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Southwestern Pulled Pork
As promised, here’s the pulled pork recipe from our football feast a few weeks ago (I’ve been a little delinquent with posts since classes have started up again, I know…sorry!). We went to the boy’s dad’s house to watch the games…this was back when the Pats beat up the Broncos and the next day the Giants surprised everyone by eliminating the Superbowl favorites, the Green Bay Packers. We didn’t want to spend the weekend in the kitchen cooking because there was playoff football to be watched! And to boot, both of our teams were playing. Just in case anyone has the wrong idea…I’m all about the PATS! Tom Brady = my God. I wouldn’t want anyone to be mistaken as to where my allegiance lies. Now that we’ve cleared that up, I can talk about the pulled pork we made.
I found this recipe on one of my most favorite sites: Smitten Kitchen, which is on my list of favorite foodie websites. The Smitten Kitchen recipe is actually for pulled brisket, but I loved the flavors so much I decided to go ahead and apply it to pork. I didn’t want to make a heavy pulled pork that was saturated in thick and sweet barbeque sauce. This recipe is lighter and we served it “taco” style with tortillas and other Mexican accoutrements: mojo sauce, cheese, limes, sliced radishes, chopped onions and scallions.
It’s probably one of the easiest recipes too since it’s all cooked in a slow cooker. We made it at the boy’s house and transported the slow cooker and cooked it for about 12 hours at his dad’s house. The results were (from what I heard) awesome. The meat was tender, juicy, and falling off the bone when it was finished cooking. This would be great to serve for the Super Bowl. It’s a great no-frills dish that you can leave in the slow cooker throughout your party and have people serve themselves. Oh, and its delicious and packed with flavor. Serve it up with some margaritas or mojitos or both!
Ingredients:
– 7 lb pork shoulder (bone-in)
– vegetable oil
– black pepper and kosher salt
– 8 large cloves garlic, minced (I know it seems like a lot, but remember it’s for 7 lbs. of meat)
– 1 large Spanish onion, thinly sliced
– 2 tablespoons chili powder
– 4 teaspoons ground coriander
– 4 teaspoons ground cumin
– 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
– 3 cups water
– 1 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
– 6 chipotle peppers (add more or less depending on how spicy you want…I used 6 and it gave the pork a good kick without making it super spicy)
– 4 dried bay leaves
– 1/2 cup molasses
Directions:
1. Season the pork butt generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet until it begins to smoke. Add the meat and cook turning so it sears and forms a crust on each side, about 15 minutes total. Transfer the meat to the slow cooker.
2. Add the garlic, onion, chili powder, cumin, and coriander to the drippings in the skillet and cook for a minute, until fragrant.
3. Add the vinegar and boil until it is gone (be careful not to inhale the vinegar in this step…it is not pleasant!). Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to pick up all the yummy brown bits.
4. Stir in the water and pour over the pork in the slow cooker.
5. Crush the tomatoes into the slow cooker over the pork. Add the tomato juices, chipotles, bay leaves, and molasses. Cover the cooker and cook the pork on low for 12 hours.
6. When the pork is finished cooking, remove from the slow cooker and pull the meat apart, discard the bones and any excess fatty parts. Strain the remaining sauce from the slow cooker to remove the bay leaves and other mushy vegetables. Put the strained sauce back in the slow cooker, add back the pulled pork and keep it on the warm setting.
7. Serve with tortillas, cheese, the mojo sauce (recipe below) scallions, onions, limes, and any other toppings you like.
If you make this, you must try the mojo sauce…its very citrusy, with lots of cilantro and really brightens up the pork. It’s so easy to make, you just throw everything in a blender:
Mojo sauce:
– 4 garlic cloves
– 1 jalapeno pepper
– 1 large handful cilantro
– Juice of 2 limes
– Juice of 1 orange
– 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
– salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Adjust salt and pepper. (*I did not have a blender or food processor at my disposal, so I just chopped everything finely and mashed it together, which worked just as well)