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Yesterday was a very cold day, and I wanted some comfort food. I didn’t feel like chili, and I wanted another excuse to use my Le Creuset braiser. So, yes, the pork really isn’t barbecued – it’s braised and finished with a barbecue sauce. This is another recipe you could adapt to a dutch oven or slow cooker. Fair warning – remember that I grew up in Charleston, SC, so this barbecue sauce is mustardy! (If you’re not familiar with regional barbecue sauces, Eater has a good post about it. It drives me crazy when I’m at a restaurant and they have “Carolina barbecue” on their menu. Seriously? Which one? Ok, off the soapbox now…) This recipe also uses frozen Pillsbury biscuits. I didn’t have time to make biscuits from scratch, and the Pillsbury frozen ones are pretty tasty.
Pulled Pork BBQ Biscuit Sliders
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 package biscuits refrigerated or frozen
- pickles for topping
Dry Rub For Pork
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp celery seed
- ¼ tsp cayenne
Pork
- 2 lbs boneless pork shoulder
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced or grated
- 1 apple chopped
- 2 ribs celery chopped
- ½ cup beer or white wine
- 5½ cups chicken stock
- 4 bay leaves
- olive oil
Mustard BBQ Sauce
- 1 small onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced or grated
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- 2 tbsp mustard powder
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- ¼ cup pan juices from braised pork
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup white vinegar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup yellow mustard
- olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°. Preheat braiser or dutch oven on the stovetop over medium heat. Combine all ingredients for the dry rub and rub onto all sides of the pork.
- Coat the pan with olive oil. Begin to saute the onions, garlic, celery, and apples. Cook for about a minute, then make a space in the middle for the pork. Sear the pork on each side for 3 minutes. Stir the onions/apples/garlic/celery occasionally while the pork is searing. Remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
- Deglaze the pan with the beer or wine. Let it cook and reduce by half.
- Return the pork to the pan, and add the chicken stock and bay leaves. It should cover the pork by half (add more stock or some water if it doesn’t. Stop adding stock once it is covered by half.)
- Bring the liquid to a boil, then transfer the pork to the oven and cover with the lid. (Tip: I’m always afraid of spilling the liquid during the transfer, so I always move it into the oven with the lid off and put the lid on once it’s in the oven).
- Braise for 2-3 hours, or until the meat is tender and pulls apart easily with a fork (I recommend checking it every 30 minutes after the 2 hour mark). Once it’s done, remove from the oven and set aside.
Mustard BBQ Sauce
- Preheat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add olive oil. Saute onions and garlic, stirring occasionally, until caramelized.
- Add pan juices, vinegar, tomato paste, mustard, Worcestershire, and brown sugar. Stir often until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to combine. Cook for a few minutes. Use an immersion blender to puree the onions and garlic into the sauce. (If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender – just be careful with hot stuff in a blender. Vent the lid so the steam can escape, and cover it with a kitchen towel to avoid hot splatter.)
- Keep the sauce warm on low, stirring occasionally while the biscuits are baking or warming.
Finish Sliders
- Prepare biscuits according to package instructions.
- Shred the pork with a fork. Place the pork in a bowl, add some sauce, and stir to coat. You might not need all of the sauce the recipe makes. Depending on how long the pork has been sitting, it may need to be reheated, which is fine. Just microwave for about a minute if that’s the case. Serve on biscuits with pickles.