AMAZING Pulled Pork {VIDEO}
This Amazing Pulled Pork recipe is made in a slow cook roaster for a tender, juicy pulled pork sandwich that is always a big hit!
Be sure to sign up for my email… to get new recipes and ideas in your inbox!
I have to share an AMAZING new pulled pork recipe I tried last week! I wanted to make Pulled Pork Sandwiches and I happened across Ree’s Recipe – I made just a few minor changes due to what I had available.
**Update (Jan 20, 2017) This is still a family favorite that we make several times a year. Last week I took new photos for the post.
Let me tell you……….you have NOT had Pulled Pork until you’ve had this Amazing Pulled Pork! OMG, it was incredible! I mean, it was SOOOO good we all could NOT stop raving about it while eating, we ate the leftovers for 2 more meals (which we NEVER do) and it kept getting better each time we ate it!
It’s good with or without BBQ sauce.
Table of Contents
Choosing The Right Barbecue Sauce
There are so many options when it comes to barbecue sauce. You go to the store and there are so many brands, flavors, and styles that make the decision too hard.
Luckily, I have the perfect solution to this problem! Whenever I make amazing pulled pork, especially for a crowd, I always set up a little barbeque sauce bar.
It’s a great way to let everyone mix and match, and discover the best combo ever! Just pick out a few different styles like; St. Louis sweet, honey barbeque, hot and smoky, and white barbeque sauce. That’s just my favorite spread, but feel free to pick out whatever you want!
If I really want everything to look right out of a barbeque joint, I’ll pour all the sauces into individual clear sauce bottles, throw a quick label on them, and line it all up next to the meat.
How to Prepare Amazing Pulled Pork
You will want a 4 – 7-pound pork butt roast or pork shoulder with the bone in.
You can use a small food processor, but I like to use my Magic Bullet to combine chili powder, brown sugar, garlic, oregano, cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil, and red wine vinegar.
Wash your hands and rub the spice mixture all over the roast.
How Long Should I Cook Pulled Pork?
Next, I place the roast in my Nesco Slow Cook Roaster, or you can use a roasting pan or Dutch oven and add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water. Cover tightly and roast the pork at 300 degrees F° for several hours (one hour per pound or until fork tender), turning once every hour.
Crispy and Tender Amazing Pulled Pork
When the pulled pork is fork tender, crank up the heat to 400, remove the lid, and roast it, skin side up for 15 minutes. This step makes it nice and crispy! (best part according to my family)
Serving Pulled Pork Sandwiches
When it’s done, let it rest for 15 minutes before shredding. Be sure to pour the juices all over the meat and enjoy!! Serve on buns with or without your favorite BBQ sauce.
Don’t forget the BLT Potato Salad, Slow-Cooker Creamy Corn, and ice-cold Ranch Water to really make this a meal to remember.
Like This Amazing Pulled Pork Recipe? Pin It!
Amazing Pulled Pork is a DEFINITE keeper in our house!
AMAZING Pulled Pork
This Amazing Pulled Pork recipe is made in a slow cook roaster for a tender, juicy pulled pork sandwich that is always a big hit!
Ingredients
- 4-7 pound pork butt roast with bone (or pork shoulder)
- 1 teaspoon Chili powder
- 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
- 3-4 Cloves of Garlic (I use jarred minced garlic)
- 1 teaspoon dried Oregano
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
- 2 tablespoons Salt & Pepper mixture combined
- 2 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 3 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
Instructions
- Rinse roast and pat dry.
- Blend all of the ingredients (except roast) in food processor, I used my Magic Bullet.
- Rub all over roast. Be sure to get into all creases and folds in the roast.
- Spray roasting pan with no-stick spray and place roast in roster (I used my Nesco Roaster ) and added about 1-1/2 cups water and cover with lid. Roast at 300, 4-6 hours (1 hour per pound) – turning every hour.
- When it’s fork tender, remove the lid, roast it by cranking the temperature to 400 and let it cook skin side up for another 15-20 mins. This step makes it nice and crispy! (best part according to my family)
- Let it sit for about 10 mins. before shredding.
- Remove bone (if you have one) and shred meat on a platter with two forks. Be sure to pour the juice from the pan over the pork. – I could NOT keep my family’s fingers OUT at this point!
- We served it with buns and BBQ sauce but it was also fantastic right off the platter!
Notes
- If you don't have a Nesco roaster, you can cook the meat in a dutch oven or roaster in the oven following the same instructions
- You could do this with a slow cooker, but you would not get the crispy skin that you get by roasting this meat, and in my opinion, that’s what made this SO good.
- I usually get a 4-5 pound roast and it feeds 7 people.
- I almost always use a pork butt, and I buy with a bone in for more flavor (and it's usually cheaper).
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 14 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 645Total Fat: 45gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 24gCholesterol: 195mgSodium: 667mgCarbohydrates: 4gFiber: 0gSugar: 3gProtein: 53g
Nutrition information is estimated based on the ingredients and cooking instructions as described in each recipe and is intended to be used for informational purposes only. Please note that nutrition details may vary based on methods of preparation, origin, and freshness of ingredients used and are just estimates. We encourage, especially if these numbers are important to you, to calculate these on your own for most accurate results.
Hi there, I'm Cheryl!
As a wife, mom, and caffeine enthusiast, my journey has taken me from bustling mornings with my family to sharing delicious recipes, home care tips, and heartfelt decorating insights with wonderful readers like you. My love for baking, photography, and tidiness shines through every post I craft. Dive into my world and discover the art of homemaking, one tidy moment at a time. Read more...
Tidymom is a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Please respect my work, recipes and photographs. If you do use a recipe in your own writing, please give proper credit and link back to the original post.
Mmmm…. this sounds SO good! My mother-in-law has raved about pulled pork, and I think I’m going to have to try it!
This looks great!! I have a a large pork shoulder in the freezer that I was needing to do something with!! Woohoo! Thanks.
I love pulled pork. It’s one of my favorite meat dishes. I prefer when the meat is bathed in BBQ sauce during cooking, but this looks delicious, too. We’ll have to try it.
I am doubling the sauce. Should not need BBQ sauce then, I hope.
Tara I have ALWAYS prefered it bathed in BBQ sauce as well, and had every intention of doing that this time – but while shredding the roast it was SO unbelievably good, we decided to leave it off and add it to our sandwiches!
~TidyMom
Wow, definitely sounds worth trying! Thanks for sharing.
I clicked through on your recipe and found just what I was hoping for – a recipe for pork butt roast since I just purchased my first one ever! (It’s true – been cooking for over 15 years, but never tried one!) Guess your recipe will be my initial attempt!
Oh dear! This recipe reminds me of Texas. Are you in Texas, girl? 🙂 I love it! Pulled pork….mmmm mmmmm mmmmm….so good! Thanks for helping me make out my menu this week! 🙂
This reminds me of NC. We love the bbq there. so different from bbq up north. Those pictures and the recipe look so yummy. Now I want some pulled pork. I can taste it already.
Methinks that pulled pork is a typically western or southern American dish of hospitality! Glad you served it up!
If I want rondo this in the crock pot do I still cook it 1 hour per lb? And do I cook it on low?
we have pulled pork on the menu for later in the week and I haven’t chosen a recipe yet.
This looks incredibly delicious. I have been wanting to get my hands on a good pulled pork recipe and this one looks like a good one. Thanks!
I know you love cooking and I thought you might like to share one of your successes like this pork with Momtrends reader.
Ree does have some amazing recipes. I haven’t seen this one before, so thanks for sharing. It looks delicious!
Tried this for dinner the other night…it was fantastic! Thanks for the recipe!
My NEW favorite way to eat a roast. I’ve always just shredded mine and tossed in a bottle of BBQ sauce…this gave it so much more flavor. I did add a bit of Jack Daniels BBQ at the end and we ate it for 2 nights! Everyone loved it.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, it looks fantastic, I can’t wait to try it!
Hi! I’ve made this before and now i’m making it a second time because it’s so delicious! I’m using a crockpot and I wanted to make sure I set it on low? You said 300 degrees I believe but mine is only warm, low or high. Thanks so much!
Do you thaw out your roast first or can you do this from frozen state!
definitely not frozen.
making this today in the crockpot, i don’t have a roaster. low for 6 hours maybe? also, what if once its done, transferring it to a pan and sticking it in the oven on 400 to crisp the skin?
that should work too – let me know how it turns out!!
So it just fell apart when I picked it up out of the crockpot, so it never made it to the oven. But it was AMAZING. Making it again tomorrow for the super bowl.
so glad you enjoyed it as much as we do!!
I’m so glad you asked that. I was going to. Was it dry at 6 hours or good? I’m making mine today for the super bowl.
Made this last night. It was so so good! I didn’t have a roasting pan with a lid, so I just popped it in the slow cooker on low for 6 hours. Once it was done, I put it on a sheet pan and put it in the oven to crisp it up, per the recipe.
I took the drippings from the slow cooker, skimmed off the fat, put in a splash of balsamic, a palm full of brown sugar and some worcestershire and let it simmer on the stove for a bit to thicken up. I shredded the pork, tossed it in the sauce and popped it back in the oven to make it extra crispy and sticky. Delish! Great recipe. Will definitely make again.
the recipe says 2 TB salt and pepper is that 2 TBS of each or a combo of salt and pepper?
Thanks
you can do it to your taste – I usually do almost 2 T salt then just add pepper
Pork shoulder and pork butt are the same cut of meat just fyi.
I am trying this recipe today.
Made this in my slow cooker with remainders of roast after roasting my bone-in roast in the oven for roast pork dinner (for two), and added a boneless thick loin chop. After removing meat to cool for shredding, (the bone came clean away from the meat!) I whisked ketchup into the sauce to make a BBQ sauce. Added the shredded meat back into the sauce. Oh, my goodness! I will always make my pulled pork this way from now on!
glad you enjoyed it as much as we do!!
I’m looking forward to trying this recipe this weekend, but have two questions:
First, after it’s fork tender, you say to crank up the temperature to 400 – do you leave the lid off for those 15 minutes?
And second, I’m planning on roasting two 4-7lb pork shoulders in my 18 qt roaster; do I need to increase the cook time?
Thanks!
yes, you remove the lid. As far as cooking 2 at a time, I think you would still stick with 1 hour per pound per roast. So probably still the same time as 1 roast.
Enjoy!!
I noticed in your photos there is a bottle of red cooking wine but the recipe says red wine vinegar and since those two products are not the same I was wondering which one you actually used for this recipe.
to be totally honest……I’ve used both. I know they aren’t the same thing, but I think one time I grabbed the cooking wine by mistake, and we didn’t notice any difference.
I’ve got this (two butts) in the Nesco roaster now! It smells so good in here! Thanks for sharing!
It was amazing! I took the juice and simmered it with ketchup, liquid smoke and brown sugar and it made a fantastic BBQ sauce to serve on the side. Thank you again! ?
Rhonda how long did you cook them? How many pounds total were they?
Hi Lisa, sorry I just saw this so it’s too late. But I cooked them for 10 hours or so. They were 7 lbs each and I fed a crowd!
Lisa you want to cook it about 1 hour per pound turning each hour
I want to make this for a picnic of about 50 people. Two 8 pound pork butts you think? In a roaster oven would I need to cook it for 8 hours Then?
Sounds perfect!
If I am just cooking in a roasting pan in the oven, do I place the roast in the 1 1/2 cups water that you used I the oven roaster? Should it be on a rack?
Thanks
Can this be made ahead of time and frozen for graduation? I have to make 100 pounds so I need to start today and freeze it till the 25th. Is this spicy? to many coming do not like spicy.
It’s not spicy at all!! sorry, I’ve never frozen the pork. Let’s us know how it turn out if you do!!
Jennifer,
Did you freeze the pork? I’m doing pulled pork for sixty and wondered if I could freeze it or make the day before.
Debs
I will also be making this ahead of time for a graduation party, I think it will freeze well, when reheating tho it will need extra liquid to keep moist, also going to make the bbq sauce someone suggested, can’t wait to taste this!!!
This is in the final stages of sitting for 10 minutes…the house smells incredible, can’t wait to taste this 🙂 so simple and not time consuming at all.
You need to maybe correct the salt / pepper entry to 2 tablespoons of salt and pepper to taste. I added 2 of each and it is so overpowering it about ruined the dish. Also, spraying the insert did not help at all, its all burnt up and will take days of soaking to get clean. The last 10 minutes cause all the juices to absorb, maybe 4 hours was too much for 4 lbs, I don’t know, but it certainly was tender as it took a large spoon and the tongs to get it out as it was falling apart and that bone came out clean without even nudging it 🙂 Due to no liquid left after the 10 minute crisping routine, I had to add bbq sauce immediately, hoping when we dig into it that it somehow reduces the black pepper as from tasting it its still boring a hole in my belly 🙁 Will make it again, with a lot less pepper and imitate oregano, not a fan of it and that is all I could smell when pulling it apart. Just needs some tweaking for perfection 🙂 Thanks for the recipe.
We have made this pulled pork more times than I can count. It’s one of my family’s most requested meals.
I’m sorry! The recipe is 2 tablespoons of salt AND pepper. Not 2 tablespoons of each.
As for the roaster, it does get pretty burnt, but it’s much worse if not sprayed (trust me, I’ve forgotten to spray it before) — hot water and baking soda or a dryer sheet is a good tip for burnt on food.
I’ve never had the liquid dry up. Did you remove the lid when you turned it up to 400°? My family loves the crispy pieces this step causes………but I always have a little juice left and pour it over the pork once I shred it.
I hope you tri it again and love it as much as we do!! I have it on our meal plan for next week!!
Made this recipe for a get together Saturday. I followed all the directions except used apple cider vinegar instead of red wine. It came out absolutely amazing!! Everyone raved about it. I will always do it in the electric roaster from now on. Thanks for sharing.
I would have loved to make this but there were so many ads that it took forever to get to the recipe.
This recipe is so good and incredibly easy. The pork turned out so tender and the left over liquid was very tasty. I followed the recipe as is except I didn’t turn up the oven to 400 degrees to crisp the top. I cooked a total of 17 1/2 lbs. for an upcoming party. Divided the meat between 3 large ziplock bags and added extra left over liquid and put in the freezer. I will definitely make this again!
Can you please tell me if you have every made this recipe using a pork loin (not tenderloin) if so would I adjust cooking time?
This was so good!! A new favorite for weeknights!
I am making this for my family this weekend!
Everyone loved this pulled pork! I will definitely be making it again!
These pulled pork sandwiches are heaven!
This is the BEST pulled pork recipe EVER! It’s the only one I use!
I made your recipe yesterday, unfortunately I didn’t see the comment about the pepper till the roast was cooking so it was a little peppery. But this was one of the best pulled pork recipes I have used. ( I am a chef of 40 years) it was Very EASY! And everyone loved it! I will definitely save it and use it again. P.s. I replaced the red wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar because that’s what I had. Yum!
Can you use a pork tenderloin instead with this recipe? I have always made pulled pork with a tenderloin. Would the temp and time be the same per pound?
Pork tenderloin does not have any fat or bone making it dry for this recipe, and it’s usually cut to about 1-2 pounds, so you would need several. We love pork tenderloin and cook it often, but not for this recipe. You may be able to use a pork loin, but I don’t think I’d use pork tenderloin.
I’m sorry my phone autocorrected my words. I have 4 8-9lb pork loins. Would this recipe work for these? 🙂
i would think that would work – report back if you make it with the pork loin!
I found your recipe and I just need to confirm…the last part. Do you remove the lid and turn it up to 400 and never replace the lid? and the top gets crisp? Just surprised because with nothing to hold in the heat, I wasn’t sure how this would work. Removing the lid in the oven, still keeps that meat surrounded by the heat but in an electric roaster, it is just wide open.
Thanks!
yes, you remove the lid, temp at 400 for about 10-15 mins. – this get’s the bottom nice and crispy – you aren’t trying to “cook” the whole roast longer, just to get the crispy bottom
Sorry…one more question. How is it to reheat? I need to make about 20 lbs for a gathering and hoped to make it on a Friday and then just reheat for the event, the next day.
Thanks again!
when we reheat leftovers, we always reheat it with BBQ sauce. I would just heat it on low just to get it warm. Enjoy!!
Do you cook this fat side up
I put the fat side down.
Have you tried in a instant pot?
I have not
Can this recipe be done with chicken? Any changes needed?
I have not tried it with chicken, but let us know if you try it!!
Hi so I’ve always put 2 tablespoons of salt in 2 tablespoons of pepper is that wrong because that’s what it 1st look like when I look at the recipe thats what i have done for years so is it one tablespoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of pepper curious