Who knew homemade pulled pork could be this easy?

Author: Dave

Admittedly, this was really easy for me. I did nothing but taste and make suggestions. My greatest challenge was not over-eating (which I failed). Kirsten did all the work ... but, she can attest that an awesome restaurant-quality pulled pork is not a time-consuming task.

First, you need yourself a pork shoulder roast, also known as a pork's butt roast. (It's from the shoulder, and I don't know who gave it the "butt" name, but they didn't do the meat any favor.) Kirsten used a 3-pound roast. The night before, she rubbed it down with cumin and chili powder, let it marinate in the spices in the fridge overnight, and seared the roast in a pan with olive oil the next morning. Then, she put the shoulder roast in a pan with can of diced tomatoes, shallots, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin and a couple dashes of liquid smoke, covered the pan with tinfoil, and roasted this wonderful-smelling concoction in the oven at 275 degrees for 5 hours. The roast literally cooks in its own juices, and gets so tender you pull it apart with a fork. Adjust your roast size as you wish, but just know that when it's tender enough to be pulled apart, it's done.

Now, Kirsten didn't just stop there. She made her own BBQ sauce, mixing together chipotle sauce (from a local Mexican grocery story), store-bought raspberry chipotle sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, some vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic powder, liquid smoke, salt and pepper. This wasn't a recipe of any kind. This was Kirsten's usual experimentation -- a little of this, a little of that, until it tastes just right. The raspberry chipotle sauce originally made the concoction too sweet. Kirsten added the mustard to help cut the sweetness with some extra vinegar and spice. I tasted the BBQ sauce cold, and I was hopeful. Once cooked, this was an awesome mixture. Try making your own, and just remember that you want to cut sweet with spicy & savory, and vice-versa. If you're scared, buy your favorite brand-name sauce and have it available in case you're not happy with your own creation.

Let the pork roast cool a while so it sucks in those juices, then pull the pork apart and take out any visible fat. Then, add the BBQ sauce to the pulled pork in a separate pan, and you're ready to warm the BBQ pork in the oven as you prepare your sides. (I got another taste at this point ... and on my suggestion, Kirsten sprinkled some extra salt on the pork. I feel that salt really pulls out the taste of pork. Normally, we're stingy on the salt.)

The rest of the BBQ sauce was mixed with some extra chipotle sauce and simmered in a small pot. This sauce was available to add onto the pork when served for some extra heat and taste.

Serve on the bun of your choice (Kir used a toasted kaiser bun brushed with garlic butter), or serve on its own (as shown in the photo). Yes, I tried it both ways.

Kirsten also served one of our favorite slaws. You can find this at grocery stores -- a bag of prepared slaw fixings with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and some cabbage. It's a crispy, super-healthy alternative to regular cabbage slaw. As usual, Kirsten takes it up a notch by adding chopped onion (for an extra bite) and soaking the prepared vegetable mix in vinegar and spices -- cajun seasoning, salt, pepper and a good grill seasoning. An hour or hour-and-a-half later, add the mayonnaise and a splash of milk and mix it in with the slaw/seasoning mixture until creamy.

We also ate some of our favorite potato chips for a crunchy, starchy, easy side.

Obviously, you'll want to prepare this meal when you're home most of the day to tend to the oven, but the amount of time babysitting the meal is pretty minimal. Kirsten left and shopped for a few hours while the pork roasted. Shoulder roast is also one of the more affordable pieces of meat you'll find at the grocery store. Our 3-pound roast made about 8 full servings. (I enjoyed myself a gut-splitting two servings, and two more coming my way via lunch this week. Some envious co-workers will get to smell this wonderful stuff twice this week.)

Before we ate, I had teased Kirsten that I would grade her work as if grading a restaurant ... and here's the verdict: A perfect 5 spoons. (The Girl, 8, also gave a perfect score.) I always talk about how it's hard to find great BBQ when we go out. Turns out, you can put together a great pulled pork BBQ meal at home.