You know you’ve been blogging for too long when you’ve got not one, not two, but three recipes for pulled pork… This one inaugurates our latest acquisition, a crock pot… I know, as if I needed another cooking gadget. But, I used to have one and when we moved four years ago I gave it away. Ever since that day, for reasons that I cannot quite comprehend, the most enticing recipes using slow-cookers kept reaching me. I finally could not take it anymore, this baby was on sale at our grocery store and that was the end of my resolve. This version of pulled pork was recommended by our post doc, who makes it regularly. She is one impressive, hard-working scientist, awesome runner (two marathons and countless half-marathons under her belt), and great cook. Yeah, she’s got it all… I confess that her praise of the crock pot was the final push for me to get it. This is one of her and her husband’s favorite recipes, and I can see why: the meat turned out melt in your mouth delicious, moist, with the right amount of spice and soooo easy to put together! As a bonus, clean up is a breeze: the surface basically cleans itself with no need for elbow grease. I am sold. Stay tuned for more adventures in the slow-cooking world…
PULLED PORK IN A CROCK POT
(from B.N.)
3 tablespoons paprika
1 to 2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup honey (I used 1/4 cup)
¼ cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
3 ½ pounds pork shoulder, cut in half
In a medium size mixing bowl, mix together the first six ingredients (all of the spices) with a fork. Pour in the honey, vinegar, and olive oil and stir to form a paste. Place the onion in the bottom of the slow cooker. Top it with the 2 pieces of pork and then pour the honey paste over all sides of the pork pieces. It’s okay if some of it (or a lot of it) just drips down to the bottom.
Turn the slow cooker on to low and cook for 7 to 8 hours or until the meat is tender enough to be easily shredded with a fork. Serve warm with fixings like homemade cole slaw and cornbread, if so desired.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
There is really something to be said for adding ingredients to a crock pot and coming back hours later to a delicious and effortless dinner. Some cuts of meat will work better than others, though. I think the key to mastering the slow cooker is not pushing its limits. If you add boneless chicken breasts to it and cook them on high for five hours, you’ll have dry, tasteless meat on your plate. Pork butt (or shoulder) is a nice match for the slow cooker because it has so much fat all through the meat, it will never get dry. I’ve been trying to perfect my favorite recipe for chicken thighs using the crock pot, but haven’t found the holy grail yet. I am getting close, though. You just wait!
As to this pulled pork, it was perfect! I like to enjoy mine in a pretty low-carb way, with guacamole and queso fresco crumbled on top, maybe a leaf of lettuce to wrap it up. Messy but tasty. Phil prefers to have his with some rice or corn tortillas. Do as you please. Of course the recipe makes a lot of pulled pork, so it is a great option for dinner parties, but I like to get a couple of dinners out of it, then freeze what’s left.
One more thing: there will be a lot of liquid inside the crock pot at the end of cooking. I strain it, de-grease it, and pour most of it over the shredded meat. You can save some of the sauce and freeze for later.
ONE YEAR AGO: The Pie of the Century
TWO YEARS AGO: Bon Bon Chicken
THREE YEARS AGO: Leaving on a Jet Plane
FOUR YEARS AGO: A Pearfect Drink
FIVE YEARS AGO: Ming Tsai Under Pressure
SIX YEARS AGO: Paris, je t’aime!
Bewitching Kitchen 
Ooo yum! I can see this piled into slider buns and topped with crunchy slaw……….. mmmmm
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A vision of paradise! 😉 for meat lovers, that is…
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I may not be in the market for a crockpot living mostly alone and with a rather petite kitchen, but I DO love this recipe and just have to try it soonest even if it means inviting every neighbour out of their autumnal gardens to have a taste 🙂 ! Love the amount of paprika [I presume sweet not smoked?] and that marriage twixt honey and vinegar . . . and then the cayenne for that last zing on the palate . . . wonderful and thank you!
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I have to say I like smoked paprika, but find it over used these days. It seems that people are adding it everywhere and I don’t see the point. In some recipe, a touch of it is more than welcome, but in this particular one, I rather use the regular paprika.
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I’ve only made pulled pork in my slow cooker, Sally. It is just so easy to do and no worries about the meat burning or drying out. I once had a pot roast recipe that relied on red wine gravy in a marinade and again then again in the braising liquid. It was very flavorful and I’m sure that the same would hold true for this pulled pork. I’ve always been a pulled pork sammich fan but thanks for the serving tips involving guacamole and queso fresco crumbled on top. One does not live on sammiches alone. 🙂
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Oh, I would have it in a sandwich too if I am in a carbo-loading day, but I must say those days are very spaced in this stage of my life… Still, no matter how you enjoy it, this is a winner!
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Wow, that looks amazing. There are some wonderful new slow cooker cook books out that aren’t just “dump and go” anymore. Congrats on your new Crock Pot!
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Yeah, the dump and go is never that great, is it? This is one dump and go recipe that works, but for many other cuts of meat, you need a little more love and tender care 😉
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I’m saving this one for when we get home and I have my crock pot. It looks amazing!!!! You have me drooling and absolutely craving pulled pork. I’ll have to revisit some of your other pulled pork recipes that don’t require a crock pot for now as I think we’ll need to make this very soon. 🙂
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One requires a pressure cooker (the second one), but the first one just an oven and many hours – I like them all, but I must say cleaning up the roasting pan is never fun, that’s why I loved the crock pot version so much. Even if I protect the roasting pan with foil, in the long roasting process the fat always seems to find its way into the pan.
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It’s funny I don’t have a lot of kitchen gadgets but I view the crockpot as falling into a different class – as essential as the coffee maker :). This sounds like the perfect crockpot meal – I’ve yet to make pulled pork in the slow-cooker but I’m continuously inspired by the delicious recipes I see. That one pot cleanup is the best, isn’t it?
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actually, when I washed the crock pot last time I did it (last week), I was so excited I went to show Phil, pointing at the shinning bottom of the crock pot – look at this! look at this! Have you EVER seen anything so gorgeous? But he seemed to be faking his enthusiasm. Not sure, but I did not feel he was being sincere. Kind of hurt my feelings.
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Ooooh, this does look awfully good. I keep wondering if we should cave in and get a slow-cooker. (Does it come with a nice empty shelf in the kitchen?)
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that is the drawback of the models in the market. I heard companies are working hard to add the shelf once they ship them, but engineers are having trouble with the design. Too bad… 😉
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It’s hard to beat pulled pork and this sounds delicious. Slow cookers for me have mixed reviews, many of the recipes end up tasting the same. I have one and use it mainly for soups or chili. I look forward to your perfected recipe for chicken thighs.
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I really think most recipes for slow cookers are not that good, they do not optimize timing and way to handle the ingredients, because the main goal is to have a “dump it and forget it” method. For some types of recipes you can definitely do that, but most will suffer. I really like the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook on Slow Cooker, and although for the most part very involved, the recipes work. Very few are the “dump it and forget it” type 😉
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