Pulled Pork Sandwiches from Heaven

When it’s freezing outside, there’s only one thing on my mind: getting and staying warm. I have this issue with cold toes. When my toes are cold, it doesn’t matter how warm the rest of me is, I feel cold.

During the week, this is a rare occurrence because my school building is quite warm. My students often laugh at me because it’ll be 20° outside and I’ll have the window open because I’m so warm. At home though? My toes are cold.

One thing that helps to get and keep me warm is a hearty meal, preferably one with a bit of spice that can warm me from the inside out. A weekend is usually an opportunity to try something new, so this past weekend I threw some stuff together and hoped for the best.

“The best” is exactly what I got. I made homemade sandwich bread (recipe to come soon), a truly phenomenal pulled pork recipe, and the whole thing was topped with local cheddar cheese. Well, local as in Wisconsin.

A last minute addition to the sauce recipe turned out to be the keystone to this recipe. WIthout it, I think it would’ve been good. With it, it was great. “It” was a bit of whiskey. We’re not big drinkers, but we do have whiskey in the house, and I think I’ve used more of it in recipes than we’ve drank over the years.

The best part about this pork? It took exactly 15 minutes to prepare. The cooking time is merely an estimate, as most slow-cooker times are. I cooked ours for 6 hours, but it was done at 5. The key is to take the meat off the bone, shred it, then let it cook in the sauce for another hour.

Slow-Cooker Whiskey Pulled Pork

Ingredients (10-12 servings)

• 1 3-4 lb. pork shoulder
• 3 medium onions, chopped
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon onion powder
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup whiskey or bourbon
• 2 Tablespoons molasses
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Instructions

Place the chopped onions at the bottom of your slow cooker.

Salt all sides of the pork shoulder, then place it on top of the onions. Mix all the ingredients together except the broth and pour over the pork.

Pour the broth into the slow cooker without pouring it over the pork.

Cook on low heat for 5 hours.

Remove the pork from the bone if needed, shred the meat, then cook on high for another hour (or two if necessary!)

Serve with barbecue sauce, if desired.

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Since the pork cooked for so long, the fat rendered off of it and could be skimmed off the top of the sauce. If you’re so inclined, the sauce could be reduced on the stove top for serving. We used some of our favorite BBQ sauce that I picked up at the FoodBuzz Festival, J. Lee Roy’s.

Was this a perfect South Beach Diet meal? Absolutely not. There was a bit of sugar in the sauce/marinade recipe, and obviously carbs in the bread. BUT, it’s a huge improvement on the previous pulled pork recipes I’ve made which have been laden with sugar-heavy BBQ sauce. I’m calling it “an improvement”.

Some of you may have noticed the new “30 Days” page listed in my header menu. I’m participating in a 30-day challenge with some of my students, and my challenge to myself is to cook and/or eat a healthy meal a day, photograph it, and post it on that “30 Days” page. This will then be shared with my students! It’s a pretty cool project, and I’m excited to participate!

Oh, and in case you were wondering? My toes were warm after eating this sandwich!

Tagged as: bread, crockpot, pork, sauce, simple recipe, South Beach Diet