My easy pulled pork is the little black dress of meat dishes.  It can be dressed up or down, easy to pair with, and that beautiful cut will make you go Mmm mmm mmm all night long.

FYI: The pork shoulder comes from the front leg of the hog, and pork butt or Boston butt comes from the top part of the shoulder.  So when the label says pork butt, it is not the gluteus maximus, it is actually part of the shoulder.

In its most basic form, this dish only requires three ingredients: pork shoulder, a cooking liquid, and sauce.  But I’m going to take it up a few levels.  I bought a 7.5 lb bone in pork shoulder that was on sale for $0.99 a lb.  You can get bone in or boneless, it’s up to you.  To accompany the pork, I got out a bottle of beer, a sweet onion, a head of garlic, and granulated beef bouillon.

I have an 8 qt slow cooker, so that piece of pork was a good fit.  You shouldn’t fill your slow cooker over 2/3 full, so pick an appropriate size, or cut a larger piece to size.

Peel and cut the onion into large pieces.  Peel the whole head of garlic, but leave the cloves whole.  I did cut off the ends of the garlic though.  Pour the entire bottle of beer into the slow cooker, mix in a large heaping spoonful of beef bouillon, and add the onion and garlic.  Then put the pork shoulder on top.

Suggestions:

• Brown the meat before putting it in the slow cooker for extra flavor.  Pour the cooking oil and juices into the slow cooker.
• Pat the meat dry and rub a spice blend over the meat before placing it into the slow cooker.
• Instead of beer, you can try beef stock, chicken stock, apple juice, soda, apple cider vinegar, or a combination of the above mentioned liquids.  You only need enough liquid to cover the bottom of the slow cooker.
• Depending on what kind of dish you are making with the pork, consider stirring in tomato paste, ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, honey, molasses, soy sauce, sesame oil, sliced ginger, green onions, lemon grass stalks, paprika, cumin, chili powder, curry, liquid smoke.

Let the pork cook on high for about 4-6 hours, or on low for about 8-10 hours.  The cooking time depends on the slow cooker you use, the size of your meat, and how often you peek.  When you open the lid during cooking, heat and steam is released, which can take up to 30 minutes to replace, so try not to peek too often  The pork is ready once you can easily stab and shred the meat with a fork.

This is after 2 hours on high

Let the pork cool down enough to handle.  Look at that mouthwatering layer of skin and fat over that juicy tender meat.  The Yuengling gave it a light sweetness, which I thought tasted quite good,  I like to take the bone and clean off the remaining bits of meat on it.  And by clean off, I mean I will stand over the sink going caveman style at that meaty bone.  No waste!

I like to break out my Wolverine claws to rip the meat up, but a couple of forks will do.  Remove large chunks of fat and blood vessels.  After the meat is broken up into smaller pieces, I find it easier to use my fingers to finely shred the meat.  I also mashed up the onion and garlic into the pile of shredded meat.

Mix in a bottle of your favorite meat sauce after the pork is shredded.  I used a bottle sweet and smokey bbq sauce.  You can also use the cooking liquid to make your own bbq sauce, or save it for some other use.  There is a thick layer of fat on top, so be sure to skim it off first.  If you are not in a rush, let the liquid cool in the fridge until the fat hardens.  Then you can easily remove the entire layer of fat.

Suggestions:  Use Korean bbq sauce, Chinese bbq sauce, mole sauce, chimichurri sauce, curry sauce, whatever makes you drool.

Serving suggestions:

• Make fancy little appetizers at your next cocktail party
• Have a messy, finger licking backyard cook out
• Bbq pork sandwiches or sliders with cole slaw
• Add fresh and pickled vegetables for summer rolls or steamed buns
• For low carb, wrap the pork with vegetables in fresh lettuce or cooked cabbage
• Put shredded pork into tacos, fried rice, noodles, hand pies, and soup
• Freeezes well for a quick weeknight meal

These are pulled pork summer rolls I made with pickled radish, cilantro, Thai basil, mizuna leaves, and peanut sauce.  I know my rolls look ugly.  I’m working on it!!

These are pulled pork cabbage rolls I made with boiled red cabbage leaves, green bean and carrot salad, and cilantro.

Easy Pulled Pork
Ingredients
– 7-8 lb pork shoulder
– 1 12 oz bottle of beer
– 1 sweet onion
– 1 head of garlic
– 1 heaping tbsp of granulated beef bouillon
– 1 bottle of bbq sauce

Directions
– Peel and cut the onion into large chunks.  Peel the garlic and cut off the woody ends, but leave the cloves whole.
– Pour the beer into the slow cooker and mix in the beef bouillon, onion, and garlic.  Place the pork on top of the mixture.
– Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours until the meat shreds easily.
– Remove the pork from the slow cooker.  Shred the meat when it is cool enough to handle.  Mash up the onion and garlic and mix it into the meat.  Mix in the bbq sauce.