I know exactly what all you barbecue purists out there want to tell me: real pulled pork is cooked slow and low over smoking embers and requires lots of tending and tinkering. Know what requires almost zero effort? Learning how to make pulled pork in a slow cooker. And once you master the technique, you can make pulled pork all summer long with any kind of flavoring and sauce that you like, and turn it into lots of different kinds of meals. All without breaking a sweat or even needing to be awake or anywhere near your kitchen. And all without a recipe.
I actually use my slow cooker more in the summer than any other time of year—it solves that problem of not wanting to heat up the kitchen by turning on the stove, and it's great for feeding crowds, which I tend to do more often in the summer. Even if I'm not feeding a crowd, a big batch of pulled pork is never a bad thing to have: I can freeze some of it, and turn the rest into tacos, sandwiches, salads, hash, and more for a few days worth of meals.
Here's how to make pulled pork in a crock pot:
1. Procure Your Pork
Pulled pork is best made from the shoulder of the pig. It's a muscular area, but when cooked low and slow all the sinew and tendons melt and the meat falls apart in juicy shards. You can use any part of the shoulder—I like to try and get a cut with bones in it for added flavor and nutrition, but it's not essential. Shoulder roasts are often labeled "pork butt" or "Boston butt," but they're not actually from the pig's rear end. A bonier cut of the lower shoulder is the "picnic ham," which also works great for pulled pork.
How much pork you start with depends on how many people you're feeding, but also on the size of your slow cooker. If you're using a bone-in piece of pork you should plan for about 3/4 pound per person, or about 1/2 pound per person for a boneless piece. It also can't be bigger than your slow cooker. That might seem obvious, but, keep the size of your crock pot in mind when you pick out your roast.
2. Season Your Pork, and Put it in Your Slow Cooker
Before you put your hunk of pork into the slow cooker, sprinkle it generously with kosher salt. Don't be shy: you want the whole surface to be salted on all sides. Then grind some black pepper all over it too, and nestle it into the crock pot. If your cut of pork has one side that's more obviously coated in fat than the others, put that side face up.
3. And an Onion and Any Other Aromatics You Like
Quarter an onion and stick that in there with the pork to help flavor the cooking liquid. You can also add other aromatics: a crushed garlic clove or two, a few bay leaves, a cinnamon stick, some dried chiles, etc., depending on the flavor profile you're going for.
3. Add about 1/4 Cup Liquid Per Pound of Pork
Aromatics aside, the actual liquid you put in the crock pot is what will flavor the pork the most. I use the term "liquid" loosely—some of your liquid could be ketchup or barbecue sauce or mustard. Mix and match a few things together until you have about 1/4 cup of liquid per pound of pork: for best results make sure that your liquid mixture includes something sweet and something tart.
For a Mexican flair, I like to use a mixture of beer and orange juice with chopped chipotles in adobo stirred in and some garlic and cinnamon as aromatics. For an Asian-inspired version, I use a mix of pineapple juice and Sriracha with ginger and garlic as aromatics. For an all-American classic, I use a mix of ketchup, grainy mustard, apple cider vinegar, and Coca-Cola. Your liquid should not cover your pork in the slow cooker: it should only come up about a quarter of the way up the sides. The pork will make more liquid as it cooks, and you need to leave room for that.
5. Slow Cook It!
Once everything's in the slow coooker, turn it onto low and cook it until the pork shreds easily when poked with a fork. You don't want it to be soft to the point of mush, though—it should still have a little heft to it, but it should shred and tear easily and be nice and tender when you pop it in your mouth. Usually this takes about 8 hours on the low setting, but for extra-big hunks of meat it can take closer to 10 hours. For smaller pieces of pork in smaller crock pots, it can be ready in as little as 6 hours. If you happen to be home and walking by your crock pot you can spoon some juices over the top of the meat occasionally, but it'll be ok if you don't. (Or you could flip the meat once about halfway through cooking, but again, no worries if you don't.)
6. Separate Pork From Liquid, and Pull
When the meat is done, pull it out of the liquid and set it on a rimmed baking sheet to cool enough that you can touch it. Once it is, start pulling the meat off the bone and tearing it into shreds. Two forks work well for this, but so do your hands. If you encounter globs of fat or gristle as you shred the pork that you wouldn't want to bite into, discard them. Make it nice.
7. Turn That Cooking Liquid Into a Sauce
While the pork is cooling down enough that you can handle it, pour all the liquid that's left in the slow cooker (you'll be surprised by how much liquid is in there!) through a strainer and into a a fat separator, if you have one, or a large measuring cup. Pour off or skim off the fat, then transfer the liquid to a large skillet or wide pot and bring to a boil. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half at least and is starting to thicken, then have a taste (careful, it's hot!). To even out that rich, earthy porky sauce, add some of the same ingredients you started with to brighten it up: try a squirt of ketchup or some store-bought barbecue sauce or perhaps some citrus juice or a bit more hot sauce. Then whisk and taste again and keep tinkering until the sauce is exactly how you want it—after all, you're in charge here, not me.
8. Serve As You Like It
If you're serving your pork right away, pour the warm sauce all over it or toss the pulled pork into the hot skillet of sauce to re-warm, then divide it into sandwiches or tacos or lettuce cups. If you're saving it for another day, pack the pork and the sauce in separate containers and stash them in the fridge (or freezer), then when you're ready to eat, heat up the sauce in a large skillet, then add the pork and toss until coated and warmed through.
Now isn't that easier than spending a day tending to a barbecue pit?
