Here is my slow cooker pulled pork recipe. Pulled pork is one of my favourite slow cooker recipes. It’s simple to cook and the beauty is the longer you leave it in the slower cooker, the more tender the meat is. Cider, some spices and a nice big slab of pork are all the ingredients you need.
Preparation is key, the longer you leave the meat to marinade, the better the taste. I normally marinade the piece of pork the evening before I cook it. I use a simple blend of spices that I throw on the meat and leave in the fridge overnight.
The cut of meat I use for this recipe is the pork shoulder, your local butcher will be your best bet. The pork shoulder is a cheap cut of pork. Your butcher will be able to remove the fat for you as well which will save you doing it.
I use cider in my recipe as it gives the pork an enhanced flavour. If you’re not fond of cider, you can use ordinary broth or stock either. The type of cider I use is Bulmers or Linden Village. Really whatever is in the fridge or if theres none, I’ll buy the cheapest cider – I don’t find a noticeable different between the grade of cider I use.
The first time I made this, I found numerous recipes, type in slow cooker pulled pork recipe into Google and you can find tonnes of different versions of this dish. Some people will cook their pork in the oven on a low heat for multiple hours but most of the time, I don’t have the time to watch over my oven. The great thing about the slow cooker is being able to throw it on in the morning, go to work and come home to a nice cooked meal that really needed minimum effort. I’ve made this dish multiple times now and the below has been the method I’ve gone back to as its both simple and delicious. Great with a wide variety of sauces like BBQ sauce, apple sauce, mustard sauce or sweet chilli sauce.
I recommend if you’re making this dish to leave it cook in the slow cooker for a minimum of 8 hours on the low setting.
Here is my slow cooked pulled pork recipe
Ingredients
- Pork shoulder with fat and bone removed – Your butcher will be able to remove these. If the bone is inside the meat, you can cook with the bone in place.
- Salt
- Paprika
- Chilli Powder
- Cumin
- Black Pepper
- Cayenne Pepper
- Garam Masala
- Onion
- Garlic
- Cider
Method:
- The night before, pat the pork dry with paper towels
- Rub pork with salt, paprika, chilli powder, cumin, pepper, cayenne and garam masala
- Cover and leave in fridge over night
- The next day, cut up onions and garlic, put 2/3’s into the bottom of slow cooker
- Heat up a griddle pan on maximum heat and sear the piece of pork on all sides until brown.
- Place the pork into the slow cooker on top of the onions and garlic
- Add cider until you cover all or most of the pork
- Throw in the additional onions and garlic
- Cook in the slow cooker for 8 hours minimum on the low setting
- After 8 hours, take the meat out of the liquid and leave to rest for 15/30 minutes – don’t throw out all the liquid!
- Put onto a chopping board and using two forks, pull the meat apart – it really is that simple!!
- With the liquid from the slow cooker, put into a pot, bring to the boil and reduce by half. Season with salt and pepper to taste (Use more liquid if you’re going to have leftovers)
- Add the pulled pork and some liquid into a frying pan and heat up. This adds some additional flavour and also moistens the meat
- Serve with coleslaw, chips or make pulled pork sandwiches with soft baps
Store some of the liquid from the slow cooker in the fridge if you make loads and have some left over pork.
To reheat just throw the pulled pork and some liquid into a frying pan and cook until hot through the middle.