Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

It just doesn't get any easier than this.

Three ingredients!

Throw it into your crock pot, forget about it for 12 hours while you go about your day.

As usual, I had to dress it up a bit by adding some spice; but if you want to keep it simple and omit that step I promise you that your pulled pork will still be out-of-this-world yummy!

Today's Playlist

• "Some Kind Of Monster"...Neon Trees
• "In One Ear"...Cage The Elephant
• "Hotel Yorba"...The White Stripes
• "50 Ways To Say Goodbye"...Train
• "Baby Fratelli"...The Fratellis

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork (10 to 15 servings, depending on pork roast size)

Printable Recipe

• 5 to 7 lb. pork shoulder (not smoked; I use bone-in roasts, but boneless is also fine)
• 64 oz apple juice
• 16 to 24 oz. of your favorite BBQ Sauce

Rolls for sandwiches

Gather your ingredients.  At this point you only need your pork roast and apple sauce.
The BBQ sauce will be added at the end.

Place the roast (fat side up) in your slow cooker.  I used a 4 1/2 quart slow cooker.

Be sure that there is enough room in your slow cooker so that the meat has a bit of space around it and isn't squished up against the sides.

 Pour the apple juice over the pork.

I poured the apple juice until it was about 1/2 inch from the top of the slow cooker.  The top (about 3/4 inch) of the pork was still exposed.

It's hard to say how much of the apple juice you will use, it really depends upon the size of your pork roast and the size of your slow cooker. This time, I used almost the whole (64 oz) bottle of apple juice.

I've cooked smaller, boneless roasts in a smaller slow cooker and only needed about 16 oz. of juice.

Cover, and cook on LOW for 12 hours.  If you aren't sure whether the pork has cooked enough, check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer.  It should reach an internal temperature of 150 degrees to be done.

Here we are, all done.

And here's where I decided I needed to complicate things a bit.  I decided to throw together some spices to add to the pulled pork, just to give it a bit of a kick.

And to add further confusion, I decided that I'd mix up a dry rub, even though there is no dry rubbing going on here.

This is optional folks.  If you do decide to go this route, you can also opt to use a store-bought, pre-made dry rub.

If you want to mix it yourself (it only takes a couple of minutes!  You will also end up with more than you need, so store it in your pantry to have on hand for next time):

Here are my favorite dry rub ingredients.

Lined up on the left are salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, and smoked paprika.  You'll need one teaspoon of each.

The two in the middle are cayenne pepper and ground mustard: a scant teaspoon of each, which means not a full teaspoon.

And on the right we have 3 tablespoons of brown sugar.

Grab your teaspoon measure and add all of the spices into a bowl.

Here's my example of scant.  I don't use overflowing teaspoon measurements of the other spices, but I also don't attempt any semblance of perfection.

With the cayenne and mustard, however, my personal preference is not to overdo it.  Hence, scant.  

On the other hand, if your preference is more spice, completely disregard all of my blabbering!

Add the brown sugar to your spices...

...and stir to combine.  Set aside.

Time to pull the pork!

Remove the roast from the slow cooker onto a large platter.

Scrape all of the fat off and discard.  Remove the large bone(s); the roast should be practically falling apart at this point and the bones should pull right out.

Using two forks, shred the pork.

Sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of the dry rub over the pork.

Gingerly mix the spices into the pork, continuing to shred as necessary.

Pour some BBQ sauce over the pork.  I use 1 1/2 cups as a starting point...you may decide that you want more!

Mix the BBQ sauce into the pork until combined.

Pile that pork onto a roll and serve immediately!

Feel free to drizzle on a bit more of the BBQ sauce if you prefer.

Enjoy!