Texan Style Pulled Pork Food

TEXAS STYLE PULLED PORK

Steps:

• Remove pork butt from packaging, pat dry with a paper towel and trim of any excess fat.
• Rub a thin layer of mustard on all sides of the pork. This is used as a binder for the dry seasoning to adhere to.
• Mix equal parts of table salt and black pepper (about ¼ cup of each) and apply liberally to all surfaces of the pork butt.
• Transfer pork butt to your smoker grill, burning post oak wood around 275-300°. Lay the pork with the fat side toward your heat source.
• About once per hour, liberally spray the pork butt with a 50/50 mixture of apple cider vinegar and apple juice.
• Smoke for a total of about 6-7 hours until reaching an internal temperature of about 195°.
• Wrap the pork butt in heavy duty aluminum foil and allow to rest in a dry cooler for a minimum of 1 hour to allow the meat to retain the juices.
• After a sufficient amount of resting time, unwrap the pork and it should pull apart by hand with ease.

SLOW COOKER TEXAS PULLED PORK

Steps:

• Pour the vegetable oil into the bottom of a slow cooker. Place the pork roast into the slow cooker; pour in the barbecue sauce, apple cider vinegar, and chicken broth. Stir in the brown sugar, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, onion, garlic, and thyme. Cover and cook on High until the roast shreds easily with a fork, 5 to 6 hours.
• Remove the roast from the slow cooker, and shred the meat using two forks. Return the shredded pork to the slow cooker, and stir the meat into the juices.
• Spread the inside of both halves of hamburger buns with butter. Toast the buns, butter side down, in a skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Spoon pork into the toasted buns.
• My Note: ** The pork can also be cooked on Low for 10 to 12 hours. **
• I used a 5 pound roast. I put some of the extra meat in the fridge for later and still had a lot of leftover meat. I filled my muffin pan with scoops of meat. Each individual muffin tin holds the same as a typical sandwich. I put the muffin tin in the freezer and froze the individual serving size leftovers. After about 2 hours I took the tin out removed the meat muffins. Next they went into a ziploc and they will not all stick together. To reheat just pop one in the microwave on 50% power. These are great for a quick sandwich, with rice, with beans, or with eggs.
• This is the perfect weekend bbq/potluck food, and went great with grilled corn on the cob and red potato salad. Also, when you shred the meat you can remove most of the fat. I think you could do without the oil. I used kraft honey bbq sauce - just what I had on hand. SOOOO tasty. Some can't stop eating this.
• I pulled 40 lbs. of pork using this recipe for my grand son's graduation party. I also froze it before reheating it in crockpots. I received many compliments. It turned out much more moist than the root beer recipe I tried earlier. I did serve BBQ on the side, but I'm not sure it needed it.

DADDY'S PULLED PORK- TEXAN STYLE!

Steps:

• Combine molasses, salt, and water a container that is at least 6 quarts in size. Add pork making sure it is completely submerged in brine, cover, and let sit in refrigerator for a minimum of 8 hours. 12 hours is ideal.*(Note: I have run out of molasses before and used a mixture of 1 part molasses and 1 part dark corn syrup and 1/2 part dark brown sugar.)*.
• Rub: Combine all ingredients for rub mix in a small mixing bowl and stir to mix well. Feel free to adjust the amount of pepper if you want it spicier. You will have spice left over but do not worry. It makes a great rub for chicken, pork or beef, grilled or cooked inside.
• Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Make some punctures in the meat with a sharp knife and rub the spice rub evenly all over the meat, patting to to make sure as much of the rub as possible adheres. More rub will adhere to the meat if you are wearing latex gloves during the application. I let it sit for about 10-15 minutes and add more rub until I have a really good coating all over the pork. Do not worry it will be too spicy. You have a large amount of meat to season. It cooks into the meat and some even drips off into the juices. All this makes a crust of sorts on the meat that is amazing and helps to seal in a lot of the juices.
• Preheat smoker to 210 degrees F. Place pork in smoker and cook for 10 to 12 hours, maintaining a temperature of 210 degrees F.
• After 10 hours of low smoking, insert a fork into the meat in a few places. If the meat falls apart easily when pulling with a fork it is done. If you do not want to smoke it that long or you have to go somewhere (like to bed! lol ) I have taken it off the heat after about 4 hours and placed it in a roaster. Cover the meat with foil and put in oven on the lowest setting and allow to cook until done. I sometimes do this before I go to bed if I do not feel like 'pulling' all the pork at that time.
• Remove the meat to a large pot or roaster if you have not done so already in the previous step and allow it to cool for at least 1 hour or until the meat is cool enough to handle.
• Sandwiches: Pull meat apart with 2 forks or with your hands (I wear latex gloves again) discarding fat if you desire. Serve on buns as a sandwich with your favorite BBQ sauce or top a baked potato with the BBQ sauced meat.
• Roast: Slice against the grain as thin or thick as you like. Great served with any type of gravy. You may want to remove the roast a little before the falling apart stage for slices that are neater.
• The juices that accumulate in the roaster make a wonderful gravy. I always remove the fat from the juices first bc pork can be very fatty.
• Note: If you use the smoker/oven method you will have more accumulated juices as they will be saved in the roaster rather than fall in the fire.

SLOW COOKER TEXAS PULLED PORK

Steps:

• Pour the vegetable oil into the bottom of a slow cooker. Place the pork roast into the slow cooker; pour in the barbecue sauce, apple cider vinegar, and chicken broth. Stir in the brown sugar, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, onion, garlic, and thyme. Cover and cook on High until the roast shreds easily with a fork, 5 to 6 hours.
• Remove the roast from the slow cooker, and shred the meat using two forks. Return the shredded pork to the slow cooker, and stir the meat into the juices.
• Spread the inside of both halves of hamburger buns with butter. Toast the buns, butter side down, in a skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Spoon pork into the toasted buns.

TEXAS STYLE SLOW COOKER PULLED PORK

Steps:

• Set slow cooker to low heat. Add all ingredients except pork roast to slow cooker and stir until well blended. Allow mix to heat for 5-10 minute
• Add one 4lbs roast to the slow cooker. Baste roast with juices in the crock pot. Cover with lid and allow to cook for 8 hours on low or until pork shreds easily with a fork. If you so choose you can cut cooking time down to approximately 5 hours by cooking on high. I recommend the low setting for best results.
• Once pork roast will shred easily with a fork remove roast from slow cooker and shred roast using two forks. Return meat to slow cooker and stir meat in to the juices.
• Pork is now ready to serve.
• Best served on buttered toasted pub buns, but potato buns or regular hamburger buns will work.