Living in the South for nine months opened my eyes to Southern culture, particularly Southern cuisine. Did you know that each state/region has its own unique take on barbecue?!
I've had a few pulled pork sandwiches here and there this past year, and I wanted to bring a little piece of Southern culture back home. Granted, Southern foods are notorious for being latent in butter, animal fat, and sugar, but this is a lightened up version that I still find to be quite delicious.
The recipe for ciabatta rolls that served as the base for this sandwich can be found on last Friday's post!
A few personal tips for making the pulled pork:
I used Jessica Merchant's (HowSweetEats) recipe as a guide, but didn't have very many spices on hand. I just used what I had (salt, black pepper, pineapple juice from canned pineapple rings, garlic powder, paprika, and cinnamon) and the pork was still very flavorful. I was a bit unsure about whether or not the recipe's 1/3 cup of pineapple juice would be enough for the 4 pound pork shoulder I used, so I added 2/3 cup of pineapple juice and 1/3 cup of water total. I think I might try the 1/3 cup of juice next time, because a lot of liquid was released from the pork itself.
To make this recipe slightly more healthy, I skimmed off as much fat as I could floating on top of the juices (there was A LOT!). Does doing so take away from flavor? Eh, not really; following Jess's last step of shredding the pork, putting it back in the juices (for me, it was the juices without the fat), and cooking on high without the lid on the slow cooker for 30 minutes helped the pulled pork soak up more flavor.
Also, instead of cooking the pulled pork in a ton of ketchup/bbq sauce/brown sugar (though, I will have to say, the final products in recipes like that are quite glorious), the pineapple juice adds enough sweetness without the excessive added sugar.
Recipe: Slow Cooker Pineapple Pulled Pork Sandwiches
By: Hannah Claudia
(Pulled Pork recipe by: Jessica Merchant)
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1 batch of slow cooker, pineapple pulled pork (read tips above)
(optional) reserved pineapple rings (from pulled pork recipe)
apple cabbage slaw:
1 apple, thinly sliced in to matchsticks
2 small/1 large carrot, thinly sliced (I used a vegetable peeler)
1/4 head of cabbage, thinly shredded/sliced
1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 teaspoons of honey
homemade bbq sauce*:
3-4 tablespoons of ketchup
2-3 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
1-2 teaspoons of molasses
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1. (Optional) Heat a small pan. Add the pineapple rings and cook until both sides are golden brown.
2. Toss the cabbage and carrots together. Mix the dressing ingredients separately and add to the slaw. Use your hands to massage the dressing into the slaw. Toss in the apples.
3. Mix the ingredients for the homemade bbq sauce together (ingredient amounts are approximate; use your own taste to gauge quantities!)
4. Assemble the sandwiches (ciabatta, pulled pork, slaw, pineapple, sauce).
*This is not a typical bbq sauce recipe (lacks worcestershire, onion powder, mustard powder), but these were just ingredients I had on hand that when combined, tasted pretty much like any normal bbq sauce! You might want to take a look at this AllRecipes recipe too.
xoxo, han
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