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Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork makes fantastic sandwiches — and the leftovers are great in soooo many other recipes.

One of these days I’ll update this OLD recipe with better photos — but looks aside, it’s still darn tasty. 🙂


Welcome to the October 11, 2015 edition of Sunday Scratchups, your weekly recipe from scratch around grocery sales and affordable ingredients. Pork is always seasonally on sale in the fall, and as the weather starts to turn colder it’s a great time to enjoy Slow Cooker Pulled Pork (and other slow cooked comfort food recipes!).

pork-roast

Note in 2022 — boy, remember the days when the sales were $.99/lb instead of… $1.99/lb? 🙂

I hope that those of you in the vicinity of a Jewel-Osco store picked up a super-cheap pork roast on their one-day sale earlier this week: This one cost me only $3.69 after sale price + coupon. I’m not super thrilled that they’re solution-added (and boy was there a lot of liquid at the bottom of the Crock Pot!), but at $.64 a pound and several meals from one roast…

slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches

Now if you want to get very easy-peasy when making pulled pork for sandwiches, simply throw your pork in the slow cooker with a bottle of BBQ sauce and maybe a couple of sliced onions. Here I decided instead to season up this roast to be more versatile, though. This way everyone can just add their own BBQ sauce to taste when making sandwiches, and we can also use the non-BBQed meat in things like tacos or burrito bowls.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

seasoned-pork

Ingredients

2 medium yellow onions, quartered
6-8 lb pork butt / shoulder roast
1 Tbsp Kosher salt
Black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chili powder
3 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp paprika
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp oregano
1 tsp cayenne
1 bay leaf

Directions

Cut up the onions and place them in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Season the pork roast with Kosher salt and pepper. Place the pork on top of onions, fatty side down.

In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, oregano, brown sugar, and garlic until they make a wet paste, then slather that on top of the roast. Add the bay leaf and cook on low for 8-9 hours.

Remove bay leaf, bone, and large pieces of fat, and move the meat and onions to a separate pan to shred. Shred the meat, and serve as desired.

This makes great BBQ pork sandwiches

close-up-pulled-pork-sandwich-2

A cheap pack of hamburger buns from ALDI + a little BBQ sauce later, and we had ourselves some truly delicious pulled pork sandwiches! (Which, by the way, go great with apple chips and clementines.)

pulled-pork-sandwich-for-fall-2

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork is a great comfort food Crock Pot recipe for fall, and makes a t-o-n of leftovers for use in other recipes or in sandwiches, burrito bowls, hash, and more.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork, printable recipe

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5 from 1 vote

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

An easy slow cooked comfort food pulled pork recipe.
Course dinner
Cuisine slow cooker
Keyword crock-pot, pulled pork, pulled pork sandwiches, slow cooker
Total Time 9 hours
Servings 10

Ingredients

  • 2 medium yellow onions quartered
  • 6-8 lb pork butt / shoulder roast
  • 1 Tbsp Kosher salt
  • Black pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup chili powder
  • 3 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 Tbsp paprika
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp oregano
  • 1 tsp cayenne
  • 1 bay leaf

Instructions

  • Cut up the onions and place them in the bottom of the slow cooker.
  • Season the pork roast with Kosher salt and pepper. Place the pork on top of onions, fatty side down.
  • In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, oregano, brown sugar, and garlic until they make a wet paste, then slather that on top of the roast.
  • Add bay leaf and cook on low for 8-9 hours.
  • Remove bay leaf, bone, and large pieces of fat, and move the meat and onions to a separate pan to shred.
  • Shred meat and serve as desired.

Notes

If you want to get super easy-peasy when making pulled pork for sandwiches, simply throw your pork in the slow cooker with a bottle of BBQ sauce and maybe a couple of sliced onions. Here I decided instead to season up this roast to be more versatile — this way everyone can just add their own BBQ sauce to taste when making sandwiches, and we can also use the meat in tacos or burrito bowls.

Leftover pulled pork is the best

pulled pork taquitos

Here are a few recipe ideas for your leftover pulled pork, too!

Pulled pork also works great in quesadillas, or as a baked potato topping. Season up some leftover pulled pork as a burrito filling, heat it up with some BBQ sauce for sandwiches, throw it into baked acorn squash, use it to top nachos, and so much more.

Recipes in the real world

weekly ALDI meal plans from Mashup Mom -- six complete dinners for four, $60 out the door! MashupMom.com, every Wednesday.

Be sure not to miss the free ALDI meal plans, which show you how to use these easy family recipes to meal plan affordably and realistically for your family. Or, find more recipe ideas with the Recipe Search!

Recipe Rating




Jane

Monday 11th of January 2021

Tried this recipe for something different, and my family devoured it! My son never likes any pulled pork recipe I have ever used but he loved this one! Thanks for sharing!

Karen

Tuesday 6th of August 2019

Do you use smoked paprika in this recipe?

rachel

Tuesday 6th of August 2019

I used regular, but smoked paprika is also great on pulled pork.

christine

Tuesday 1st of December 2015

I made this again yesterday. It's so delicious. We brought it to serve lunch at a shelter. Not a drop left! I too, had a Jewel roast and there was SO much juice in the meat, but it kept the meat nice and tender and moist. thanks for the recipe and for all the coupons you post. We served 25 people today for about $7 for the meat!!

rachel

Tuesday 1st of December 2015

That is wonderful! Did you see the new $2.00 coupon for the Smithfield roast? They carry that brand at Ultra now and often run sales on it.

Sharon

Friday 16th of October 2015

Yet another recipe I tried, Soooooo good and soooo moist! Hate to sound like a groupie, lol. :-)

rachel

Friday 16th of October 2015

LOL! I am so glad you enjoyed it. I also used the leftovers to make stuffed squash and enchiladas -- it makes a ton. :)

Mary

Sunday 11th of October 2015

Thank you!!!!