**Pulled Pork Sandwiches with West Carolina Barbecue Sauce: A Taste of Smoky, Tangy Goodness**
Prepare to tantalize your taste buds with a culinary journey to the heart of North Carolina barbecue country. In this article, we present a mouthwatering recipe for pulled pork sandwiches slathered in a rich and smoky West Carolina barbecue sauce. We'll guide you through every step of the process, from selecting the perfect pork shoulder to creating a flavorful rub and cooking the pork to tender perfection. Along the way, we'll introduce you to variations of the classic pulled pork sandwich, including a vegetarian version made with jackfruit, a slow-cooker recipe for added convenience, and a spicy chipotle barbecue sauce for those who love a bit of heat. Whether you're a seasoned barbecue enthusiast or a newcomer to the world of smoky, tangy goodness, this article has something for everyone. So, fire up your grill or smoker, gather your ingredients, and let's embark on a culinary adventure that will leave you craving more.
CAROLINA VINEGAR BBQ SAUCE
Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce is tangy, spicy and is the ultimate sauce when you're serving pork!
Provided by Donya Mullins
Categories Extras Main Course
Time 7m
Number Of Ingredients 6
Steps:
- Add all ingredients to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer cooking for 2 minutes until sugar and salt dissolves.
- Remove from heat and let cool. Store in a covered jar or bottle in the refrigerator until ready to use. It can be stored for up to 3 weeks.
NORTH CAROLINA-STYLE BBQ PULLED-PORK SANDWICHES
Provided by Food Network Kitchen
Categories main-dish
Time 15h30m
Yield 8 to 10 servings, with leftovers
Number Of Ingredients 21
Steps:
- Make small holes all over the pork shoulder with a thin sharp knife and stuff in garlic cloves. Rub the meat all over with the Memphis Shake; cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Prepare an outdoor grill with an indirect medium-hot fire with a mix of briquettes and hardwood charcoal in half of the grill. Set grate over coals. Place pork, skin side up, in an aluminum pan with about 1 1/2 cups water on the cooler side of the grate. Toss 1 cup of the soaked and drained wood chips onto the coals and cover the grill, making sure the lid's vents are directly over pork.
- When the coals cool to medium-low heat, preheat a chimney-full of hot briquettes and hardwood charcoal. Whenever smoke stops coming out of the vents, about every hour, add more hot coals and 1 cup of soaked and drained wood chips to the fire. The goal is to maintain a medium-heat, smoky fire (but don't worry if it is hotter when the coals are added and cooler while preheating the coals). Rotate the pork when you add coals so it cooks evenly. Cook the meat until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the pork registers 180 degrees F, about 6 hours.
- Set aside 1 quart of the North Carolina-Style Vinegar BBQ Sauce. Once the pork reaches 180 degrees F, begin mopping the entire surface of the meat every 20 minutes with some of the remaining sauce and the pan drippings. Continue to cook the pork, covering the grill between mopping, until an instant-read thermometer registers 200 degrees F, about 1 to 2 hours more.
- Transfer the pork to a cutting board and let rest for at least 15 minutes. Remove the outer skin and discard. Cut large chunks from the bone and shred, using 2 forks or your fingers, (when cool enough to touch) or chop. Toss with about 1 cup of the reserved barbecue sauce for every 3 cups of meat. Tuck the pork into the soft rolls and serve with pickles.
- Whisk paprika, brown sugar, oregano, garlic, ancho powder, salt, and celery salt in a small bowl. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 2 months.
- Heat the vinegar and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Off the heat, stir in the ketchup, honey, salt, red pepper, and black pepper.
NORTH CAROLINA PULLED-PORK BARBECUE
This classic pulled pork is the ultimate holiday weekend grilling project.
Provided by Ruth Cousineau
Categories Backyard BBQ Summer Grill Grill/Barbecue Gourmet Graduation
Yield Makes 8 servings
Number Of Ingredients 4
Steps:
- Bring vinegar to a boil with sugar, red-pepper flakes, 2 tsp salt, and 1 Tbsp pepper in a small nonreactive saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then cool. Set aside 2 cups vinegar sauce to serve with sandwiches.
- While sauce cools, score pork skin in a crosshatch pattern with a sharp knife (forming 1-inch diamonds), cutting through skin and fat but not into meat. Pat meat dry and rub all over with 1 Tbsp each of salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before grilling.
- Prepare grill for indirect-heat cooking over low heat, leaving space in middle for disposable roasting pan.
- When coals have cooled to about 300°F (45 minutes to 1 hour; when most coals will have burned out), put disposable roasting pan on bottom rack of grill between the 2 remaining mounds of coals, then fill pan halfway with water. Add a couple of handfuls of unlit charcoal to each charcoal mound, then put grill rack on so hinges are over coals.
- Oil grill rack, then put pork, skin side up, on rack above roasting pan. Grill pork, with lid ajar (for air, so coals remain lit), basting meat with sauce and turning over every 30 minutes (to maintain a temperature of 250 to 275°F, add a couple of handfuls of coals to each side about every 30 minutes), until fork-tender (a meat fork should insert easily) and an instant-read thermometer inserted 2 inches into center of meat (avoid bone) registers 190°F, 7 to 8 hours total.
- Transfer pork to a cutting board. If skin is not crisp, cut it off with at least 1/4 inch fat attached (cut any large pieces into bite-size ones) and roast, fat side down, in a 4-sided sheet pan in a 350°F oven until crisp, 15 to 20 minutes.
- When meat is cool enough to handle, shred it using 2 forks. Transfer to a bowl.
- Serve pork, cracklings, and coleslaw together on buns. Serve reserved vinegar sauce on the side.
CAROLINA PULLED PORK SANDWICHES
With the help of your trusty slow cooker, you can enjoy tangy pulled pork with just 30 minutes of hands-on time. Browning the meat before placing it in the slow cooker will create a nice crust and seal in all of the flavor without drying it out. De-glazing the pan with a Pilsner-style beer will ensure that you soak up every last bit of browned meet for even more flavor. Cooking the pork low and slow will allow it to easily fall off the bone, and you'll be able to shred it using two forks. If you're in no hurry, cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Or if you need it be done quicker you can cook it on high for 5 to 6 hours. The homemade Carolina-style vinegar sauce comes together with ingredients you probably already have on hand. We recommend serving with an assortment of toppings like pickles, sliced onions, coleslaw, and plenty of extra sauce.
Provided by Southern Living Test Kitchen
Time 5h45m
Yield Serves 8
Number Of Ingredients 19
Steps:
- Prepare the Carolina Vinegar Sauce: Vigorously whisk together vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire, crushed red pepper, and mustard in a medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Measure 1/2 cup sauce into a small bowl; reserve for slow cooker. Cover remaining sauce (about 2 cups) in medium bowl; set aside for serving.
- Prepare the Pulled Pork: Pat pork dry with paper towels. Stir together pimenton, brown sugar, salt, mustard, onion powder, celery salt, garlic salt, and pepper in a small bowl; sprinkle all over pork. Heat oil in a large cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed pan over high until hot but not smoking. Add pork; cook, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer pork to a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Add beer to skillet; reduce heat to medium, and cook 30 seconds, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from skillet bottom.
- Pour beer mixture and reserved 1/2 cup sauce over pork in slow cooker. Cover and cook until pork easily pulls away from bone using a fork, 5 to 6 hours on HIGH or 8 to 10 hours on LOW. Remove pork from slow cooker, and transfer to a large heatproof bowl; let stand 15 minutes. Remove and discard bone. Shred meat using 2 forks. Add 1 cup of the reserved sauce from medium bowl to meat, and toss to coat. Serve pork on buns with remaining sauce on the side.
BBQ PULLED PORK WITH CAROLINA SAUCE
Provided by Food Network
Categories main-dish
Time 10h10m
Yield 12 servings
Number Of Ingredients 18
Steps:
- For the Carolina BBQ sauce: Combine the cider vinegar, ketchup, sugar, molasses, mustard, soy sauce, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, red pepper flakes, salt and a pinch ground black pepper in a stainless steel saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool before using. If not using immediately, pour it into a bowl or jar. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
- For the BBQ pulled pork: Combine 1-quart water with the soy sauce, salt, sugar, honey and molasses in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, then remove from the heat and let cool. Stir in 1 gallon plus 3 quarts water. Pierce the meat with a boning knife in several places, then add the meat to the brine. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Remove the meat from the brine, coat lightly with salt and pepper, and arrange in a smoker. Load 2 boxes filled with applewood chips into the smoker. Set the smoker at 250 degrees F and smoke for 8 hours. Remove the meat from the smoker to a cutting board and shred when cool enough to handle. Arrange on a serving platter and serve with the BBQ sauce.
PULLED-PORK SANDWICHES
In this sandwich, slow-cooked pork is dressed in sauce (use any of the four varieties). Pickled vegetables make a piquant addition.
Provided by Martha Stewart
Categories Food & Cooking Ingredients Meat & Poultry Pork Recipes
Yield Makes 8 sandwiches
Number Of Ingredients 12
Steps:
- Using a fork, mash together garlic, mustard, sugar, salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, and cayenne pepper in a small bowl to form a paste.
- Spread paste evenly over top of pork. Refrigerate in a roasting pan for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Add water to bottom of pan, and cover with foil. Cook, basting hourly, flipping halfway through, until pork is tender and pulls apart easily, about 6 hours. Let cool slightly. Using 2 forks, shred pork, and toss with barbecue sauce. Sandwich pork mixture between buns, topping the meat with pickled vegetables.
SUPER-EASY PULLED PORK SANDWICHES
I use this hearty recipe for my Super Bowl® parties. It's super easy and feeds a lot of hungry football fans. Serve on a large bun with some baked beans, coleslaw, and chips.
Provided by Lori M.
Categories Main Dish Recipes Pork 100+ Pulled Pork Recipes
Time 9h15m
Yield 20
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
- Mix brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, and salt in a bowl. Spread mustard over pork roast and sprinkle with brown sugar mixture, using the entire amount. Line a shallow baking dish with aluminum foil. Place a rack in the prepared baking dish and arrange pork roast on rack.
- Bake in the preheated oven until very tender, 9 to 11 hours. Let pork cool, then shred into bite-size pieces. Stir barbeque sauce into pork to moisten; serve with hamburger buns.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 414.1 calories, Carbohydrate 44.9 g, Cholesterol 68.2 mg, Fat 11.7 g, Fiber 2.7 g, Protein 30 g, SaturatedFat 3.6 g, Sodium 865.8 mg, Sugar 3.9 g
CAROLINA-STYLE PORK BBQ SANDWICHES
Arguably, some of the best 'cue in the country can be found in North Carolina, where two distinct types of slow-cooked pig prevail. The first is Eastern barbecue, which is distinguished by slow-cooking a whole hog and including both the white and dark meat in chopped sandwiches and platters. Eastern 'cue boasts just a hint of vinegar and red pepper, which is added to the meat mix rather than used as a sauce. Western North Carolina 'cue (aka Lexington-style) is made from pork shoulder only. In addition to incorporating plenty of vinegar, sugar, and spices, it also mixes in a good amount of ketchup to create an actual sauce for the pork. This slow-cooker recipe falls somewhere in between.
Provided by Kendra Bailey Morris
Categories Pork Sandwich Grill/Barbecue North Carolina
Yield Serves 10 to 12 (about 8 cups of meat)
Number Of Ingredients 24
Steps:
- Make the pork:
- Spray the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray.
- Put the onions in the slow cooker. Make slits in the pork roast and insert the garlic cloves. Rub salt, pepper, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes into the meat. Place the pork in the slow cooker fat side up and pour in the vinegar and apple cider. Cover and cook on low for at least 10 hours and up to 12 hours, until the meat is falling-apart tender.
- Transfer the meat to a large bowl and shred it with two forks. Set aside.
- Make the sauce:
- Pour 2 cups of the pan juices into a measuring cup; discard any leftover juices still in the pot. Let cool and skim off any visible fat. Pour this liquid into a saucepan. Add the water, ketchup, cider vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, paprika, dry mustard, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Return the shredded pork to the slow cooker and add 1 cup of the sauce mixture (more if you like it wet). Give it a stir and set the slow cooker to warm until ready to serve.
- Assemble the sandwiches:
- Serve the pork straight from the slow cooker with a slotted spoon, along with buns, slaw, and hot sauce. Serve the additional sauce on the side.
PULLED PORK SANDWICHES
This recipe takes a good deal of time, but it yields a lot of sandwiches, more than enough for a sloppy, spicy dinner party feast. You'll roast a dry-rubbed pork shoulder in the oven until it's pull-apart tender, 3 or 4 hours that you can spend doing other things while your kitchen fills with the aroma of the cooking meat. Then you'll assemble a quick slaw and simmer a tangy barbecue sauce for about 10 minutes before putting it all out on the table with soft rolls. Serve the combination warm, at any time of the year, for a weekend project well worth an afternoon's work.
Provided by Melissa Clark
Categories lunch, project, sauces and gravies, main course
Time 6h
Yield 8 to 10 servings
Number Of Ingredients 28
Steps:
- Assemble the spice rub for the pork: In a dry, small skillet over medium-low heat, toast coriander, cumin and peppercorns until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind toasted spices into a fine powder. Transfer to a bowl and mix with salt, mustard powder, chile powder and sugar.
- If your roast is tied up, untie it. Massage meat generously with spice rub. If you have time, let meat rest for an hour or two at room temperature, or refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
- Heat oven to 300 degrees. Place pork in a baking pan and roast for 3 to 4 hours or until meat is pull-apart tender and internal temperature reads 200 degrees on a meat thermometer. Let meat cool for at least 30 minutes before pulling it apart and shredding with your hands or two forks. (This works best when the meat is warm but not hot.)
- Prepare the barbecue sauce: Combine ingredients in a medium pot. Simmer over medium-low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce has deepened in color. Season with more hot sauce if you like. Add two-thirds of the sauce to meat and toss to coat, adding more sauce as needed. (Any leftover sauce will keep for at least 2 weeks in the refrigerator.)
- Make the slaw: Combine cabbage, onion and jalapeño in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add dressing to cabbage and toss well.
- Serve pulled pork with slaw, buns and hot sauce on the side, letting people assemble their own sandwiches.
Tips for Making the Best Pulled Pork Sandwiches:
- Choose the right cut of meat: Pork shoulder or pork butt is the best cut for pulled pork because it has a lot of marbling and connective tissue, which break down and make the meat tender and flavorful when cooked slowly.
- Use a good rub: The rub is what gives the pulled pork its flavor, so it's important to use a good one. A good rub will typically contain a combination of spices, herbs, and sugar.
- Cook the pork slowly and low: Pulled pork should be cooked slowly and low, typically at a temperature of 225-250 degrees Fahrenheit. This allows the connective tissue in the meat to break down and the flavors to develop.
- Let the pork rest before shredding it: Once the pork is cooked, let it rest for about 15 minutes before shredding it. This will help the juices redistribute throughout the meat and make it more tender.
- Use a good barbecue sauce: The barbecue sauce is what really makes pulled pork sandwiches special. A good barbecue sauce should have a balance of sweetness, smokiness, and tanginess.
Conclusion:
Pulled pork sandwiches are a classic American dish that are perfect for any occasion. They're easy to make and can be tailored to your own taste preferences. Whether you like your pulled pork sweet, smoky, or tangy, there's a recipe out there for you. So next time you're looking for a delicious and satisfying meal, give pulled pork sandwiches a try.
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