Crockpot Pulled Pork

This recipe ratio turned out tasting very good. There were a few changes to how I did this. The first being the lack of apple juice (one cup). I substituted one cup of unsweetened apple butter (made from winesap apples) plus one cup of water. Also, I didn't toss the cooking liquid from the crockpot, instead I reserved it to a pot and simmered it until it had the consistency of barbecue sauce again. This yielded 2.5 cups of sauce. The cut of pork that was used is called "country pork rib", and you can get this in a large multipack from Costco. It's the same cut style of pork that I use for my kimchi pork soup. The only onions in this batch is what is in the BBQ sauce.

Total prep/cooking time: 8 hours
Yields: 1 quart pulled pork (for 2 lbs of meat)

TheFoodening Blog - pulled pork

Ingredients

2-3 lbs boneless country pork rib

1 c unsweetened apple juice, or 1 c unsweetened apple butter plus 1 c water

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 c BBQ sauce (I used Trader Joe's Kansas City BBQ sauce)

Directions

In the crockpot, place pork on the bottom. Cover with cloves, apple butter, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and barbecue sauce. Add the water to the bottom (don't wash off the stuff on top of the pork).

Set the crockpot to high for 2 hours. Then, set the crockpot to low for 4 hours. After the 6 hour mark, drain the crockpot of its liquid to a separate pot, leaving a half inch of liquid at the bottom of the crockpot. Cook pork for an additional hour. Turn off heat and use two forks to shred the pork.

In the separate pot with the cooking liquid, simmer the liquid on low heat until it has more than reduced by half of its liquid volume. It should be somewhat runnier than the barbecue sauce that went into it but thick enough that it isn't watery.

Take a half cup of the reduced sauce and pour it over the shredded pork. Stir to combine. 

If you made the hamburger buns from the previous post, split those in half and place a good amount of pulled pork on the bottom bun and cover it with the top bun. Enjoy!

TheFoodening Blog - pulled pork on a homemade bun

Note: If you don't have a crockpot or slow cooker, you can also use a dutch oven and bake the pork until tender for 4 hours at 325 F. 

Quick Hamburger Buns

Made this to go with the pulled pork. Don't let the dough rise. That's all I have to say. Although, it'll rise somewhat after shaping the buns as the oven heats up to temperature. The first batch, I have no idea what happened. It turned into some lumpy, soupy mess. But the second time around, the dough came together just fine. The order of operations certainly is a factor here. Onto the recipe...

From mixing to kneading to forming into buns to baking, the prep takes less than an hour.

TheFoodening Blog - hamburger buns

Makes: 7 buns (at 4 oz to 4.25 oz raw dough)

Ingredients

1 c warm water
2 tbsp active dry yeast
1 large egg
1/3 c olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp + 1 tsp organic granulated sugar
3 cups all purpose flour + more for kneading
(optional) 1 egg + 2 tbsp water, for brushing tops of buns

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, add yeast to warm water plus 1 tsp sugar. If the yeast does nothing within 10 minutes (e.g., does not foam or make bubbles), toss it out and try again with fresher yeast.

Add the oil, sugar, and salt. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.

Whisk in the egg.

One cup at a time, whisk in three cups of flour. By now the dough should be a little runny but smooth. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until it isn't sticky any more.

At this point between flouring the board and kneading, I may have added up to a cup more flour.

If you don't have a kitchen scale, divide the dough into six equal pieces. If you do have a scale, make 4 oz balls of dough. Place buns a couple inches apart on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Brush tops of buns with egg wash.

Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Note: if you divide the dough into 12 pieces, you'll be making buns large enough for sliders

Note2: It would appear this is the second time I've written this recipe up. Although, the buns came out really good and not small like what happened before..