This pulled pork is insanely juicy, tasty and definitely very festive. It consists of pork shoulder which is slow roasted in a maple syrup bourbon sauce for over 2 hours and shredded into tender pulled pork. You can also use pork butt but the shoulder is commonly used. It comes with a homemade gravy which is great with rice dishes or mashed potatoes. You can also turn these into yummy sandwiches made with barbecue sauce and even add grated cheese. You can even make a pot pie with pulled pork. It is such a versatile recipe and that is why I picked it for this holiday season.
Prepping the pork shoulder
Trim off any excess fat in the pork. Pork shoulder has just one big bone in the center so it is easy to chop. Cutting the pork into smaller chunks will make it easier to shred apart after it is cooked. Prior to roasting the pork in the oven, the pork shoulder is brined in a maple bourbon marinade for a few hours in the fridge. This makes it very tasty.
The pulled pork gravy
Because the pork is so juicy from the bourbon marinade, you will have lots of drippings to use for your gravy. You will whisk butter, flour, stock, the drippings to get a thick gravy. It usually doesn’t take more than 25 minutes to get ready. I added tinned carrots but you can use other tinned vegetables of your choice or steamed vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower or Brussel sprouts would pair really well with this recipe.
Ingredients
Pulled pork
1.8 kg/4 lbs pork shoulder
1 tablespoon table salt
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup maple syrup
1&1/2 cups bourbon
1/2 cup fresh herbs, chopped (I used sage)
2 onions, peeled and halved
Gravy
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1-2 cups drippings from the cooked pork
571ml tinned carrots (optional)
Instructions
- Trim any excess fat from the pork shoulder. Cut into large chunks and transfer to a huge mixing container.
- Mix the salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cumin, Italian seasoning, maple syrup together in another bowl and rub this over the pork chunks.
- Top everything with the bourbon. Wrap the top of the container with cling wrap and refrigerate the pork for a few hours.
- Preheat the oven to 300F/148C.
- Place the marinated pork chunks into a 13x9 inch baking pan or casserole dish. Add the onion halves and fresh herbs.
- Loosely wrap the top of the baking pan with aluminum foil and bake the pork in the oven on the middle rack for 3 hours straight.
- Remove the foil from the top of the pan and continue roasting the pork for another 30 minutes.
- Take out the pan from the stove and remove the onion halves. Drain about 1 cup of marinade juice from the pan and set aside to make the gravy.
- Take two forks and shred apart the pork chunks.
- You can also make a pulled pork sandwich. Grab toasted buns, spread a thin layer of barbecue sauce on the open face of the bun and add your pulled pork to form a sandwich.
- Gravy: melt the butter in a saucepan and whisk in the flour until smooth. Add the stock and the reserved drippings from the cooked pork from step 8.
- Let it simmer on medium heat and whisk from time to time. It should thicken after 20 minutes.
- Add your tinned carrots (optional) and serve over the pulled pork. This goes great with mashed potatoes.
Notes
Leftovers for the pulled pork taste good for up to 4 days. Keep it refrigerated in an airtight container.