Pulled Pork Sandwich - BBQ style
Cook time: 10 minutes
Ah, pulled pork. If my favorite barbecued meat is selected based on my ordering history since, well, I first had barbecue, pulled pork would be the winner. It would always be doused in sauce too. And you can’t beat a pulled pork sandwich with pickles and a vinegary slaw between a potato bun!
For round two of “you are stuck at home and your back yard is now your favorite restaurant so you may as well make it a beer garden and a bbq joint” I moved on from smoking chickens to pork butt (aka pork shoulder). A really good starting point for learning how to smoke pork shoulder is the Aaron Franklin Masterclass. Even with novice fire-building skills, you can take the basics from that lesson in the class and create some damn good pulled pork. It is also fun to check out youtube to see videos of varying production quality about how to smoke a pork shoulder on a Weber kettle grill. High production quality doesn’t necessarily relate to a more informative video though – some of the best are just a guy or a gal showing your their set up in excruciating detail, over-filming and over-talking, but they leave no steps out. Just skip around to the parts of the process you want to learn more about and you should be pretty well set up for a reasonable amount of success. If you have a different grill, search for how to smoke the pork should on that grill:
“How to smoke pork shoulder on (your grill here)”
The basic takeaways I have learned are:
Buy a bone-in pork shoulder
Rub the pork all over with mustard. Then coat all sides with salt and pepper or salt/pepper/paprika. This creates the bark. And keep the seasoning simple.
Aim for a grill temperature of 250 to 275 degrees. Have you coals/fire on one side of the grill and put your pork on the opposite side of the grill. You do not cook the pork shoulder directly above the coals. Make sure you have a drip pan fill with a bit of water under the pork. Have wood chips or wood chunks (that you have presoaked in water) that you throw onto the coal from time to time to create smoke. When you don’t see any smoke coming out of the top vent, it is probably time to add more wood.
After 5 or 6 hours, when the fat cap splits, it is time to wrap the pork tightly in aluminum foil. At this point, you can finish on the grill or finish in the oven. If you finish on the grill, your fire building skills are much better than mine. If you finish in the oven, preheat it to 275 degrees and place the wrapped pork shoulder on a baking sheet. Cook until a a digital thermometer reads between 203 and 206 degrees when inserted into various parts of the pork shoulder.
Let it cool, then shred. To reheat, I recommend placing the pulled pork under the broiler. If you worked so hard on this, don’t put it in a depressing microwave!
If you do smoke your own pork shoulder for this sandwich, you will realize how great the meat tastes just by itself. I used to smother my pulled pork in bbq sauce (more sauce was better!), but with the stuff I make at home, I want to let the flavor of the meat shine. We will keep the bbq sauce to a minimum. The sandwich is just a bit of sauce, pickles, smokey pulled pork (that I hope you will try to make one day if you haven’t already!) and a vinegary slaw to bring balance to the fatty pulled pork. The next recipe post will be an asian inspired sandwich using the same pulled pork.
Servings/Suggestions
I like this on a potato roll, but you can use a regular hamburger bun or the bread of your choice
You can make the slaw a day ahead of time, but it comes together really quickly the day of
Ingredients
1/2 head of green cabbage
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Potato rolls
or the bread/roll of your choice
Pulled pork
either homemade or purchased from your favorite bbq restaurant
Pickles
BBQ sauce
Directions
Step 1
Cut the cabbage in half. Cut out the core. Slice the cabbage as thinly as you can, then chop it up a bit so that the pieces of cabbage are roughly 1 inch in length. Add the green cabbage to a large bowl with the salt, apple cider vinegar, freshly ground black pepper, sugar, and paprika. Toss well and set aside.
Step 2
Toast your buns, on the cut side only. I prefer to do this under the broiler. Just make sure to keep your eye on it and take the buns out as soon as they start to brown. Under the broiler, things can go from browned to burned in a hurry. We are toasting just to the give the bun a bit of structural integrity. Go ahead and toss the slaw again.
Step 3
Heat up the pork (if necessary). I prefer to do this under the broiler too. Just put your pork on some aluminum foil on a baking sheet or a sizzle platter. Toss in a bit of bbq sauce (just a bit!) and place under the broiler until warmed through.
Step 4
Assemble the pulled pork sandwich. On the bottom bun, put a thin layer of bbq sauce. Then put 3 pickles on top of the bbq sauce. Then put the pulled pork on top of the pickles. Then put the slaw on top of the pork. Put the top bun on top of the slaw and press down. Enjoy immediately, or wrap in aluminum foil to enjoy later.
Pulled Pork Sandwich - BBQ Style
Ingredients:
- 1/2 head of green cabbage
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- Potato rolls (or your preferred bread/roll)
- Pulled pork (either homemade or purchased from your favorite bbq restaurant)
- Pickles
- BBQ sauce
Instructions:
- Cut the cabbage in half. Cut out the core. Slice the cabbage as thinly as you can, then chop it up a bit so that the pieces of cabbage are roughly 1 inch in length. Add the green cabbage to a large bowl with the salt, apple cider vinegar, freshly ground black pepper, sugar, and paprika. Toss well and set aside.
- Toast your buns, on the cut side only. I prefer to do this under the broiler. Just make sure to keep your eye on it and take the buns out as soon as they start to brown. Under the broiler, things can go from browned to burned in a hurry. We are toasting just to the give the bun a bit of structural integrity. Go ahead and toss the slaw again.
- Heat up the pork (if necessary). I prefer to do this under the broiler too. Just put your pork on some aluminum foil on a baking sheet or a sizzle platter. Toss in a bit of bbq sauce (just a bit!) and place under the broiler until warmed through.
- Assemble the pulled pork sandwich. On the bottom bun, put a thin layer of bbq sauce. Then put 3 pickles on top of the bbq sauce. Then put the pulled pork on top of the pickles. Then put the slaw on top of the pork. Put the top bun on top of the slaw and press down. Enjoy immediately, or wrap in aluminum foil to enjoy later.