Pulled Pork Perfection

Pulled pork is now incredibly popular. The recipe below I’ve used a few times and makes an authentic, fantastic flavoured pulled pork. By slow cooking in the oven and then finishing off on the BBQ you get a really good result.

Ingredients

Pulled Pork Rub
½ Cup of Light brown sugar
⅓ Cup of Maldon Sea Salt
¼ Cup of Paprika
1 tbsp Chilli Powder
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp sugar in the raw
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp Dried Basil
½ tsp Ground Cumin
½ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Other Ingredients
2 onions, sliced
3 bay leaves
250ml Apple Juice
1 tbsp each mustard powder and smoked paprika
1½ -2kg pork shoulder, boned with rind attached and tied. Click Here to Purchase
140g tomato ketchup
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp soft dark brown sugar
¼ tsp chilli flake
8 Gourmet Burger rolls,

Cooking Instructions

  1. Combine all the rub ingredients together and grind in a food processor until well mixed.
  2. Take the piece of pork and generously apply the rub into every crevice. Then place the pork in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour, overnight is ideal. The remaining rub can be stored in a air tight container and used again. It works well with all meats especially chicken.
  3. Pre heat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/gas 3. Take a large roasting tray and scatter the bay leaves and sliced onion in the bottom. Place the pork rind side up on top of the onions. Now pour 250 ml of apple juice into the tray, if you have a meat injector you can also inject 50ml of the apple juice directly into the meat.
  4. Now wrap the tray well with foil and bake the pork for 4hrs. Check after 2 hours and add more apple juice if all the apple juice has evaporated. You can cook the pork up to 2 days in advance of the BBQ just leave it the oven tray and keep it covered in your fridge.
  5. Put some hickory chips to soak and light your BBQ. Take the ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and chilli flake and mix in a bowl. Remove the pork from the roasting tin and place the tin on the hob, pour the ketchup mixture into the roasting tin and allow it to bubble vigorously for 10 to 15 minutes until it reduces to a thick and glossy consistency. Now remove the bay leaves and pour the sauce into a food processor; blitz until smooth. Smear half the BBQ sauce mixture over the pork.
  6. One the barbecue flames have died down and the coals are white place the soaked hickory chips on them. Now place the pork skin side down on to the barbecue. Cook for approximately 15 minutes or until nicely charred then turn over and cook for another 10 minutes. The meat is very tender so be careful it doesn’t fall between the bars.
  7. Now lift the pork onto a large plate or tray. Remove string and peel off the skin. Now using 2 forks, shred the meat into chunky pieces. Add 3-4 tbsp of the barbecue sauce to the meat and toss everything well to coat. Pile into the gourmet rolls and serve with extra barbecue sauce and a little coleslaw.
Notes
  1. You can cook under a hot grill if you don’t have access to barbecue.
  2. Great served with homemade coleslaw.

By Chris Matthews

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