BBQ Pulled Pork in the Crock Pot

BBQ Pulled Pork is one of our favorite staples in this house.  We have always relied on the quick microwave version, as it was quick and easy and honestly, I am intimidated by new meals.  However, we did the math, and it is WAY cheaper to purchase a pork shoulder and add a few ingredients, so i thought I'd give it a go.  I knew that there were tons of BBQ Pulled Pork recipes online, so I turned to google.  WOW, way too many, several with TONS of ingredients, and that looked a bit more challenging than I was willing to attempt.  So I looked at them, and decided that I would make it as simple as possible, following what my husband calls the "KISS" method (Keep It Simple Stupid).

I placed my pork shoulder in the crock pot on the rack, (which I wasn't sure if I was supposed to do or not, but I knew the fat would cook off, and I didn't like the idea of the meat cooking in it's own fat) chopped up a little onion, to place on top and poured root-beer over the whole thing.  Then I turned my slow cooker on high for 8 1/2 hours and let it go.

When i got home from work, I simply cut the rope part off (this is an important step) dumped the fat out of the bottom of the cooker, and shredded the shoulder with two forks.  I tried to pull off and get rid of any extra fat, as I went.  It felt a tad dry to me, so I added a bit more root-beer, and it made it a bit easier to shred.  When I was done, it looked like this.

Then I added BBQ sauce and left it on high for another hour to allow it to finish cooking.

Apparently, I choose a good night to make dinner in the crock pot, as my husband ended up not getting home from work until 8:30pm (usually he beats me home).  So I was able to keep it warm for him, which was an added bonus.  I know that most people make sandwiches with BBQ pork, but we aren't huge sandwich people so I aways just whip up some cornbread to serve it with, and it is wonderful!

This was such a great meal, and we had tons of leftovers, so I got to freeze some later!  We will be making our BBQ pork this way in the future.  My picky hubby even gave it the thumbs up saying it was easily as good, if not better than the microwave version we normally buy.

Want to make it yourself?

Here is what you need:
1 Pork Shoulder (4-6 pounds)
1/4 of a yellow onion
1/2 - 2 cups of root-beer
A bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

Instructions:
Place the shoulder on the rack in your crock pot.
Dice the onion and place on to of the shoulder
Pour root-beer on top of all, so that there is about 1inch in the bottom of the pot
Cover and cook on high for 7-9 hours depending on pound of shoulder
Dump fat our of bottom of crock pot, remove string on shoulder and shred on bottom of pot
Mix in your BBQ sauce and cook on high for an hour until warm.
Serve hot on a sandwich or with cornbread and enjoy!

I hope that this will make your week night dinners go faster as it takes very little effort for a great and hearty meal.

Cheers!

Ashley