little curious!/ Have a very nice day! S Susan
Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you are enjoying my blog.
I have a few Christian friends who choose not to eat pork. Christians are not under the Old Testament law, so it's more of a preference thing. One friend in particular does it for health reasons. Hope that answers your question! If anyone has anything to add, feel free to share. 🙂
Have a blessed day, Susan!
Ellie
I'm catholic and I don't eat red meat I just eat chicken, turkey or pork. I by ground pork for Hamburgers
Red meat isn't good for you.
Ellie, thanks so much for this wonderful recipe! Made it for fellowship lunch for at our church today and how yummy it was!!! I love liquid smoke… makes any meat tasty! 🙂