Barbeque Pulled Pork

HyVee had a sale on pork shoulder (99 cents a pound!) and I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for. This is another recipe from the crock-pot cookbook my Mom has (the one with Curried Split Pea Soup).

I didn't want to buy too much for this recipe so I made some substitutions. This mostly occurred in the spice rub department. Also, I don't know about anyone else, but I enjoy trimming meat and rubbing it. Trimming the fat off a big hunk of meat is kind of entertaining, it becomes a challenge of trying to get off as much fat but not taking off actual meat. And as for the rubbing, you're rubbing pure flavor into a hunk of meat. It's like a flavor massage.

For my spice rub, I used a collection of things I thought would taste good (Von Hanson's Special Spice, chili powder, brown sugar, black pepper).

In my crock-pot, I layered the bottom with onions, added some BBQ sauce and chicken broth. Then on top of that tasty mess I placed my hunk of meat.

After 8 hours on low, I was seriously excited.

The recipe says to only keep 1 cup of the onions. I couldn't really tell where the onions were since the meat was falling apart and I figured those onions were basically pork-flavored so I kept whatever I found. The meat shredded itself (with a little help from my tongs) and I mixed in the remaining BBQ sauce.

Now, other cooks might have really cute catch-phrases and such (Rachel Ray = yummo), I happen to channel the Kool-Aid Man and just say, "Oh yeah!" in that voice. I think I said, "Oh yeah!" about five times when I was saucing the meat. Oh my goodness, it was good. Just the right amount of sauce, juicy and crock-pot tender. I hope it freezes well because I have a lot of "Oh yeah!" goodness.

Barbeque Pulled Pork
Makes 10 cups meat, cooking time 5-6 hours on high, 7-8 on low

Spice rub:
2 tbsp each kosher salt, brown sugar, and chili powder
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Meat:
5 lbs. pork shoulder roast, trimmed
2 onions, sliced
3/4 cup purchased BBQ sauce
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1. Combine salt, brown sugar, chili powder, black pepper, oregano and cayenne for the spice rub.

2. Rub pork shoulder with all of the spice mixture to coat. Place onions, 1/4 cup BBQ sauce and broth in a 6-7 quart slow cooker; stirring to combine; top with pork. Cover; cook until pork is fork-tender, on high for 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours.

3. Transfer to pork to a platter along with 1 cup cooked onions; discard remaining contents of slow cooker. Using two forks, shred pork. Return pork and onions to slow cooker. Add remaining 1/2 cup BBQ sauce to slow cooker; toss pork to coat with sauce.