Crock Pot Pulled Pork

This meal was another great surprise. I love cooking in my crock pot because it's so gosh-darn easy. And I love the feeling at the end of the day that dinner is done and the whole house smells good and it doesn't feel like I had to do any work to make it happen. I had tried pulled pork before but it was an on-the-bone cut of meat that roasted in the oven for hours, required regular basting, was very difficult to shred and, in the end, wasn't the greatest. I decided to try to find a recipe that included a boneless cut of meat (read: cheaper and easier) that could be cooked in the slow cooker. And voila! This made for an amazing dinner.

I found this recipe and was hoping it would be a winner. It was so easy, used mostly staples that I always had on hand (except for the pork) and was very budget friendly. My husband and I aren't really into spicy foods, so I omitted the tobasco sauce. I also omitted the liquid smoke just because I didn't have any in the house. When my husband came home from work and started drooling immediately, I knew it was a good sign. Because I didn't start this until after lunch, I opted to cook it on the high setting and planned to let it cook for 4 hours. Well, this smelled so good that we lost all control and dug in just shy of 3 1/2 hours in. Even still, the meat was super tender and fell apart when I took two forks to it. I really think this recipe is foolproof and worth a try!

Crock Pot Pulled Pork
(adapted from Prudence Pennywise)

1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 lb. pork chops
1 teaspoon or more tabasco sauce (optional)
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)

Place first 5 ingredients in slow cooker and whisk to combine. Add pork chops and turn to coat. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours. Remove pork chops and use two forks to shred meat. You can use the sauce that was created as your BBQ sauce by adding the pork back to crock pot and tossing with sauce. We chose to use our favorite BBQ sauce instead but did spoon a few tablespoons of the sauce in the slow cooker over the pulled pork and tossed to combine. This just added more moisture and flavor to the pork. Slap on a bun for a very tasty pulled pork sammy!

Enjoy!
~Layne

PS: I served mine with some yummy sweet potato fries which made for a very tasty dinner combo!