Got to catch up on some sleep- just woke up...ahhhh.

Started making some Pulled Pork BBQ yesterday- really really easy here but it's looking and smelling great so far...

Pulled BBQ Pork

OK- You NEED a Crock Pot for this - like I've written before, get one. They are so easy to use that you really can't go wrong with using one for an easy meal like stew, chili, soups, etc.

Ingredients:

Brine:
1 Cup Kosher Sale
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Table spoon whole pepper corns
1 Gallon Zip lock bag

Pork:
1 Pork shoulder, pork butt, or pork something - it doesn't really matter though Pork Butt is traditional (I used Pork shoulder this time just because it was on sale for like $1.99 at the store).

1 bottle BBQ sauce - I used Stubbs Origninal for it this time, I haven't had it before so I'm hoping its good. I would avoid thick BBQ sauces if you can, and stick w/ a 'real' bbq sauce that is a little thinner in texture.

Some Ground Pepper

Thanks it!

What to Do:

1) Make brine as shown above- just pour ingredients into bag, add pork, and cold water- mix. Put in fridge for at least 3 hours, overnight is better.

2) Take out, rinse well.

3) Put pork in crock pot- add bottle of BBQ sauce.

4) Cook on 'High' for at least 8 hours, 12 is better. I did this one on 'Low' overnight so far (12 hours) and just turned it up to 'High' for another 5 hours. The longer and lower heat the better, as it breaks down the muscle fibers more and makes the meat more tender.

5) Take out meat when done. Move to a cutting board and shred by pulling at the meat with a fork. The meat should come off in little shreds, like pulled pork is normally. If this does not happen easily, put back into crock pot until done. The meat literally should fall apart.

That's it! Simple, Easy and really really cheap. It will also make a lot so you will be eating for a while.

I like mine on a nice crusty roll, but you can use hamburger rolls- or even put over egg noodles (the wide, flat, short noodles).

You can change this receipe up by using a teriaki marinade instead of a brine, pouring some of the marinade in with the Pork when in the crock pot - maybe adding some scallions near the end. I would probably put that over white rice or something, though egg noodles would do great as well.


By the way- is it just me or is the spell check on this blog site suck?

Also, let me tell you about the pork shoulder I bought. It was pretty funny, what I thought was a layer of fat on it was actually a thick layer of actual pig skin! I've never seen that before- maybe that's why it was so cheap! Anyway, I made sure to cut off the skin (it came off in one big strip) leaving some of the fat layer below. You need fat when BBQ'ing, as it helps with the flavor, and also helps keep the meat tender.

One of the things about pork (which I just heard on Good Eats last night) is that it is really lean and doesn't have much sodium in it (contrary to popular belief) and needs some help to not dry out. Hence the need for brining pork before cooking it. If you don't feel like brining the meat though, don't worry about it- because you are cooking it for so long I think the pork will still become very tendar and flavorful regardless!