I know you doubt me but YOU can impress a crowd with something most people think is difficult.  Pulled pork (or beef) is one of the world’s easiest things to do, and can be done in an oven, on stovetop, or even in a Crockpot.  It simply involves long, slow, low temp cooking!  For some reason, anything that takes 8-10 hours sounds complicated.  But it’s not!!  I think people confuse patience with difficulty.  So cook it overnight!  You’ll never even know its there (except for the fabulous wake up aroma!)

If you would like to make Pineapple Pulled Pork, please refer to the meat section of this blog and the recipe is there.  However, for some that might seem complicated.  After all, you have to slice an onion and open a can of Pineapple!! ha ha!  But I am going to give you some other ideas.  So read on:

Ingredients:  One Pork Butt or Shoulder. (loins are not good for this as they are too lean.)  You want lots of marbling.  I do, however, cut off that thick layer of fat that is usually on top.  Enough is enough!  Another note:  I like to cut down about every two inches ACROSS the grain, to enable you to shred the finished product more easily.  I don’t like big long shreds, and they are harder to put into sandwiches.

But don’t let the recipe above scare you.  It is simple!  There are literally hundreds of ways to prepare a nice pulled pork product!  Ideas: Pour any liquid you like over the roast.  You might be only doing a small one, like 2-3 lbs.  If that’s the case, one bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce and salt and pepper is probably enough.  A cup of wine or can of beer is also a good thing to mix in, but be sure you have something flavorful too.  So many wonderful sauces in the store:  Asian sweet chili sauce, Mexican green chili sauce, (we LOVE Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce–the sweet hickory one).  But my point is that you can pick your favorite!  The other day I was playing around with some Asian flavors and I made a really nice sauce from soy sauce, ginger, seasoned Chinese vinegar, garlic, sherry wine, brown sugar and a chopped jalapeno–we like spice!

After you have prepared the meat and added the seasonings and sauce, cover tightly and put into a 250 degree oven for at least 8 hours.  I ended up adding two more hours because my roast was almost 5 lbs.  That’s another reason for the “scoring” of the meat before you put it into the oven.  And the tight covering is important to keep the roast from drying out.  The finished product should have lots of juice.

When the meat is tender, shred it with two forks.  If there is too much juice, I drain it and  boil it down until it is reduced.  Then either mix it in with the meat or serve it on the side (like a French Dip).

Serve on Baked potatoes, or make Nachos, or sandwiches.  We particularly like Hawaiian Rolls.  Also the little San Francisco sour dough crusty rolls are great.  You can make them ahead or simply put out a big bowl of meat and a basket of rolls and let people do their own!  Cole slaw is a nice side, and there are mixes for that too! (packaged dressing, already shredded cabbage)–easy enough for you?  Another nice side is “Damn Hot Peppers” under side dishes in my table of contents.  These are HOT!! But some people love them on sandwiches.  Cheese, pickles onions, jardiniere or pickled veggies are nice sides too.    But back to the simplicity.  Make the pork and tell everybody else to bring the sides and appetizers!  Have fun and go TEAM!!