This may be our very favorite meal. It is incredibly hard to screw up, and yet turning a big hunk of pork shoulder into tender shreds of juicy meat still feels like a noteworthy accomplishment every time we do it. We're going to take you through the steps of trimming, seasoning, braising, shredding, and serving a pork shoulder—with instructions, photos, and a basic recipe, too.
This recipe is meant to be a guide. You can add different vegetables and liquids or season your pork more simply. But we promise that it is hard to fail. And you'll see we're cooking ours in a Le Creuset dutch oven. If you want to do it in a slow cooker, by all means go for it (we'd cut down on the liquid so that it doesn't boil over). Here are some instructions for converting a dutch oven recipe to a slow cooker.
Here's the meat. We usually buy a 4 to 5 pound pork shoulder with the bone in.
We find that grocery store pork shoulders (at least at Fairway) often come with the fat and skin still attached to one side. We cut ours off; it's too thick for our taste, and the meat has enough fat running through it. Here are some great tips on trimming the fat off of meat. We just grab one end and peel it back as we cut.
We season our pork with a rub similar to the one used for our favorite short ribs. It's got brown sugar, paprika, cumin, and lots of salt and pepper. (The full recipe is at the bottom of this post.)
Here's how brown we get it- not too crusty, mostly because we're impatient. You just want to sear the outside and render some of the fat.
We use beer in our braise, but you can use wine, stock, even water. The vegetables are just carrots, onions, and garlic.
The pork is nestled back into the pot, and it's ready to go in the oven.
Here is after 3 1/2 hours. See how beautiful? The meat pulls apart easily, the vegetables are soft and caramelized, and the entire house smells good.
Here's how we shred our pork: We do it in the pot with the vegetables, using tongs to pull meat away from the bone. We put the meat in one bowl (the blue one) and overly blubbery bits of fat in another (the white one). You do not have to be meticulous about this, or you may spend a long time trying to scrape out the fat. Just weed out the big pieces; the rest of it makes for very flavorful meat.
Once you've shredded your meat, there are a lot of ways to go. Here's what we usually do:
• Store (or serve!) some of the meat with big spoonfuls of the juice, onions, and carrots. Serve it with rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes (or over polenta, which is delicious). Storing it in the juice will keep it moist, although you may have some fat congeal around it in the fridge. It'll heat up fine, though.
• Put half aside for use with another sauce. We like to serve some on rolls with a homemade barbecue sauce or for another dish. This pork is so versatile, so it's nice to have some on hand, ready to toss into another dish.
In fact, we're going to be back later this week with two more recipes for shredded pork: one for dinner, one for brunch.
Shredded Pork Shoulder
4 to 5 pound pork shoulder, bone-in
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, peeled and cut into wedges
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 12-ounce beer (a basic lager works well)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Trim the pork shoulder of any thick layers of fat. Combine the brown sugar, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the pork with the spice mixture, getting into crevices and on the sides. Allow the pork to sit for about 30 minutes.
Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the pork on all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Remove from the pot. Add the onions, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, and beer. Bring to a simmer, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to bring up any browned bits.
Return the pork to the pot. Cover and put in the oven for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, checking once or twice, until the meat is extremely tender and pulls away from the bone easily. Shred the pork in the pot, using tongs to separate the meat from the fat (see photos above). Discard the bone or set aside for another use.
Serve the meat with several spoonfuls of the vegetables and sauce.
Related: Braised Summer Pork Shank (Adaptable for Any Season)
(Images: Elizabeth Passarella)
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I do mine in the slow cooker and use some bourbon in the sauce, among other things. But that's when I only want it for barbecue pulled pork.
Don't bother with chopped veggies! I use about 10 cloves of garlic-- peeled, not mashed or chopped. And enough orange juice to cover the meat in the pot. That's it. Perfect every time!
I was in Tennessee recently and fell in love with the pork they use for Barbecue sandwiches and barbecue potatoes.
Can I use this recipe for that purpose? I recognize it won't have that lovely cooked-slowly-over-a-wood-flame taste... but will it be close? I didnt grow up with Pulled pork (shame!) and so I don't know the intriciacies.
fib: I'm from Memphis, actually, and I use this recipe for pulled pork sandwiches all the time. You're right that you won't have the smoky flavor (boo) but it's still good. If you're making it just for sandwiches, you don't really need the carrots (I'd leave in the onions and garlic for flavor, though). Then shred the meat, save the juice/onions for another use, and pile the meat on a bun with some bbq sauce. I usually heat the meat up with some sauce so it's moist, then top with more sauce on the bun. Maybe I'll get a basic bbq sauce recipe on the site soon...
my favorite pork shoulder recipe is pulled pork. it's SO good:
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000325pulled_pork_sandwich.php
Thanks so much Elisabeth! I'm so excited to try it - Yay!
what a coinky dink-- I'm finishing making carnitas right now (I like mine extra crispy!). I looked at a few different recipes, both in the slow cooker and in the pan in the oven. I went with the pan, which just involved covering the pork with minced garlic and onions and spices and optionally some salsa and cooking it for about 4 1/2 hours covered with foil (some said to cut it up, I left mine whole). then it's shredded and put back in the pan to be mixed with the juices and browned-- about an hour more. my tummy is rumbling in anticipation!
Wasn't it just yesterday morning that I decided that I wanted to tackle a pork shoulder for the very first time? It was, and I have you to thank for making it something other than a pipe dream, given the fortuitous fact that I saw this recipe that very day.
It was absolutely delicious, especially atop a bed of polenta, so thank you indeed.
Is that yuengling I see? Oh how I miss that beer. Thanks for the great recipe, I think I'll have to give it a try this weekend.
This recipe seems the least intimidating for someone who's going to cook his first pork shoulder!!
thank you for posting this recipe! I made it last week and was super happy with the results!
We ended up using half of the meat for pulled pork sandwiches. The next day I put a cup of wine in the leftover braising mixture/pork and reduced it. Served that over polenta and it was AMAZING.
thank you again!
http://www.shutterbean.com/pulled-pork-sandwiches/
i do carnitas in the slow cooker. one 5 lb pork butt, 2 large onions cut into 1" dice, 5 cloves garlic, salt and pepper (and you'd be surprised how much... like 1 T of both), and 2 T mexican oregano. no liquid at all. 8 hrs on low, and when the bone pulls out easily, it's done.
i also crisp it up in a saute pan after it's shredded, with 1 T of canola (or other high-heat) oil, in a screaming hot pan. soooo good.
This is delicious! My whole family loved it. I used two of the smaller size pork shoulder tri-tips -- they are kind of small and round. Instead of canned tomatoes, I used a pint of small assorted pearl and pear shaped tomatoes I had on hand. I think I also added some freshly roasted and shucked corn. The flavors were amazing. I used a Blue Moon beer to braise since I had that on hand. My house smelled incredible. I'm glad I found the recipe.
I know you will not believe me, but I just cooked 15 lbs. of port shoulder in a pressure cooker. I can't believe how tender the meat came out. I used a huge pressure cooker/canner and seasoned it only with garlic salt, onions and garlic cloves. I will now make green chili and BBQ pork with it. If anyone wants my recipe for green chili, I will be more then happy to post.
I wanted to give your instructions and recipe the accolades they deserve. I just made this on Saturday for New Year's dinner in my first attempt at braising. I don't have enough space to list all of the compliments this dish received; the pork was soaked through, falling apart, and the most succulent piece of meat I think I have ever tasted.
The only things I changed were 1) using Chimay Trappist Ale, 2) adding a bit of bourbon to the juice, 3) including a bit of chili powder in lieu of the full amount of cumin (I thought I had more cumin than I did), 4) leaving all of the fat on, 5) adding a splash of orange juice and 6) I used a bit more brown sugar than the recipe called for.
This was a wonderful experience in my culinary self-education. Thank you so much!!
Mmmmm. I do a pork shoulder in my crockpot, with no liquid at all. Just trim the fat, coat it liberally on all sides with coarse salt and pepper, and cook on low. Start with the fattier side up, flip halfway through. It'll make (lots of) its own juice as it cooks.
When it's done, mix some of it with a North Carolina-style vinegar sauce, shred, and serve on rolls with this cole slaw recipe. Use the rest in the next big pot of sauce you make!
My pork shoulders usually go in the crockpot (at least during the summer so as not to heat the house). I don't spice it because I like to use the meat for different things. We might have BBQ pork with pinto beans, then a soy/teriyaki pork salad, then fried pork with eggs. (I really like to stretch the meat as far as it'll go.) So I just put it in the pot with a cup or so of water, and cook it all day. Just did it this weekend actually. YUM!
I should have said "I don't spice it at the time of cooking because I like to use the meat for different things." I DO spice it, but save the spices for the particular use. :)
I recommend going Eastern NC style on this and using a cider vinegar, beer, and red pepper flakes mixture as your braise. Also leave out the carrots.
When it's all done, make another pot of sauce using cider vinegar, red pepper flakes, and some mustard (a nod to SC-style 'cue) - that's to dress the pulled pork with and it'll blow your mind!
Skin contains wonderful flavour and gelatine like consistency when stewed long time. I often cook bacon (but not cured as bacon you buy at stores) in water with ginger for 40 minutes or so, drain, and cook in fresh water for another 40 minutes, add soy sauce, sake, mirin, and some sugar and cook until the skin become translucent and yummy.
fi_burke! You can add a smoky flavor with a few drops of a product called "Liquid Smoke". You can get it at your local grocery store. At around a buck fiifty you can't go wrong. You can also choose from hickory and mesquite flavoring. My mom used it a lot in our pulled meats.
Delicious! I did a 2-pound boneless shoulder but used the full amount of liquid and spices. I was going to shred half of it for BBQ but the braised veggies are so good I ate it all that way. I'll try adding some orange juice or apple cider next time.
I often find my pork shoulders with the skin on as well. One great way to use it is to make cracklings (not surprisingly, cracklings always seem to be the perfect snack before a dinner involving pork shoulder, no matter what preparation you are using for the shoulder).
Preheat oven to 425
Bring 3 cups of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of baking soda.
Cut the skin (with fat) in to strips. About 3in by 1/2in.
Boils strips of skin until they are soft and can easily be punctured with a fork. About 15-20 min.
Strain boiled skins and dab with paper towel to remove excess water.
Arrange skins on a non stick roasting pan and place in oven. Cook until golden and crisp.
Season with anything. I like just salt and cayenne.
I generally toss the skin in a ziplock and store it in the freezer for use whenever.
I made a 4.5 pound bone-in pork shoulder in the crock pot on low for about 9 hours, with the meat themometer it looked done. When I was shredding it and got close to the bone, the meat was still fairly red. What can I do differently??
I've made three of the ten recommended recipes to put your dutch oven to work and this one has been my favorite. After reading the post, I made the following changes.
1) I added a teaspoon of chili powder. Anyone who likes their food with a spicy kick, this was a great addition.
2) I left in the carrots and added more than the recipe called for. Loved the extra veggies. I ate the meat with raw broccoli and cherry tomatoes and it was a nice combination.
3) I added a tablespoon of brown sugar to the rub and I probably would not do that again. When I browned the pork shoulder, it wasn't a nice light brown like the picture but instead black. Luckily none of the food tasted burnt.
4) I think its a must to make the North Carolina vinegar sauce. My boyfriend is originally from North Carolina and he was already familiar with the sauce. Its super easy to make. He mixed apple cider vinegar with red chili flakes, sugar, salt, and pepper. If you look online, there's recipes to follow if your concerned about amounts. He just did it to taste. It was such a nice addition to the pork and the raw veggies that I had it with. I personally didn't really like the pork with BBQ sauce. The sauce the cooked veggies and seasoning makes is awesome as well.