Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

This is my take on a very popular dish. I'm working on a smoked version, but use liquid smoke in this one. 

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) pork shoulder roast - Boston butt

1 cup barbeque sauce

½ cup apple cider vinegar

⅛ teaspoon liquid smoke

½ cup chicken broth

¼ cup light brown sugar1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 extra large onion, chopped 
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 ½ teaspoons dried thyme
8 hamburger buns, split
2 tablespoons butter, or as needed

Mix the barbecue sauce, apple cider vinegar, liquid smoke and chicken broth in the slow cooker. Stir in the brown sugar, yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, onion, garlic, and thyme. Place the pork roast into the slow cooker and spoon some liquid over the top. Cover and cook on High until the roast shreds easily with a fork, 5 to 6 hours. I flipped mine about halfway through. 

Remove the roast from the slow cooker, and shred the meat using two forks. Return the shredded pork to the slow cooker, and stir the meat into the juices.

Serving ideas...

Classic: on buttered and toasted buns with pickles, pickled red onions, etc. 

Grilled Cheese: Texas Toast bread, slice of provolone and American cheese with some pulled pork in the middle. 

Storage: This makes a lot. Freeze in muffin tins then transfer to Ziplock in the freezer. Zap in microwave and use as needed. 

Smoked Spare Ribs

These are the best I've made so far. This is what I want from my spare ribs: Moist, not falling apart, well seasoned.

I used Costco ribs for this batch. Three racks like this will just fit into my smoker.  Put up a local BBQ joint's prices for comparison. These cook for 6 hrs (3+2+1) total with about 1-2 hour lead time for rub.

   

Rub for about 10 lbs ribs
2 tbsp ground black
4 tbsp Paprika, sweet Hungarian paprika
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp celery salt
1 tsp cayenne

Apple cider vinegar for foil (Texas crutch)

Steps

1. Trim ribs by removing the membrane on rib side and trim any big sections of fat from the front. 
2. Lay rack on large piece of plastic wrap and season both sides. You'll use up the rib so 1/3 per rack.
3. Wrap of the rack in the plastic wrap, set on a sheet pan. Repeat with other two racks and put them all in the fridge for about an hour or so. 
4. I use an electric smoker so I'm ready to go. You may need to start your fire so do that and get temp to about 225° F. 
5. Place ribs in smoker and smoke for 3 hours. 
6. Set up enough foil to wrap each rack (I have to cut mine in 1/2 for 6 sections for me)
7. Remove each rack from smoker, place in foil with some apple cider vinegar, seal the foil and return to smoker. I rotate high/low when returning to smoker. You can double-wrap if you like. 
8. After 2 hours, remove foil-wrapped ribs from smoker, unwrap and return to smoker. 
9. Cook for 1 more hour . You can mop at this point if you like, but I prefer a non-sticky rib with rub only. Remove racks from smoker and let rest for a while, then cut and serve. 

Moroccan Spiced Pork Roast

This is a Chef John / All Recipes dish I recently prepared at home. My first go at it produced a wonderful dish, but next time I'll make a few adjustments based on the results.
Recipe: Chef John's Video on YouTube / All Recipes ingredients and directions

My results yielded a less juicy pork roast and fewer pan drippings that in the video. It was not dry, but not juicy. Be patient when spreading the paste even if you dry the roast. It took a while to loosen up the paste so it to spread easily. Back of a spoon worked better than hands. I added a couple of parsnips to be veggie mix . I like parsnips.

Planned Changes

1. I will probably wet brine the pork roast in 1/4 cup table salt dissolved in 2 cups cold water for about 2 hours. Then butterfly and season with the paste. This in an effort to produce a juicier roast.  
2. Use a porcelain or other not-no-stick roasting vessel. Maybe a large cast iron skillet. The non-stick roasting pan I used left little fond.
3. My lack of pan drippings I will attempt to correct by adding some diced pork belly with the vegetables in hopes it will render and caramelize during roasting. The issue may have been with my very lean roast with very little fat cap.

The Moroccan spice paste was fantastic. It perfumed the entire roast and filled the house with pleasurable aromas.

Difficulty: Easy Peasy. Other than butterflying the pork roast, this requires no special skills or tools.
Cleanup: Minimal. A few bowls, measuring spoons / cup, the roasting pan, knives, cutting board, spoon and that's about it. Everything will be clean by the time you are done roasting. 

Ready for roasting

Final product was delicious!