Slow-Roasted Pulled Pork

Alright, guys. To kick off the revival of KP, I bring you a very, very unkosher meal.

Slow-Roasted Pulled Pork

Ingredients:
1 3-4 lb. pork shoulder (also called "pork butt")
2 cups chicken broth/stock
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (include the sauce)
2 onions, cut in half
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
A few tbs. ketchup
A few tbs. barbecue sauce
Splash of apple cider vinegar


Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2) Heat up a large Dutch oven on high heat and add enough vegetable oil to coat the pan.

3) Season the pork generously with salt and pepper, then begin to sear in the pan (a good 4-5 minutes on each side for it to get nice and brown and caramelized).

4) Add to your pot the chicken broth (to deglaze), chipotle peppers, ketchup, and barbecue sauce.** Stir! You want the liquid to go about halfway up the meat, so if you are short on liquid you can add some water or more broth.

5) Nestle the onions and garlic around the pork.

6) Cover the pot and roast in the oven for 2.5 hours, until pork is really tender and pulls apart easily.

**Here's where you can get crazy with it. The idea is getting a really flavorful braising liquid, for this will be your sauce later! So, you can feel free to add any of the following items: beer, mustard, cinnamon, tomato paste, liquid smoke, etc. Get creative!

7) Once your pork is out of the oven and cool enough to handle, pull it apart with your fingers or with 2 forks. Ta-da! Now you have pulled pork.

8) Meanwhile, take a look at all that tasty juice in your pot! Remember that flavorful braising liquid? Well, now it's even MORE delicious because it's infused with pork! And pork fat. In making this recipe for the third time, I think I finally settled on using a fat-separator as the best method for getting some of the fat out of this liquid. Just pour all the liquid into the fat separator, let it sit for a while, and then pour out the lean stuff. Alternatively, you could keep all the liquid in the pot and then skim off the fat when it rises to the top. Either way, I highly recommend straining the fat out, or else you'll have a big gelatinous mess the next day after it's been in the fridge, and it's not really so appetizing.

9) After the liquid has been strained, put it back into the pot and turn up the heat so that the sauce reduces down and thickens. Add your pulled pork to that, and stir. At this point I like to stir in some more barbecue or adobo sauce for flavor.

10) Serve alongside some cornbread with some yummy greens!

Seasoned pork shoulder

Gettin' browned

Everybody in!

I have to apologize for not having a final-product photo. Everything was just so delicious that I forgot to document it! Anyway, this whole pulled-pork shebang is an example of my favorite cooking method for meat: braising. It's all about cooking slowly on low-heat with liquid--and it makes everything tender, juicy, and delicious. I served the pulled pork with cornbread this time around, but the last time I made it I served it as pulled-pork tacos--accompanied with an apple cider vinegar slaw, avocado, cilantro, and lime. Or you could do it as a BBQ sandwich, with grilled corn and potato salad and all those good seasonal trimmings. Oh, summer! You've finally arrived!