‘Pulled pork roll’ – This slow cooked sticky BBQ flavored pork shoulder is making head way into London and creating line ups in this city’s top eateries. Places like Pit Co in Soho and their food street vans are bringing a little Brooklyn/southern America to London.
Hanging out in Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn last year, I was salivating at the variety of food available from the food vans. On the NYC streets – whether it be your favourite burger, pizza slice, pulled pork burger or ice cream and cookies, this place has it covered.
BBQ pit restaurants have been serving up tasty slow cooked joints of meat smothered in homemade BBQ sauces and secret spice mixes for centuries. According to popular belief – North Carolina is the home of the pulled pork sandwich, and now the world is taking note of how tasty BBQ pork can be.
Pulled pork gets its name from the way the succulent strips of juicy pork pieces can be ‘pulled’ away from the bone into individual pieces. The best way to have a go at this super tasty crowd pleaser yourself, is to fire up your Webber BBQ if you are lucky enough to have one (or just a a charcoal barbie with a lid) and start slow cooking a shoulder as soon as the sun’s out. You will need to keep the coal going for a good three or four hours to ensure the pork slowly cooks into tender strips of juicy flesh.
Selecting a small shoulder from your butcher will be more than enough to feed a tribe of mates and have some left for lunch days for to come. Ask your butcher to order you a small shoulder and score the meat so the flavour can get right into the joint. We want the smokey flavours of the coals mixed in with the sticky sauces.
So fire up your BBQ and get the coals going for a tasty treat of pulled pork straight from the south. Lets get crackling, I mean cracking!
Chris’s delicious pulled pork sandwich
What you need:
- 2kg pork shoulder
- 1 tbsp chili flakes
- 1 tbsp whole grain mustard
- Salt and black pepper
- 1 cup of white wine vinegar
- 1 cup of cider
- 1 cup of smoked hickory sauce
What to do:
Preheat your oven 170 degrees or the BBQ on low coals.
For the pulled pork, oil a baking tray and place the pork shoulder on top.
Mix together the chili, mustard and salt and freshly ground black pepper, then rub the mixture into the pork shoulder.
Pour the vinegar and cider over, and then scatter over the onion and garlic.
Cover with parchment paper, then wrap in foil and place into the oven (or barbie pit) to roast for three hours.
Remove the parchment and foil, and brush over the hickory sauce then roast for another hour.
‘Pull’ the pork by sticking a fork in the shoulder and shredding the meat into small pieces with another fork.
Served best with a fresh coleslaw, freshly baked door stopper bread slices or burger buns.
