Dinner Dates: Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Saucy Pulled Pork
The Slow Cooker Collection

Outta 10: Let us preface this with the following. We tried another pulled pork recipe a while ago and it was AWESOME, so this had a lot to live up to. This smelled really good while we were preparing this and while it was in the slow cooker. We're not gonna lie, at first we weren't super into this, but it kind grew on us while we were eating. I still don't think its as good as that original recipe we had a while back, but it holds its own. So we have decided to give this a 7/10.

Substitutions and Comments: We don't know if the cut that this recipe suggested was the best one. We think if we were to make this again, we would use a loin roast instead of a shoulder blade roast. We found that this roast was a bit too tough to pull apart. Although by the time we ate it, it was nice and soft. Also a 3 1/2 lb pork roast was WAY too much, so we got a 2.5lb one. This was still way too much, but they didn't come any smaller. We browned the meat and prepared the sauce the night before and then just put it all in the slow cooker in the morning. We also let it simmer for 15 minutes at the end instead of just 4. We used our own homemade sauce which since it is naturally thicker also replaced the tomato paste. We used gluten-free Worcestershire sauce. Also, shame on us, we totally forgot to add the green onions at the end.

Recipe:

3 1/2lb boneless pork shoulder blade roast
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground coriander
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 can (14 oz) tomato sauce
2 tbsp each packed brown sugar and cider vinegar
2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 green onions, sliced.

1. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. In dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat; brown pork all over. Transfer to slow cooker.

Browned Pork

2. Drain all but 1 tbsp fat from Dutch oven; reduce heat to medium. Fry onions, garlic, chili powder, coriander and bay leaves, stirring often, until onions are softened, about 5 minutes.

3.Add tomato paste; cook, stirring, until darkened, 2 minutes. Add tomato sauce, sugar, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce; bring to boil, scraping up brown bits. Scrape into slow cooker. Cover; cook on low until tender, 8 to 10 hours.

Sauce and pork in slow cooker before cooking

4. Transfer pork to cutting board; cover and keep warm for about 10 minutes. With 2 forks, shred or "pull" pork.

Shredded pork - no sauce

5. Meanwhile, skim fat from liquid. If liquid measures more than 3 cups, bring ot boil in shallow saucepan over high heat; boil until reduced to 3 cups, 15 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Add pork.