A New Challenger has arrived!
Hello fellow food lovers. I have decided that I will take on "Man Food's" Pulled Pork with my own pulled pork recipe. Though this might cause a little rivalry in the family at Best Served Hot, I welcome it with open arms and a empty stomach.
I have tasted both this recipe and Man Food's recipe and let me say this. The recipe before this wasn't man food.. It was more along the lines of "Boys Food." That's right, JB step aside, for your baby brother is coming to play.
I would like to start off by saying that making this is extremely easy, all you need to do is to set several hours set aside. Might I also add not starting this around 5pm, this would ensure you're not up at 2am. I would also like to say that if I am capable of making this awesome food in the space that I am currently living, than you my fellow readers have no excuse as to why you can't make something this delicious. I say this because this entire recipe was created and completed in a kitchen at a Fraternity House; see what I mean by having no excuses??? Now man up
Okay, now lets push the sibling rivalry aside because we will know who the winner is (and please Linzatart, leave this recipe to the men).
This recipe can normally feed, lets say 6 people. Or in my case 3 - 4 hungry Fraternity Brothers.
Here's what you'll need:
- 6 - 8 lb Pork Shoulder (Actually use shoulder, and not tender loin like the other recipe shows... please and thank you)
- 2 Cans ( 24 oz ) of Root Beer
- About half bottle of Blue Moon (what was already opened)
- 1 Bottle of a Spicy BBQ Sauce
- 2 Tbls Vinegar
- 2 Cloves Garlic (Grated)
- 1 Medium Onion (Grated)
- 2 Tsp Crush Red Peppers
- 1 Tbls Tomato Paste
- 1 Tsp Cumin
- Salt and Pepper
- 6 Large Rolls
- 1 Crock Pot
- 1 Large pot
First thing is first. If your using shoulder it is time to remove the bone from the shoulder. Don't be afraid grab a knife and start cutting. You don't have to cut the bone out in 1 cut, you are allowed to cut pieces of meat and throw them into the crock pot. I chose to leave the skin on the meat which will be explained later. Once you managed to wrangle the bone out of the meat, throw it away. (NOTE: People like to think its smart to give the bone to animals... DON'T). Next, start adding your ingredients, (DON'T ADD THE BLUE MOON) I chose to leave the the garlic and onion for last because I needed to find a cheese grater. Once you added all the ingredients use the mini grater on a cheese grater to grate the onion and garlic. Stir and mix well. Cover your crock pot and put on HIGH for 3 hours.
Okay, welcome back gang! It's time to check on that pulled pork! WHAT?!? There's a bunch of liquid and it doesn't look that pretty? Relax, it's supposed to be like that. Now stir your mixture again and just make sure it's still there. It is now time to turn it to LOW for about 6 hours. You want to check on the meat starting at the 6th hour. I did this ever hour until I was able to pull the pork apart with ease.
Phew! Alright, I hope you didn't start this at 5 pm like I did; because it would be getting awfully late right now! So its about time that this pork is able to be pulled apart with two forks, and if it is take all the pork out of the juices and put it onto a very, very large plate. WAIT! Before you go ape shit and start shredding the pork like no one's business take the thick skin off!
Heat up a large pot and wait until its extremely hot. Throw in a little oil and throw in that pork skin! The skin has a lot of flavor in it, so cook that up for 10 - 15 minutes on a medium to medium high heat. This is when that Blue Moon beer comes into play, throw that in the pot and scrap the flavors off the bottom. Now add the sauce in batches. This is when I started pulling the pork apart. I chose a ladle and ladled in roughly a quarter of the juice at a time, waiting 10 - 20 minutes between each one. Once all of the juices are boiling, make sure you grab a weapon of choice to beat off any hungry scavengers picking at your pile of delicious food. For safe keeping transfer pork into a large bowl and cover with foil. I fought off these hungry vultures for almost 2 hours while my sauce rendered down into a thick, delicious sauce.
Heat up a large pot and wait until its extremely hot. Throw in a little oil and throw in that pork skin! The skin has a lot of flavor in it, so cook that up for 10 - 15 minutes on a medium to medium high heat. This is when that Blue Moon beer comes into play, throw that in the pot and scrap the flavors off the bottom. Now add the sauce in batches. This is when I started pulling the pork apart. I chose a ladle and ladled in roughly a quarter of the juice at a time, waiting 10 - 20 minutes between each one. Once all of the juices are boiling, make sure you grab a weapon of choice to beat off any hungry scavengers picking at your pile of delicious food. For safe keeping transfer pork into a large bowl and cover with foil. I fought off these hungry vultures for almost 2 hours while my sauce rendered down into a thick, delicious sauce.
Welcome back Comrade! Did you win the victory over the hungry vultures??? Good. Now that the sauce is rendered down and is thick and amazing looking. It is time to strain out the skin and transfer that sauce into the bowl filled with that delicious pulled pork. I did this with slotted spoons, but if you have a wire mesh strainer that would be a million times easier. Mix the sauce into the pulled pork and call those hungry vultures; it's time to feast.
By the time I finished, it was 2 am, (I even tweeted how normal that is for me).
When we first tasted this, our first expressions were:
