How much does this one love pulled pork? Let me count the ways…

I love it in sandwiches, I love it on coleslaw, I love it on grilled bread and I love it by itself.

So how does one make a great batch of pulled pork? You start with a great hunk of pork butt (a.k.a. pork shoulder) and a low and slow cooking implement – either a slow cooker or a Dutch Oven. For this go round – we’ll be using a cheap slow cooker (like the Crock-Pot 3qt that runs under $25 on Amazon) to turn our pulled pork dream in to reality.

I usually get my pork butt from one of 3 places and they all depend on a variety of reasons:

1. Costco – because I need to feed an army and nothing like a 6-8 pound pork butt will do
2. Amazon Fresh – because I need it before the sun comes up the next morning, so I can make dinner for that night
3. BB Ranch Butcher in Pike Place Market – because I want the best pork butt on the planet and because it is two blocks from my office

For this go-round I picked up a ~3 pound pork butt on Amazon Fresh and cut it in to racquetball sized chunks (just a bit smaller than a baseball) and dropped it in to the slow cooker with some smashed garlic gloves and 2 finely diced sweet onions.

Typically – I like to brown the pork butt to give it some extra crispiness and to help develop the taste just a bit further, but given I had 10 minutes to put this together I cut a few corners (having twins really does suck time out of a morning faster than I can imagine).

With the pork butt in the slow cooker then you just dump in a whole bunch more awesome-sauce…

And by awesome sauce I mean this – Tom Douglas Ancho Molasses sauce – which is simply amazing on pulled pork and then I toss in some smoked paprika, some salt+pepper, and some garlic powder. But before I forget I always dump in some Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce and then mix it up. To mix it up – don’t break out a spoon because it just won’t work.  Shake the slow cooker a bit, so it all settles and you’ll see some air bubbles come to the top as the air pockets between pork butt pieces settle.

Then walk away.

Go away for at least a work day.

No seriously… leave it alone and do any number of other things.

Come back after work or working in the yard or a day of running errands.

Pull out the pork pieces and shred up the pork in to fork sized pieces. If you want to get a bit fancier you can shred the pork and sear it in a pan to caramelize some of the sauce and it’ll taste even better.

Once you are ready you can serve on top of coleslaw, or on top of grilled bread or on top of nothing and just soak in the glorious pulled pork flavor – ENJOY!

Up next – pulled pork leftovers and kitchen knife reviews…