A Recipe A Day Keeps the Fast Food Away: Pulled Pork and Coleslaw

We have wanted to try making proper pulled pork for a while and this summer we did it twice. We used our charcoal grill and slow cooker, but you could also use your oven or if you're awesome enough...smoker! Recipe courtesy of the great Emeril Lagasse. Love his bold flavours- worked great in our house. It's spicy. Too spicy for most kids, ours was fine but she's weirdly fine with spicy food. Just cut down/out the cayenne and red pepper flakes if you want it mild. Also, the longer you marinate the pork, the more pronounced the flavours will be- including the spice level.

Note: For a family of four, 2 lbs of pork butt is sufficient. So use that as a guide.

Ingredients:

1 boneless pork butt, about 4 lbs
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
2 tbsp Essence, recipe follows
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp cayenne ****only if you're good with spicy food
Wet Mop Basting Sauce, recipe follows
Barbecue Sauce (we just used our favourite bottle, if you go to the site you can find Emeril's)
8 buns
Kicked Up Cole Slaw, recipe follows
(the site also has a recipe for fried pickles to add to the sandwich)

Wet Mop Basting Sauce:
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp red pepper flakes ****only if you want it spicy
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp salt

Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
(great for blackened cajun chicken and shrimp and whatever else you want to cajun up! love this stuff)

Kicked Up Cole Slaw:

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons buttermilk
4 teaspoons celery seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
3 cups shredded green cabbage (about 1/2 head cabbage)
3 cups shredded red cabbage (about 1/2 head cabbage)
1 large carrot, peeled and shredded
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

(alternatively, buy premade coleslaw packages and just make the dressing)
In a bowl, combine dressing ingredients (mayo to cayenne); whisk. Combine veggies and toss with dressing.

Directions:

Place the pork in a baking dish. In a bowl, combine the sugar, Essence, salt, cumin, paprika, pepper and cayenne. Rub the seasoning evenly over the pork to coat. Cover with plastic and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight (the first time we did it I only was able to refrigerate for a couple hours- still yummy).

Combine ingredients for wet mop basting sauce. Refrigerate overnight or as long as you are able.

Preheat oven or smoke to 225 or if you're like us, prepare the coals in your grill. Prepare wood chips to smoke if you like.

{If you are unfamiliar with the process, google and youtube are helpful to read/watch before attempting the charcoal grill version}

Oven: Bring the pork to room temperature and place in a roasting pan, fat side up. Slow cook in the oven, basting with the wet mop basting sauce every 45 minutes, until tender and the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F. (The cooking should take about 6 to 7 hours.) Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

Grill: Push coals to one side to create indirect heat for the pork. Let pork carmelize and gain a "crust"- this will take about an hour. Baste once or twice in that hour. Once the pork reaches an internal temperature of around 130 wrap it up in tinfoil to slow the cooking process. You want it to take as long as possible to break down all the fat and be left with pullable pork (195 degrees). A charcoal grill is really hard to keep at a low heat and both times we made this, our pork cooked too fast. The grill gets hot and it's hard to turn down unlike a gas/propane grill. If your pork reaches 195 and isn't pulling easily, throw it into the slow cooker with the drippings and let it cook down until it does. The reason we used the grill before the slow cooker is we wanted the smoky flavour and the nice crust on the outside. Continue to baste throughout the whole cooking process- just open the tinfoil.

With a knife and fork or two forks, pull the meat apart into small slices or chunks. Toss with the barbecue sauce, to taste, and divide among the buns. Top with the coleslaw.