Pulled Pork with BBQ Sauce - easy slow cooker recipe
Recipe video above. This may well be the juiciest, most flavourful pulled pork you ever have in your life! Homemade BBQ Sauce totally makes it. And there's no denying that using a slow cooker yields the juiciest pulled pork with very little effort. BIG BATCH recipe, 100% perfect for freezing, ideal for entertaining!Love this recipe? One day, try my ultimate Pulled Pork recipe.
Place all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes or until thickened.
Add 3/4 - 1 cup of juices from slow cooker until sauce is syrup consistency.
Adjust to taste: sweetness with brown sugar / honey, salt and sour with vinegar. Use per recipe.
Notes
1. Pork - Pork Butt (aka Boston Butt) or pork shoulder are the best for this recipe. They are nicely marbled with fat and need to be slow cooked in order to become tender enough to shred with little effort. Get bone in (pork butt almost always is, shoulder is sometimes not). Leave the thick layer of fat because it does all sorts of wonderful things to the meat as it slow cooks (it self bastes!).If it's got skin, best to remove if you can (so spice can infuse better) BUT not the tend of the world if you don't.Smaller pork - use recipe scaler if your pork is much less than 2.5kg/5lb.Will also work well with pork scotch fillet roast (aka pork neck) - 8 hours slow cook on low. Recipe will also work for leaner cuts of pork like loin and tenderloin but will require shorter cook times and end result not as juicy (because the meat isn't fatty enough).2. Liquid - Braising liquid for flavour infusion. Any beer other than dark beers like stout and Guinness. Hard or non alcoholic cider is also terrific (or pear cider). For non alcoholic, apple juice is my favourite. Emergency fallback: just use water!3. Vinegar - white wine or champagne vinegar also works well here. Plain white vinegar can also be used but reduce by 1 tbsp as it is a bit sharper.4. Molasses adds an extra richness to the Barbecue Sauce and also deepens the sauce colour to the dark brown we know and love about barbecue sauce!5. Other cook methods:
Pressure cooker / instant pot - With a slightly smaller pork (2-2.5 kg/4-5lb), I make this in my pressure cooker, 1 hr 20 minutes on high.
Oven - 7 to 8 hours at 130C/270F, covered with double foil in a roasting pan with 2 cups of water (plus the beer per recipe). I rarely do this simply because of logistics - I don't like to leave the house or sleep with the oven on! But by roasting, you do get an amazing crust which I compensate for by roasting the pork briefly after slow cooker. Note: slow cooker yields juicier pork.
6. Servings - This recipe makes a LOT! Partly because pork butts are BIG anyway, also because if you make this with a smaller piece, it cooks faster = less flavour.A 3.5kg/7lb bone in pork shoulder will comfortably feed 12 people if making a plate with sides.If making sliders with Coleslaw, it will easily make 20.7. Storage - freezes brilliantly, even after tossing with sauce. Or keeps in fridge for 4 days. Best reheated in microwave to keep things juicy and moist!8. Nutrition per serving, pork and sauce only. Calories are quite overstated. A lot of fat gets discarded with the slow cooker juices you don't use. But I have no way of calculating how much! So just know that the actual calories is less than shown below.