Saturday, May 26, 2012

Foodie Week! Shredded Pork

Hello!

Phew, I almost forgot about my post today!  That would have been horrible because... my recipe today is so delicious!  Yep, delish delicious!  It's from one of my favorite people... Ree of The Pioneer Woman!  The funny thing is, both Alan and I watch The Pioneer Woman on The Food Network... it's out Saturday night show.  We both enjoy her style of cooking, down home without a lot of fuss but full of flavor!  I even received her second cookbook for Mother's Day! 

Okay, let's get to it!
{Photo and Recipe courtesy of thepioneerwoman.com via Pinterest.com}

Spicy Pulled Pork
Ingredients
  • 4 pounds (up To 7 Pounds) Pork Shoulder
  • 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
  • 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
  • 1 Tablespoon (to 2 Tablespoons) Salt
  • Pepper To Taste
  • 3 cloves (to 4 Cloves) Garlic
  • 1 Tablespoon (to 2 Tablespoons) Olive Oil
  • 2 Tablespoons (to 3 Tablespoons) White Wine Vinegar
  • 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 whole Onion
  • Lime Wedges

Preparation Instructions

Rinse and pat dry the pork shoulder.

To begin, just throw the dried oregano, cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper, garlic, olive oil, white wine vinegar and brown sugar into a food processor or blender. (I happen to love brown sugar in my cooking, but you can decrease or omit it if you like.)

Cut one onion into quarters and put it in the food processor with the spices. Blend mixture until totally combined and then pour it over the pork shoulder.

Now rub it into every nook and cranny of the meat, tucking it under folds an in crevices. Let no stone go unturned.

Then place the pork into a roasting pan or Dutch oven and add a couple of cups of water. Cover tightly and roast pork at 300º for several hours, turning once every hour.

When it is fork tender, crank up the heat, remove the lid, and roast it, skin side up for another 15 to 20 minutes to get the skin crispy. When it’s done, let it rest for 15 minutes before shredding.

Shred the pork shoulder (two forks work well). When it’s all shredded be sure to pour the juices all over the meat.

Serve with warm tortillas, lime wedges, sour cream, pico de gallo, guacamole, tomatillo salsa … whatever makes your skirt fly up!

And here's what I did... Also, I'm using her photo's because I didn't take any - it was a "Gotta make this while child fake naps" kind of cooking adventure... luckily it was quick and easy and, even though I had to make minor alterations due to our limited supplies, it was still super tasty!

Okay, so here's what you're supposed to have on hand...

Ya, you know it's not my photo because our kitchen has the lighting of a dungeon...

I had almost all of that... except the onion and the white wine vinegar... so I omitted the onion (I was sad to do this) and used red wine vinegar because I had to get it done.

I did create the rub like she did, except, since I wasn't using an onion and since I was trying to make as little noise as possible (remember my fake napper), I just mixed it all in a bowl by hand.  Whatever works into your life...  I rubbed the crap out of my pork with the mix - I figured that by rubbing it in like a pro masseur, that I'd be making up for the few ingredient switches.

Also, Ree put here's in a cast iron dutch oven... and while I covet this thought, I used my trusty crock pot.  We were planning a trip to the library and I knew that I couldn't leave the oven on while we were out - another Tim Gunn "Make it work" moment.

And, while the wonderful Ree plated hers with fresh lime slices, I threw it on our individual plates and placed a plastic shaped lime filled with lime juice on the table... yep, make'n it work on a slightly ghetto level.

I did, however, serve it with warm tortillas, homemade salsa, sour cream, rice and beans... so while I'm way less country and way more ghetto than Ree, I believe she would've been proud of the end result... empty plates!

Review 1-10, 10 being amazing!
Taste: 10 - super moist, tons and tons of flavor
Ease: 10 - easy easy - and I do feel like, even though I had to substitute here and there, it was an awesome dish - so I can only imagine what it'll be like when I do it the Ree way!
Cost: 10 - pork shoulder butt is cheap - I think it was $1.20/lb

Over all review - fantastic!  I have left overs and am going to make, gasp, enchilada's!  But I'll do a green sauce instead of the red sauce and make it more of a chile verde enchilada.  I love this recipe - it's my new stand by for pork roasts!

See you tomorrow!
Andrea

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