Pulled Pork with Homemade Barbecue Sauce

Since we got  the sous vide machine we wanted to try a pulled pork recipe. I tried pulled pork for the first time in Rotterdam, in the Fenix Food Factory. It was an amazing barbecue dish. I always enjoy such cosy places where you can buy your food and beer from different shops and enjoy in a comfortable, warm environment. I always dreamed I would go to such places every day – if only Geneva had one! Halle de Rive is as close as you can get to that around here, and it is not cosy at all. Anyway, since tasting that amazing pulled pork in Amsterdam I was planning to try this. And here we are!

Actually oven is great for pulled pork but since I have the SV option, I prefer to use it because 24 hours in SV set up seems more ecological than 7 hours in traditional oven. Still, I will share both recipes for your choice.

Pulled Pork

As always, our story starts with us going to the organic market’s butcher and asking “Well, do you think you have pork shoulders?”. We always ask the strange questions, and even though they probably make fun of us, they kind of like us. Of couse he didn’t but he found as an alternative, as usual. We already had the spices ready so all we had to do was to wait for it to cook! It is sooooo long but luckily in sous vide there is no tempting smell.

If you are going with the oven: marinate the meat with spices overnight, and the next day cook it in 150 C for 7 hours. Be sure to cover the meat well or it will dry! Use the juices to make the barbecue sauce and that’s it!

For sous vide: you need to first find either real sous vide bags, or silicone bags, because zip locks cannot take the high temperature or the long time. Then decide the texture you want and cook it for 24 hours. I chose 75 C because I wanted tender. You can go with 80 C if you want falling apart, 68 C if you want a bit firm or 65 C if you prefer quite firm. You can marinate with spices before putting the meat in bag, but I prefer to use only salt, pepper and olive oil at this step. Mainly for keeping my silicone bag colour free. After 24 hours, brush your meat with barbecue sauce, and put in the oven (preheat to 190 C) for 20-30 mins to finish. You can use the broiler for the last 1-2 mins.

Barbecue sauce

You need to follow your taste buds for the barbecue sauce. But we used paprika, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, pepper, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, tiny bit of ketchup (optional), and olive oil. Use the juice from cooked meat, add spices and reduce it. We used this sauce to brush on SV cooked meat and also on the plates.

Sides? I will probably tell about it more in another blog but in France choucroute is sooo popular during winter months! It is a fermented, pickled cabbage. We try to consume it as much as we can and thought it would go well with pulled pork, and it did! If you don’t want a sadwich (which is the usual serving) or potatoes, it is a good alternative. or you can make a quick coleslaw!

Are you ready?