Newsflash! You don't need a barbecue to produce the ultimate pulled pork. You see, it was cool here in Tucson yesterday and by cool I mean temperatures in the 60's. I know that might not seem cool to some of you, but it was a gigantic boon to 99% of the people who live here full time. We're all kinda' sick of the heat!
The house was open to the elements, air conditioning off and I had 2 choices - either warm up the kitchen by giving the oven a much needed self-cleaning, or go one better; put a big pot full of meaty goodness into it and let it braise for the afternoon. I chose the latter.
A quick trip to Fry's and an education in the cost of chuck roast changed my menu plan and I came home with an 8 pound pork butt for the unbelievable sum of $13.00. Go figure! Two thirds of it went into this pot and the rest hit the freezer for stew down the road.
This pot of glorious shredded bliss is the pork version of the Quick and Easy Pulled Beef from last year. It is without doubt, the best I've ever made. We had it stuffed into some fluffy baked potatoes but as you can imagine, we've a few pulled pork sandwiches in our future along with maybe some quesadillas, stuffed peppers, maybe a pizza or two and so on, and so on, and so on!
Quick and Easy Oven Roasted Pulled Pork (from JBug’s Kitchen via dinnerwithjulie.com)
4 to 5 pounds pork butt roast
Salt and coarse ground black pepper
All-purpose flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 cups low sodium chicken stock
1-1/2 cups prepared barbecue sauce (I used Kraft original)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons coarse grain mustard
Heat vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Season roast with salt and pepper and dredge in all-purpose flour. When oil is shimmering add roast to pot and brown well on all sides – takes about 20 minutes. Carefully remove roast from pot and drain off and discard accumulated fat. Add onions to pot and place browned roast on top. Mix together garlic, chicken stock barbecue sauce, brown sugar, balsamic and mustard. Pour over roast. Cover pot and place in a preheated 275 oven for 5 to 6 hours or until roast is fall-apart tender. Remove roast from pot and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Meanwhile skim excess fat from sauce and set half of sauce aside in a small bowl, leaving the other half in the pot. When roast is cool enough to handle, shred meat using two forks and return to pot. Combine shredded meat with sauce, adding reserved sauce as required to achieve desired consistency. Download Quick and Easy Oven Roasted Pulled Pork
A year ago - BBQ Beans
I love pork butt - it is inexpensive - full of flavor and versatile! What a lovely dish you made and you will get to enjoy time and again in different preparations --score!
Posted by: Lea | 10/07/2011 at 08:02 AM
Lea - I'm convinced there's no such thing as "cheap beef" anymore. Chuck roast at $5.99 per pound when T-bones were on sale for 4.99 didn't make much sense to me. The pork butt was marked down to $1.50 a pound so I just had to buy it and you're right, we've a lot of good grub in our future.
Posted by: June | 10/07/2011 at 08:22 AM
June, We are soul sisters...we just had pulled pork sandwiches this week too. Used a recipe of Paula Deens that I had posted before, but you can never can have too many pork butt recipes.
Posted by: Lorraine | 10/10/2011 at 07:33 PM
Lorraine, I think you're right. We are soul sisters. We love pork butt and this recipe is absolutely superb.
Posted by: June | 10/11/2011 at 08:48 AM