Picked up a pork butt to smoke this weekend and had some things come up that will keep me from being able to stick around the house and smoke it.

Anyone have suggestions for pulled pork in the crock pot?

I like this carnitas recipe using pork butt. Since you are asking for a crock pot recipe, it might be more involved and isn't something you can cook while at work. That said, it does cook for a while once prepped so maybe you can work with it.

I use this recipe for slow cooker carnitas. It's fantastic!

http://damndelicious.net/2014/10/10/slow-cooker-pork-carnitas/

I buy the Fiesta Pork Rub at HEB and rub it all over the butt.



Place it in the crock pot fat side up with about .5-1" water in the bottom and cook on low for 10 hours (high for 8).

Comes out awesome

Google the seriouseats Dr Pepper pulled pork. It's really good.

Use a dutch oven instead if you can, almost as work free as a crock pot with much better results IMO.

Bruce Almighty said:

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Google the seriouseats Dr Pepper pulled pork. It's really good.

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I have done similar cooks to this, but I like to strain the cooking liquid and use it as a base for a bbq sauce instead of store bought.

keysercade said:

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Use a dutch oven instead if you can, almost as work free as a crock pot with much better results IMO.

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Dutch oven or crock pot, your results will be much better if you brown your meats and veggies before cooking.

All good recommendations, especially with using a flavorful rub and Dr. Pepper as a liquid.

If you can, get a little smoke in at the beginning. Alternatively, throw it on the grill and get some char/color before putting in the crock pot.

you want easy? put salted butt in the crock pot. add some apple cider vinegar and some hot sauce (tex pete's or equivalent). 6 hours later you are gold.

not like a smoked butt, but pretty good and not too sweet



for carnitas in crock pot I season cubed pork with cumin, salt and onion powder. put in crock pot with fresh jalapeno, quartered onion and one orange with juice squeezed out. Once it is cooked and tender put the shredded meet on a cookie sheet and broil in the oven to give it some crunch. pretty good stuff for tacos

Crock pot carnitas:

Cut butt into 2 inch cubes and salt on all sides. Cover with melted lard and cook on high for 3-4 hours. Shred, place on cookie sheet and toss with some of the lard. Place under broiler for a couple of minutes, stir meat and broil a couple minutes longer. Salt and squeeze lime over meat when finished.

Made one once using a Pioneer Woman recipe (I believe). Four ingredients: pork butt, dr. pepper (not diet), chipotle pepper in adobo, onion. Pulled pork, made sliders, served to friends while we watched the Chick Fil-A Bowl Game (seems a long time ago).

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keysercade said:
Use a dutch oven instead if you can, almost as work free as a crock pot with much better results IMO.

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Dutch oven or crock pot, your results will be much better if you brown your meats and veggies before cooking.

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That's why you use a dutch oven, you brown the meat first... hard to do in a crock pot.

keysercade said:

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keysercade said:
Use a dutch oven instead if you can, almost as work free as a crock pot with much better results IMO.

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Dutch oven or crock pot, your results will be much better if you brown your meats and veggies before cooking.

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That's why you use a dutch oven, you brown the meat first... hard to do in a crock pot.

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Many slow cookers now have removable pans that allow you to go stove top to slow cooker. In the summer, I personally will take the reduction in quality in a slow cooker over running an oven all day.

That is, if I cooked pulled pork inside at all. That's what the big green egg is for.

All are good suggestions. I personally like to take the pork out of the crock pot and shred then stick in the oven at like 450 before serving to crisp it up a little. It makes a lot of difference from all the meat just being soft.

Rub pork butt in a bunch of brown sugar, some chili powder, a little Tony's. All day on low. Remove, shred, drain crockpot. Put it back in with a bunch of BBQ sauce hot sauce to taste. Stir it up and let it go for another 30 min. Serve with onions and japs. Now I'm hungry!

I agree with crisping it under the broiler after cooking in a crock pot or dutch oven. The first recipe I posted does exactly that even after cooking in a regular oven and it definitely makes crispy deliciousness.

I actually used Ree Drummond's Dr Pepper pulled pork recipe. Was pretty good.

I used the Pioneer Woman Dr Pepper Pulled Pork recipe last weekend. SO GOOD

i think this thread has established that it's pretty damn hard to turn a pork butt cooked low and slow into anything but deliciousness.

schmendeler said:

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i think this thread has established that it's pretty damn hard to turn a pork butt cooked low and slow into anything but deliciousness.

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So true. Pretty hard to screw it up.

Thanks for the tips and info guys. I did a combination of the Pioneer Woman and Serious Eats Dr. Pepper recipes. Seared on the stove, then into the crockpot with onion, adobo peppers, brown sugar, honey. Then heated up some DP to help scrape up the fond and tossed that in as well. 8 hours later I shredded and crisped about a 1/4 of the meat in the oven for a few minutes to help get some additional texture. Turned out great!