I love pork, but I'd never cooked pulled pork. It seemed a bit hard. I would read everyone's facebook posts about pulled pork and I'd think, Gee those people are clever! Then one day, I woke up determined to cook some pulled pork by jinkies! If I failed, then I would never speak of it again. So I did some internet research (leaning heavily on this), came up with my own recipe, and guess what? It came out alright! It was delicious! Yay!
Besides being delicious, the best part is that it cooks in the slow cooker all day, and you just pull a few easy things together in the half hour before dinner. Then everyone can build their own fajita at the table! I've left chili out of the rub to suit small children in my house, feel free to include as much as you like.
Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- about 2 kg of pork shoulder, in one piece.
- olive oil
- salt
- 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
- Rub ingredients
- I tablespoon of fennel seeds
- half a tablespoon of peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
- 4 cloves of garlic
- BBQ sauce ingredients
- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
- 4 tablespoons of molasses (or use brown sugar if you like)
- 1 tablespoon of horseradish (or hot mustard, or chili)
Method
- First, lets action the pork. Cut the skin off, place it in a small baking dish lined with baking paper. Sprinkle with salt and a little olive oil, cover and refrigerate until later. You could put it in the freezer for extra crackling when you next cook roast pork, but I couldn't deprive my youngest child from adding pork skin to his fajita. He has a crackling deficiency. #true
- Use a mortar and pestle to grind all of the rub ingredients into a paste, chop the garlic a bit first to make it easier on yourself. It won't be a smooth paste, but amalgamate it as much as you can and it will soften in the cooking, I promise.
- Before you massage the rub into your pork, flash fry the pork in a fry pan using a little bit of olive oil; then after it has cooled a little, rub the rub (heh) into the pork, making sure you get into all the nooks and crannies. It sounds weird to do it this way, but if you put the rub on first it would burn in the fry pan, and we don't want that.
- Put the pork into the slow cooker. Pour the vinegar over the top, put the lid on and set it to low. Cook for about 5 hours or so.
- 30 minutes before you are ready to eat, lift the pork out of the slow cooker (it will fall apart at this stage, so be careful!) Leave it to rest under a blanket of foil, and a tea towel. When you are ready to eat, use two forks to shred the meat. It will be easy! The hardest thing about doing this is stopping yourself from shoveling it in your mouth. (What, just me?)
BBQ Sauce
- Pour the pork juices into a saucepan with the remaining sauce ingredients, stir over high heat until the sauce is reduced. Taste test - you might want to adjust seasonings. When ready, pour some over the shredded pork and put the rest in a jug for the table.
Other Fajita ingredients for the table
- The crackling! Go back in time about an hour and whack it into a very hot oven, then cut into strips and place in it's own dish on the table.
- Simple Coleslaw. Its traditional and the clean crunchiness is a nice contrast to the rich pork. Finely shred some cabbage, carrot, and cucumber and toss into a bowl. Sprinkle with some rice wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar) and a little oil.
- Pico de Gallo! Chopped tomatoes, green onions, red onions, coriander, parsley, minced chili, a pinch of salt, the juice of 1 large lemon and a glug of oil. Combine in a bowl and rest for 10 minutes at room temperature. Actually, this is nice just with corn chips.
- Whole lettuce leaves to use as a waterproof liner on the fajitas and stop them going soggy.
- PLUS grated cheddar, sour cream, Srirarcha or other chili sauce of your choice, fajita bread warmed in the oven, sliced, perfectly ripe avocado, plenty of napkins.......
NOM. I've read recipes that say there will be leftovers but seriously? No such thing this time. Hope you love this as much as we did!
xx