Barbeque Pulled Pork

I have a confession to make. I love to cook. I cook like crazy. I fill my fridge (and eventually my freezer) with more food than my son and I could ever eat. It makes me happy. But that's not my confession. My confession is this - I am a notorious recipe-follower. When people tell me I'm a great cook, I feel guilty, and I have to tell them - I'm really just quite good at following directions. But, about a year ago I started to venture, very tentatively, away from my recipes. First I just tweaked them a little bit, then a little bit more. Then I started combining them - I took ingredients I liked from one, techniques I liked from another, flavors I liked from another, and I kind of mushed them together into what usually (but not always!) turned out to be pretty good. With the exception of Aunt Jamie's tried and true cookie recipe, those are the recipes I've written down so far. There weren't many at first, but this summer, with little time on my hands, they've been coming together faster than I can post them.

Then, yesterday I finally did it. I didn't mean to at first. I was going to take a bottle of store-bought barbeque sauce and throw it in a dutch oven with a pork roast, then put it in an oven for a few hours for an easy meal. But, low and behold, I had no store-bought barbeque sauce. Granted, it would have been a lot quicker to run to the store and buy one, but once I got the idea in my head, there was no stopping me. I was going to come up with a recipe all by myself. No books, no internet searches, no Pinterest, just me and what bit of cooking sense I'd accumulated over the past five years or so (since I stopped nuking mini corn dogs and calling it dinner).

Why I chose barbeque, I don't know. I have made barbeque sauce from scratch (using a recipe) exactly four times. Every time, I thought it was either too vinegary, too sweet, or too ketchupy. So this was not my area of expertise. But, I figured I knew the basics - there should be some sweet, there should be some vinegar, ketchup should probably be the base (although next time, I might try going for tomato puree of some sort, I really would like to eliminate the high fructose corn syrup). And maybe something smoky? Out came the bacon, and there was no turning back from there.

In a large dutch oven, I sauteed bacon, half a yellow onion and half a red onion over medium low heat until the bacon was slightly browned and the bottom was coated with all sorts of nice, brown, crusty bits.. It's not important that the bacon get crispy here, we're going to be braising here, so it wouldn't stay crispy anyway, and with the moisture from the onions, you'd be waiting a long, long time.

 

Add four cloves of garlic and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I think next time, I'll use 1/4 tsp, which is reflected in the recipe below, but if you like it spicy stick with 1/2 tsp) and cook about 30 seconds. Then deglaze with half a cup of good, strong coffee. After I scraped all the fond up off the bottom, I dumped in the rest of the ingredients. I'll spare you all the details of all the adjustments I made after tasting it about a hundred times, but I think in the end I got just what I was going for.

Time to add the meat. I used a pork loin roast, because it's what I had. Pork shoulder would probably work better here, but I think whatever kind of meat you like would work - I'll probably try it with chicken or chuck roast next time. Add the meat and bring to a simmer, then put in a preheated oven at 275 degrees for 3-4 hours. I just kept testing the meat until it was falling apart. Remove the meat to a bowl and let cool until you can shred it. Meanwhile, return the dutch oven to the stovetop and reduce over medium heat until the sauce is thick and dark

When the sauce is nice and thick, fold it into the meat, then serve. I didn't have the ingredients for coleslaw on hand, but it would be the perfect accompaniment.

I thought it turned out pretty good for a first try. Now that I've broken the ice, I'm off to the kitchen to see what else I can dream up. It's like a whole new world! Here's the complete recipe:

Barbeque Pulled Pork

4 slices of bacon, diced

half a yellow onion, diced

half a red onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

1/2 cup brewed coffe

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup brown sugar

4 Tb apple cider vinegar

2 Tb Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp chipotle pepper powder

1 Tb yellow mustard (trust me!)

4-5 lb pork (I used loin, but shoulder would probably be better), or whatever meat sounds good!

Preheat your oven to 275 degrees

1. Saute the bacon and onions in a large, heavy bottomed dutch oven over medium heat until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

2. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, along with about a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, and saute, stirring constantly, until fragrant,  30-45 seconds

3. Deglaze with coffee, scraping up all the yummy bits from the bottom. Allow to bubble away until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes

4. Add the next seven ingredients (through mustard) and stir to combine.

5. Add the meat and bring to a boil, then cover and put in oven for 3-4 hours until the meat is extremely tender.

6. Remove the meat to a bowl and allow to cool slightly, then shred the meat with your hands or two forks.

7. Meanwhile, return the dutch oven to the stovetop and simmer over medium heat until it has reduced and thickened to desired consistency. This took me about 15 minutes, but the time may vary depending on how much liquid was released by the meat during braising.

8. Fold sauce into meat and enjoy!