I remember making a huge batch of pulled-pork barbeque with my Dad in July of 1987. It was for his 50th birthday party. He & I built a cinder block smoker out by the splitting block, where there wasn’t any grass to burn, and we stayed up all night, and went through I don’t know how many bags of charcoal and pieces of applewood and hickory, smoking 6 or 8 pork butts. That night will always be one of my fondest memories of time spent with Dad. And the food turned out good, too!If you are going to do pulled pork barbeque right, it takes hours and hours of smoking. Don’t get me wrong, the taste is definitely worth it, but, other than special occasions (like a 50th birthday party) who has the time to devote to something like that? What if you want a pulled pork sandwich, and you want it now?
Well, I’ve got a quick and easy substitute for you! It’s not true barbeque, but it’s mighty tasty, and it only takes about 45 minutes or so to prepare.
Our ingredients are:
1 pound of pork
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 ½ cup of your favorite barbeque sauce
2 cups of cold water
8 hamburger buns
First, we need to prepare our pork. As far as meat selection goes, I purchased a 5 pound pork roast & quartered it. I’ll freeze the other 3+ pounds and use them for something else later. You could use a pound of boneless pork chops. Because I bought a boneless roast, after I quartered it, when I cut the string, I ended up with two ‘chunks’ of pork, about a ½ pound each.
We are going to use our pressure cooker again. Place the cooker over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the cooker. Let the oil heat for a minute or two. Then brown your pork. Brown each side for a couple of minutes each. Then add one cup of cold water and seal on the pressure lid. Bring the cooker to pressure and cook for 10 minutes. Allow the cooker to cool on it’s own.
Remove the pork from the cooker and grab a couple of forks and start pulling!
When you’ve gotten your pork all pulled apart to your liking, place it in a large saucepan with 1 cup of water and 1 ½ cups of barbeque sauce. Mix well, bring just to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Serve on buns, about ½ cup per bun. Serves 4 (if everybody eats two sandwiches each… like we do…) Like I said, it isn't really true Barbecue, but it disappears just as fast! Enjoy!
The Squirrel shall not live by
