Slow Cooker Pulled Pork - Men Food Flavor

Men Can Cook Chef Level: Lightweight

Yields about 10 servings

Intro

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork is great and what I like to call a builder recipe. What do I mean by that? Well, it creates a lot of really good seasoned meat that you can use to create several other wonderful meals. Now, this is simple and easy to do!

You are going to need your 6 to 8-quart Slow Cooker for this one because you want a 3 to 5-pound pork shoulder. I like to get one with the bone in. I will not trim too much fat off of it, but that really just depends on the shoulder you get and your personal preference. Just remember that fat equals flavor, so balance that out with your fat intake goals.

I now get most of my meat from Butcher Box that I signed up for a little over a year from now. I signed up for every other month a custom box. I tend to get a few add on when I need to. Butch Box is great in that once you are a member they also suggest different deals to add ons or they offer lifetime onetime fee ad on. For instance for $20 one time I added Bacon for life. I now get bacon in every box. Anyway, their meat is of the highest quality and I just really like how it tastes compared to my local grocery & butcher.

Back to the Pork Shoulder, you are going to put a really good and simple rub on it and then cook it on a low setting for several hours. Once it’s done you will be able to pull the bone right out and shred the meat very easily. I usually divided it up into several containers and save them for other recipes I plan for later in the week. On the day I made it, however, I added some BBQ sauce to a portion of the meat. I then added it to a bun for a tasty BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich.

Beer pairing

For Slow Cooker Pulled Pork I’d pair a pale ale with this one. The Hops tend to dance nicely with the spices of the Rub. Also, the malt from the beer matches great with the savory meat. The Pale ale’s notes tend to help nicely cleanse your palate as you sip and eat the Slow Cooker Pulled Pork.

Now I’m going to make a region beer suggestion for this one that may not be available where you are located. Just know that most pale ales will work, I just want to be more specific here for my own fun in writing this blog recipe.

With that said Fat heads makes this Strange Magic IPA which does all of the above pairing descriptions nicely. Now just some info on Strange Magic. It is a 6.5% ABV, so not a sessionable IPA, but has a reasonable ABV. The IBU’s are 65 they use a California Ale yeast. The Hops used are Warrior, Mosaic, Simco, Citra-Pellet, Leaf & Cryo. If you wish to know more about Fat Heads head on over through this link.

Men you can do this!

Ingredients

3.5 LB to 5LB Pork shoulder
2 tsp of Smoked Paprika
2 tsp of Dried Thyme
½ tsp of ground black pepper
¼ cayenne pepper
2 tsp of salt
5 to 6 Garlic Cloves

Directions

Look over the pork shoulder and see if you want to trim any of the fat off. (In my case I didn’t need to take any off)
Take a small bowl and combine all of the spices except the Garlic Cloves.
Take a small amount of either olive oil or cooking spray and spray or rub the oil over the Pork Shoulder. This will give the rub you just made something to stick to.
Start to sprinkle and rub the spices all over the Pork Shoulder.
Spray your slow cooker with a cooking spray and place the Garlic Cloves in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Add the pork shoulder to the slow cooker and set it to Low with the lid secure.
Cook time is 7 to 8 hours on Low. This is my recommendation for the cooking of the shoulder. However, you can put it on High to shorten the cooking time to 3 to 3 ½ hours.
Once cooked the shoulder bone should come right out and you can shred the meat with two forks to make the pulled pork.
Now you can separate portions into containers for later recipes or you can add in a bottle of BBQ sauce and leave the slow cooker on warm for Sandwiches.