eight-hour pulled pork

not so long ago on September 6th, my wedding anniversary, my husband walked beside me while a nurse wheeled me out to his car, my mouth stuffed with gauze and a very fuzzy tongue. the ride home was pretty jovial, since the drugs i’d been given for my wisdom teeth extraction surgery hadn’t yet begun to wear off.

i wasn’t in any shape to do this then, so finally, here’s a sandwich dedicated to my love; my husband of four years, my best friend for ten.

and to our BFF Joel (my husband’s best friend since childhood), whom i love dearly also. this recipe is brought to you by a day’s worth of tending to pork by me, and an afternoon of barbecue-sauce coaxing by Joel. excellent combo!

i like pulled pork a LOT. i love it! pork rules. i’ve tried a lot of different ways to cook it, each promising to be awesomer, crispier, juicier, and more tender than the next. i don’t own a smoker, so smoking a pork shoulder low-and-slow is out of the question (unless we’re at Joel’s house during the summer months — he has one). slow-cooker method? no crispy outer shell, a bit too… steamy. so i needed another method to try, because my husband loves pulled pork sandwiches, and i love my husband. down from the shelf came my Momofuku cookbook, written by the king of pork, David Chang. he knew exactly what i should do!

have you ever noticed that pork smells so amazing when it’s cooking? i applaud pork for this because there are some meats that don’t entice me much with their aromas while cooking. poached chicken, for example… or steamed salmon. but pork breakfast sausage smells? heck yes! pork just keeps on giving — if you have clean laundry hanging up to dry on your laundry racks, like i did on the day i slow-roasted this pork, the smell will linger long after the last bite has been devoured.

[haha... sometimes i get to the gym and i'm like.... pork? is that you? and there will be the smell of last night's dinner, clinging to my clean clothes. i'm like a dinnersforwinners smellevision advertisement everywhere i go.]

this is the easiest method i’ve tried for roasting pork, and The Best. wow, tender and so flavorful, abundantly juicy and with a crispy-crackly outer shell.. pretty perfect! i hope you’ll give this simple method a whirl, and leave a comment telling me what you turned your pulled pork into. sandwiches?.. tacos?.. breakfast burritos, or David Chang-style in a big bowl of ramen? oh my goodness what about a pile of nachos!

my husband declared these sandwiches to be the best pulled pork he’d eaten, and it made me happy that it was so easy to cook a dinner he loved. i don’t know the recipe for Joel’s barbecue sauce that he gifted to us, but definitely try making your own — easy and customizable!

adapted from Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan

 

don’t be sticking your nose in the oven like i did, worried at the sheer amount of fat still visible 4 hours into the roasting process. it is actually rendering out, slowly, and leaving a pork-rind style crispy shell behind! amazing.

• 3 – 4 pound boneless pork shoulder
• 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon kosher salt per pound of pork

mix sugar and salt together in a bowl and rub all over pork shoulder. cover and chill for 6 – 24 hours.

place shoulder in a roasting pan or cast-iron skillet and roast in a 250F oven for 7 – 8 hours, checking at 6 if your shoulder is on the smaller side.

let it rest for 30 minutes, then shred with a fork.

pork can be made ahead and kept refrigerated in an air-tight container. i thought it reheated beautifully in a skillet.

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for these sandwiches, i tossed the warm pork with Joel’s barbecue sauce and made a quick slaw from shredded red and green cabbages, a dollop of mayonnaise, a squeeze of dijon mustard, and a splash of white wine vinegar.
we used whole-wheat buns because we wanted potato chips. ha! enjoy.

grilled chicken and chile burgers

how was your Labor Day weekend? i had three days off, which ruled. if you had to work: i thank you for laboring. i had some friends visiting from out of town — one a brand-new mama, the other soon to be a mama, and it warmed my heart to see them and meet baby D. my husband and i went to a great cookout where i consumed no less than three plates of potluck gold over the course of the evening, and more Jim Beam than i should admit, and i jumped on the giant trampoline for hours. that Flip the Bacon game gave me terrible whiplash. WORTH IT. super fun to wear glow-stick earrings in the dark, and the kids tried to teach me how to do flips! last night was spent playing dominoes on our friends’ deck… one of my favorite summer things. the evenings are perfect outdoors this time of year!

there was so much good food and good fun, but after a busy 10 hours at the office today, i was looking for a super-quick dinner. this is one of my favorite quick sandwiches… grilled chicken from the barbeque, creamy ailoi and melted cheese, layered with fire-roasted chiles. i love their smokiness. jalapenos make me chuckle because seriously, you just don’t know how spicy one is going to be from the next. hot or not? it’s a little Russian Roulette every time i eat one. i love spicy foods, but sometimes those suckers sear off my taste buds. other times, they seem quite mild.

unpredictable food!

this burger is so good and the aioli and melty cheese really help combat the spiciest of jalapenos. though you are welcome to use any kind of chile you like — a milder one will do fine. everything gets cooked on the grill, so if it’s still hot where you are, don’t worry about heating up the house from the kitchen. cook outside! i have a marinade option of yogurt and garlic, which brings wonderful punch and tenderizing juiciness to the chicken, but if you don’t work ahead and just grill some chicken breasts, these burgers still light up your plate. and your taste buds. get ready, y’all.

grilled chicken and chile burgers

serves 4

• 2 large chicken breasts or 4 chicken breast tenders
• optional marinade (1/2 cup plain yogurt, 2 cloves minced garlic)
• salt and pepper
• 2 jalapeno chiles (or poblanos, a mild chile)
• aioli (or in this case, mayonnaise mixed with a well-minced clove of garlic)
• 4 thick slices of a delicious melty cheese — such as havarti, fontina — i used gruyere
• 4 burger buns

optional marinade — combine yogurt and garlic and toss chicken to coat. refrigerate a couple hours, or before you go to work for the day. squeegee the yogurt mixture from the chicken with your fingers before proceeding.

between two layers of plastic wrap, pound chicken to an even thickness. when doing this, use a sliding pounding motion, to spread the chicken out, rather than just pounding straight down. if you have two large chicken breasts, cut them in half lengthwise to make four pieces — they may be thin enough already.

meanwhile, grill the chiles until charred all over. place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap and let them sweat it out for a short while. when cool enough to handle, remove stems, charred skins and seeds. slice into strips.

season the chicken with salt and pepper and grill until cooked through. top with cheese for the last 60 seconds or so. assemble your burgers with aioli, chile strips and grilled chicken.