July, 2011: that's the last time you heard from Restaurant Quality. What the heck is with that? Now, you are probably asking yourself if this means Mr./Ms. Restaurant Quality have not been eating in the past year.
Lots of good food in the past YEAR, but also lots of life experiences occurring (arrival of sweet little babies, a wedding in the family, spending time with all The Little Sweethearts) as well as the dreaded 'Bloggers Block'.
But here I am, with the impetus being FD #1 asking for her Dad's Slow Cooker Shredded Pork. It is an awesome recipe (coming from Allrecipes.com) with amazing flavor.
Mr. Restaurant Quality asked that I get this on the blog, so that FD #1 has it available to make for this weekend.
The pork is in the slow cooker for TEN HOURS. That means you have to plan for this recipe. At our house, it is usually made the day before Mr. RQ needs it. Once the meat is enroute to tender delicious-ness, you can spend the rest of the day solving the world's problems, such as how to keep those dang squirrels from snatching my impatiens. The fox urine does not work!!!!
SLOW COOKER PORK WITH BBQ SAUCE
Musical Interlude: Jump Around
1 t. salt
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. ground coriander
1/4 t. cinnamon
1, 4 pound boneless pork shoulder roast (do not trim the fat) See My Notes
2 bay leaves
2 C. chicken broth
Restaurant Quality BBQ Sauce (September, 2010 blog post -- double the recipe)
Mix together the salt, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, coriander and cinnamon in a bowl.
Dry the pork with some paper towel. Coat pork with the spice mixture, rubbing it into the pork.
Place bay leaves in the bottom of the slow cooker; place pork on top of bay leaves.
Pour chicken broth around the sides of the pork. Be careful to not rinse the spice mixture off the pork.
Cover and cook on Low until pork shreds easily with a fork. This takes about 10 hours.
At the 5 hour point, turn the meat over.
When pork is finished (nice and tender), remove from slow cooker and shred with two forks.
Discard the cooking liquid from slow cooker.
Return shredded pork to slow cooker and add BBQ sauce to your desired consistency.
My Notes:
Per Mr. RQ: you won't be able to find a 4 pound roast. Typically, you'll find a 9-ish pound roast. Ask the person working in the meat department to 'please' cut this beauty in half. Use one of the roasts and get the other one in the freezer. You'll be happy you have it, once you eat the first one. You'll sleep better, knowing you already have in your possession, that which your family/friends are craving.
Per Mr. RQ: do not trim any of the fat off the pork. Use it as you bought it. At the end of the cooking time, you'll see some pieces of fat that have not rendered down............just throw them out.
Our bay leaves are large, by that I mean really big. (That's what you get when you buy bay leaves at the Spice House.) If yours are small, use 4-5 of them.
RQ BBQ sauce is amazing with this. Actually, my BBQ sauce is amazing, period. But, you don't have to make BBQ sauce. You can use whatever BBQ sauce you like...........it's your creation.
RQ BBQ sauce is on the blog. It's a post from September, 2010. Double the recipe, which will give you about 7 cups. That will give you enough sauce to give you the consistency you like for the shredded pork. And, it will give you extra sauce for those who want more.
We serve this with rolls. If in A Great City By A Great Lake, we get Sciortino rolls. The roll is merely the conduit to enjoying the pork, but a good quality roll adds to the gustatorial experience.
Another option is to serve the pork all on its own, in all its glory. No roll needed.
A good side dish is the broccoli slaw that RQ makes. The recipe is posted on the blog.
Any leftover pork can easily be placed in a ziploc freezer bag and put in the freezer. My bet is that there will not be any 'leftovers'.........................
