Slow Cooker Pork & Southern Coleslaw

I do most of the cooking in the house. Not, mind you, out of a lack of additional cooking talent but more so out of how picky I can be with my meals. Typically, I do the cooking and he does the grilling. This past weekend we headed up to see my family for the weekend. My sister, her husband, and a family friend were also up visiting so it was a full house! Our family friend is in cooking school and he was tasked with making the dinner. BBQ pulled chicken, coleslaw and grilled veggies it was. The meal was “BBQ”: meat (in this case chicken) was smothered in typical sweet BBQ sauce and the slaw was mayonnaise drippy. Picky little me, doesn’t really like BBQ OR mayo so I saved out some chicken and had a chicken veggie sandwich…yes… I was that person.

So, upon returning home it was decided that our house needed a “BBQ re-do” with the real stuff: PORK. I have to start off by saying, I don’t really like pork. Never have I drooled over a honey baked ham, enjoyed a croquet madame or met a slice of bacon I wasn’t happy to walk away from. Actually, in full disclosure I DISlike pork. So when it was announced, “This week I’m making BBQ pulled pork and coleslaw in the slow cooker!” I can’t say I jumped for joy. No, I more so mustered up a happy face and tried to be supportive of trying a new dish and get the suffocating thought of the entire house wreaking of overly sweet BBQ and pork. So here’s the problem, I do not like pork. I do not like BBQ sauce. How is this going to be a positive experience!?

 

 

Now that you have a back story including my perspective of pork, let me introduce you to one of the most delicious, and SIMPLE, dishes that might have ever been made in our house. Two days of brining in a BBQ rub from our local World Spice shop at Pike Place Market, a quick sear in the oven the morning of, into the slow cooker it goes and out comes a lovely and perfect for pulling pork hunk.

What I loved about this meal is that it wasn’t too sweet or drippy! The Stubb’s BBQ sauce has a nice Smokey and spicy flavor unlike most BBQ sauces that are overwhelming sweet! The meat was perfectly cooked and just fell apart, but wasn’t too drippy and thanks to a good prepping job, very lean on the fat content. When assembled, the flavors mixed perfectly together! The dry rubbed pork, the spice and flavor of the Stubbs, the fresh crutch of the slaw piled on a toasted whole wheat bun… you have yourself a downright AMAZING weeknight meal. And, it’s even better the next day!!

 

Pulled Pork
(makes 3 servings…ish)
1 ¾  lbs pork, fat trimmed this will equal about 1 ¼ lb
Salt-free BBQ Dry Rub spice- to taste
Stubbs BBQ Sauce- to taste
Coleslaw Mix + Mayo or Yellow Mustard for “slaw”
Fresh cracked Black Pepper to taste
Buns (We use Whole Wheat)- toasted

 

Day 1-Trim the fat off of the pork and cover with the BBQ dry rub, massaging into the meat and let marine 24 – 48 hours in a pyrex glass bowl.

Trim the fat

Day 2- DON’T touch! 🙂

Day 3- Morning: Pre-heat the oven to Broil and sear in the glass dish for 10 minutes. Place meat in the slow cooker with 2 oz water. Cover and set to low for 12 hours.Evening: Come home to the wonderful smell of the pulled pork!

Shred the meat with two forks, and see how wonderfully it falls apart, the lovely moist meat!

Toast bun, Mix slaw to taste with mayo or yellow mustard. There is an option to chop your own green and purple cabbage and a few carrots but we find it easier to get the pre-made and mix a little for each sandwich so it doesn’t get soggy and we can mayo to taste, I use yellow mustard instead of mayo in mine. Mix the meat with BBQ to taste. Heap up the slaw and the BBQ-ed meat and enjoy!!!

We used Stubbs BBQ sauce for the reason, as I mentioned before, that it’s not your typically drenched with sweetness sauce that over powers the sandwich. With Stubbs, you get more of the smoked and spice in the flavor to balance the sandwich and accompany the slaw and the dry rub flavor that you’ve slow cooked into the meat.