Slow Cooker Pork: Tonight and Tomorrow Night

Thanks to all of those who liked my new Facebook page! Please keep checking the page for updated posts.

It occurred to me as I was creating the page that I had to uphold my promise to create easy, relatively fast recipes for busy people. That’s a pretty easy thing to do with pasta, but less so with with meats and many other foods. So, I’m whipping out my secret weapon for fast cooking: a slow cooker!

In my opinion, slowly cooked food generally just tastes better. But, who wants to get home from work at 8 PM and then stand there in front of the stove, cooking for two hours while snacking on Cheez-Its until you have something you’re too tired (and full of Cheez-Its) to eat? Not me. Enter the slow cooker. Put raw ingredients in there in the morning, come home to perfectly cooked meal and a house that smells like home. With a minimal amount of prep work, you, too, can have this. (Doctors, nurses, and other night-shift workers: you can also do this when you get home from work in the AM. Throw the food in, wake up to a delish smelling house, pack the food up and head to work with a home-cooked meal.)

One of the foods that I love to slow-cook is pork. Ribs and shoulder (aka butt) are my favorites. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have known what to do with pork shoulder. It’s sold in a huge hunk that’s pretty intimidating. Then, one day, I just bought one and threw it in my Crockpot. Voila! Meat that was falling apart and tasting awesome with just about anything you could think of. Plus, enough for leftovers (or to feed a family of 6).

Here are my favorite two recipes that come from cooking one big pork shoulder once in the slow cooker. Make one tonight, save the leftovers, and use them for tomorrow night’s dinner. High-five yourself for being so efficient!

If you have a family that is bigger than 2 people, you can use all the pork to make just one of these recipes. Since we still have leftovers, I’m guessing that this entire recipe would feed 5-6 adults one great dinner. Either recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to feed the right number of people. If you still have pork leftover at the end, you can use it for chili, to top nachos, or freeze it and make something else later.

Slow Cooker Pork Butt
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 4-5h on high, 7-8h on low

Ingredients
4 lb Pork Butt (also called shoulder or picnic), trimmed of extra fat (there’s a lot!)
1 can chicken broth
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

Place pork butt in the slow cooker. Add onions and garlic. Pour chicken broth in. It won’t cover the meat, but it’s okay, it will still cook through. Cover and set to high to cook in 4-5 hours, or low to cook for 7-8 hours.

When done, shred all of the meat and toss away the bones and any leftover fat.

Tonight: Carnitas Tacos Al Pastor Style
(“Al pastor” refers to a type of pork taco cooked on a rotisserie, like shawarma, with chilis and pineapple)
Serves 2
Prep: 5-10 mins
Cook: 5 mins

Ingredients
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 cup shredded pork
1 cup pineapple, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 medium onion, diced, divided
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1/2 hass avocado, diced
6 small corn tortillas
lime wedges
Hot sauce

Heat oil in a medium sauté pan on medium heat. Add pork, pineapple, chili powder, and oregano. Stir, and then allow to heat through.

In the meantime, dice the onion and chop the cilantro finely. Throw one tablespoon of the onion in with the pork, and set aside the rest of the onion and cilantro in one bowl. Dice the avocado and set aside

Place the tortillas in a single layer on two plates and heat each one in the microwave for 10-20 seconds until warm and pliable. Divide the pork and pineapple mixture evenly among the tortillas. Top with onion/cilantro and avocado. Use whatever hot sauce (or salsa) you like (I like salsa verde or green tabasco), and squeeze a lime wedge on top. Eat quickly, or the tortillas will start to break!

Possible substitutions, omissions, and additions:

use flour tortillas for corn
omit the pineapple
add more chili powder and herbs
omit the cilantro
use guacamole instead of avocado
try different hot sauces, or use salsa instead

Tomorrow night: Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Serves 2
Prep time: less than 5 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup pulled pork (leftover from last night, of course)
1/3-1/2 cup of the BBQ sauce of your choice (see below for my shortcut homemade recipe)
2 hamburger buns

In a small saucepan or sauté pan on medium heat, add the pork and BBQ sauce.

Allow to heat through completely, about 5 minutes. Place meat on bun, and top with the other side. I served this with collard greens using Paula Deen’s recipe.

Diana’s Shortcut BBQ Sauce
Makes about 1/2 cup
(measurements are approximate–just add what you think you need until it tastes right!)

2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup

Add all ingredients to a small bowl and mix. Taste, then add additional amounts of these ingredients to taste (if you want it sweeter, add more sugar; if you want it tangier, add more vinegar. You get it).

Possible substitutions, omissions, and additions:

Change out the BBQ sauce. We like Stubb’s for a tomato-based sauce, and Sweet Baby Ray’s for a sweet sauce. My homemade sauce is tangy and sweet (and awesome).
You can omit the bread and just eat this in non-sandwich form
Add whatever sides you want! Good options are sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, fries, squash, cole slaw, baked beans, etc.

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