Pulled Pork with… Rootbeer!

A couple years ago, my roommates and I had a day in our schedules where we all got home rather late and pretty tired, and cooking was not something we were really up for that night.  We discovered the miracle of slow-cooking.  And I realized that I had very few slow-cooker recipes.  So I've slowly accumulated more of them, including this one, from Better Homes and Gardens, for pulled pork with a root-beer sauce.  (I LOVE ROOT-BEER!)

Root-beer-sauced Pulled Pork
2.5 lb pork roast
Steak seasoning
1 Tbsp cooking oil 
1 onion, cut into wedges
2 T minced garlic
3 C root-beer
1 C chili sauce (I used Thai Sweet Chili Sauce)
Hamburger buns (for serving)

Sprinkle the roast generously on all sides with the steak seasoning, pressing/rubbing to make sure it sticks.  In a skillet, heat the oil over high heat.  When the pan is screaming hot (or darn close to it), put in the roast and give it a good sear on all sides-- so it looks nice and brown all over; your slow-cooker shouldn't give it a nice crisp browning.  I recommend using tongs to hold the roast in place so you can sear the ends as well as the flat sides.

Place the roast in your slow-cooker, along with the onion, garlic, and 1 C root-beer.  Cover and cook for about 8 hours on the "low" setting.  I flipped mine partway through, to make sure that both halves of the roast got to sit in the root beer during the cooking.

Toward the end of the cooking time, make the sauce:  Combine the remaining 2 C root-beer and the chili sauce in a saucepan.  Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down the heat and slowly reduce the sauce.  It should continue to boil gently, and you should stir it to prevent burning.  It takes a while.  About 30 minutes by the original recipe's reckoning.  You want to end up with about 2 C of liquid, or just get it to a consistency that you like-- think of a barbecue sauce (just not a super-thick one).


When you're ready to eat, remove the meat from the slow-cooker.  Drain the liquid, but keep the onions.  Pull the meat apart.  It should be tender enough that this is an easy task.  Just grab a fork or two and start in on it.  The way I see it, you can either combine the pulled meat, onions, and sauce, or you can go ahead and layer them on you bun-- top the meat with some onion and sauce, and anything else you might like to add, such as lettuce or tomato.



I'm not much of a pork eater, generally, but pulled pork is frequently the exception.  This recipe is fantastically simple, and had lots of delicious flavor.  I ate it as sandwiches, by itself, and even made it into an omelette.  Yummy!