It's football time guys, and while you might be really excited about your big game tomorrow, I am all about what we are eating for the big game. I grew up in a football house, and I can't really remember a weekend that football wasn't always on TV or we were at a game. Still to this day I love nothing more than to hear the crowd roar as background noise throughout the house. It's a comfort thing for me, but what I love more is the food thing that happens during football season. Burgers, wings, dips, and things like my crock pot pulled pork sandwiches with garlic, cumin, and lime slaw.
My teams are Tennessee and LSU (which happened after I moved to Louisiana and kind of had to adopt it as my second team since Canean graduated from LSU) unless they play each other in which case I will most certainly pull for Tennessee. Good thing that only happens once every four years or something like that...
These days I could care less to sit and watch the whole football game, I really like to be in the kitchen cooking or have people over and just peep at the score ever so often instead. It's the whole experience that I love more so than having to sit and watch the game.
Clearly I'm all about the munchies for the game and this pulled pork guys is the easiest and yummiest gameday food that can feed a small or large crowd. It's so tender and moist and paired with my favorite slaw recipe (remember I also put it on my pork burgers too), it's a guaranteed hit.
Ingredients:
Pulled Pork-
- 2 Lbs. of Pork (you can use a roast, butt, or I actually used a ham roast which isn't actually ham at all it's just an area from the pig, you can also increase your lbs. if you are feeding more people.)
- 5 Cloves of Garlic
- 1 Tbsp. of Cumin
- 1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
- 2 Tsp. Salt
- 2 Tsp. Pepper
- 1-2 Cups of Chicken Stock
- 1 Onion, cut into large chunks
- 1 Cup of Your Favorite BBQ Sauce
- Kaiser Rolls for Buns
Slaw-
- 1 Small head of Purple Cabbage Sliced Thin
- 1/4 Cup Chopped Cilantro
- 1 Jalapeno Diced Small
- 1/2 Thinly Sliced Red onion
- 2 Carrots, Grated
- 2 Tbsp. Cumin
- 1/4 Cup of Fresh Lime Juice
- 1/4 Cup of Canola Oil
- 3 Garlic Cloves Minced (Chopped Fine)
- 1 Tsp. Salt
- 1 Tsp. Pepper
Directions:
- Season both sides of your pork with the cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper and rub into the meat. Take a knife and slit a small hole to insert whole garlic cloves evenly throughout the top of the pork.
- In a large pan, sear all sides of your pork on high heat until you have a good caramelization on all sides. You are looking for a nice golden brown color.
- in the bottom of your crock pot, add your onion as a bed for the pork and then transfer the pork to your crockpot along with any juices from the pan.
- Pour your chicken stock in the crock pot until it is halfway up the side of your pork and then pour the BBQ sauce right over the top of the pork.
- Turn your crock pot on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours and let it go.
- Combine your lime juice, canola oil, minced garlic cloves, salt and pepper and let sit all for at least 3 hours.
- Combine in a large bowl your cabbage, jalapeno, red onion, cilantro, and carrots. Pour your slaw dressing over the slaw and let sit for at least an hour. Add more salt and pepper if needed to taste.
- After your pork is cooked, shred the meat and return to it's juices. Remove any big pieces of fat at this point.
- To assemble, place your pork on the bun and top with slaw or serve on the side.
You can always add more BBQ sauce to the top if you want, it's your sandwich after all and who am I to stop you?
I hope your team wins tomorrow unless they are playing my team and then I don't. But one things for sure I hope we are all eating yummy food and specifically these pulled pork sandwiches..
