Farewell BBQ with Family and Friends

I've been in the States settling my mother's affairs for the better part of the last 2 months. I'm finally going back to Russia on Sunday, but before I went we wanted to have a small BBQ and spend some time together with good food, drinks, and college hoops on tv.

Of course, I volunteered to make some of my homemade Sweet and Spicy BBQ sauce and grill up some chicken and pork. Lacking a proper smoker here and all my normal "Q" tools, I needed to do a "work around" on making everything outside my own kitchen. In the process, I decided to put together a tutorial of the process for people lacking an outdoor smoker, but wanting some good pulled pork sandwiches. You can never 100% replace the great flavor of wood smoking, but if the weather is too cold or you lack the facilities to smoke/grill this is a good way to simulate the experience.

Ingredients for Pulled Pork

Here's what you need:

Pork shoulder or pork loin. 1 pound (.55 kg) per person (this is precooked weight) For pulled pork, I use pork shoulder. Bone in or bone out doesn't matter, but I usually find it without.
BBQ Rub. If you can buy it off the shelf it will save you some time. If not, use equal parts red chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder. Add salt to taste (I usually add an equal part of salt).
Aluminum Foil
Flat Pan/Cookie Sheet. Lacking a smoker, we used an oven to slow cook our pork shoulder.
Liquid Smoke or Weber Mesquite BBQ Spice. Either of these will help substitute for our lack of real wood smoke in the cooking process. Again, not a perfect match but good enough for government work.
Note - If you choose the Weber Mesquite, then add it to the rub as an equal part like the other ingredients.

Ingredients for a Quick Sweet and Spicy Sauce

1/2 small white onion finely chopped.
5 cloves of fresh garlic finely chopped.
1 medium fresh jalapeno pepper or 12 jalapeno rings from a jar finely chopped.
2 tablespoons of olive oil (vegetable oil can be substituted)
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup of honey
1 cup of brown sugar
3 6-ounce cans of tomato paste
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons hot sauce
Large saucepan

Pork preparation

Start by rinsing and drying your pork. Use paper towels to "pat" dry the pork. Add the "Liquid Smoke" now if you went that route then sprinkle the rub over the pork without any fear of using too much. You can always make more pretty quickly. Once one side of the pork is "dusted", started rubbing it into the pork making sure you get all the nooks and crannies. Flip the pork over and repeat. The rub (especially the salt) is going to soak deep into the meat adding tons of flavor later. Let the pork sit covered at room temperature for at least 30-45 minutes on your flat pan/cookie sheet that is now covered in aluminum foil. Don't refrigerate it or it will delay your cook time.

Preheat your oven to 225 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit (110-120 Celsius).

Once your oven is up to temperature, insert your pork into the over on the flat pan and forget about it for about 2 hours. It will be cooking for at least 4 hours for a 4 lb pork shoulder. 5 hours or more is better yet.

At 2 hours, you want to flip it over to get a more even cook, but before the flip, take a turkey baster, pastry brush or spoon and gather the juices on the pan and pour them over the top. A lot of this juice is rendered fat from the pork and it is really tasty. Don't let it go to waste.

Sauce Preparation

Okay, while the pork is cooking it is time to make up the sweet and spicy BBQ sauce. Start by putting the oil in the saucepan and turning the stove to medium heat. Chop up your onion, garlic and jalapenos and place them in the sauce pan. Add the Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce and reduce heat to low. Allow these to cook until they are all soft - usually about 10 minutes.

Now add your tomato paste and apple cider vinegar. Stir it until it is a liquid. If necessary, add a bit more apple cider vinegar to keep it thin. Now stir in the honey and brown sugar. The sauce should thicken up a bit, but should still be liquid enough to stir. Again, if it is too thick add some more of the vinegar.

Cover the saucepan with a lid, but leaving a small gap for steam to escape. Turn your stove to medium and bring it to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce heat to very low and uncover for about 10 minutes. Stirring it occasionally. Take a taste of the sauce and give it about 3 minutes to dry in your mouth. At this point you can add salt to your taste and even additional hot sauce if you want more of a "kick".

The sauce should taste sweet at the start, but spicy after it dries in your mouth. You can put it in a plastic container and refrigerate or leave it covered on the stove until needed. Now, back to the pork.

Final Steps of the Pork

You should be smelling some of that flavor coming off the meat, but be patient because it still need a couple of hours. After about 90 minutes, you should go ahead and check the internal temperature of the pork. At this point, it should be out of the temperature danger zone, which is to say it is over 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65 Celsius). Even though it is now healthy to eat, I wait longer because the last 30 to 60 minutes will get the pork very tender and ready for "pulling" (shredding).

At 4 to 5 hours your pork has reached it's peak for tenderness, but we're not done yet. The last step is to remove it from the oven and the flat pan and place it in a large container for shredding. I like to use some handy "claws" made just for this, but if you don't have this tool, you can use 2 large forks to get the shredding done. I pull with the grain of the meat to get the best results. Make sure to keep your shredded pork off to the side while pulling.

Once the pork is completely shredded you need to place it on the aluminum foil that you lined your flat pan with or you can use some fresh foil if needed. Create a bowl around the pulled pork and add BBQ sauce. You want enough sauce to lightly coat the pork, but not too much because people can add more later to match their individual taste. Now close the foil bowl around the shredded pork with the sauce and place it back in the over for 20 minutes.

When you pull it out of the oven it is going to be hot and ready to serve. We usually serve it on small bakery buns as sandwiches with Cole Slaw, but many people just eat it with bread or on regular hamburger buns. Since I made two pork shoulders, we sliced half the meat to serve without shredding as pictured. Yummy Stuff! Enjoy.

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