Slow-Roasted Pulled Pork

“Slow-Roasted Pulled Pork” takes a long time to roast in the oven; but you won’t regret the results. This is the best and most flavorful roasted pork ever making awesome pork sandwiches and dinner meals. I have to admit; I love pulled pork sandwiches. Add pickled cabbage and onion slaw; I’ll order up one these po-boys or sliders any day. Plus, roast pork is a tradition on Southern buffet spreads around holiday time. I’ve been steadily been working on mastering a great recipe for roasted pulled pork. Alas, smokers and barbecue pits are not for me. When I noticed a recipe for slow roasted pork in the oven, I decided this was my opportunity to try roasted pork. I smeared on a flavorful dry rub; put the roast in the oven and off we went for an day of roasting.

Recipe Keys – Proper Type of Pork

The key to this recipe is to use the proper cut of pork for roasting. When the ALDI grocery store — new kid on the block — advertised a sale on boneless pork shoulder butt roasts; I jumped. This cut of pork is especially well-suited for pulled pork. It makes for tender roasted pork when properly and slowly roasted. 

The boneless roast from ALDI was completely trimmed of excess fat. Plus, it was a boneless roast — as the large center bone had been removed. With no bone or fat pad, the roast was essentially five pounds of lean meat. Wow, that was amazing.

As you can see, my most of my pork didn’t “shred.” But, it was tender and flavorful. Perfect!

Oven vs Crock Pot for Cooking Pork Roast

Pork shoulder roasts have alot of flavor; however, they are a rather tough cut of meat. They are best when prepared with a slow cooking process — adding moisture along the way. I think of crockpot recipes and stews for cooking pork shoulder roasts. The blogger, The Smitten Kitchen, commented that slow roasting a pork shoulder roast in the oven on a very low temperature makes the best pulled pork. I decided to be brave and try her method. The key is to frequently add water to the roasting pan to keep some moisture going. Plus, set the oven temperature to 300 degrees — a low temperature. The fat pad on top is intended to give a crispy and flavorful crust to the pulled pork.

Boston Pork Butt Roast vs Pork Shoulder or Picnic Roast

These two terms (Boston Butt Roast vs Pork Shoulder or Picnic Roast) can be confusing. Both cuts of meat are from the pork shoulder and can be sold either with or without the bone. Both are rather tough and fatty and benefit from slow cooking. The Boston butt roast is located higher on the pork foreleg. It contains more marbled fat, and hence, is more tender and flavorful. It is typically used for recipes such as “pulled pork” where the meat falls apart. Pork shoulder roast, or picnic roast, is further down the leg. It is leaner — has less intramuscular fat and marbling. It is frequently sold with the skin on and it is often packaged in netting. It benefits from slow cooking; cubed pieces in stews, etc.

According to Wikipedia: “In Colonial and Revolutionary New England, butchers would use specialty barrels called butts to store a particular cut of pork. The butchering technique for this cut of pork also seems to have originated in New England and Boston, giving the cut the name “Boston butt”. (See Reference for Wikipedia.) This cut is not from the rear end of the pig but rather the shoulder.

About ALDI Retail Grocery Stores

The ALDI chain retail grocery store has moved into the Baton Rouge market over the past few years. It opened an outlet just a few of blocks away from us making a trip to the store to pick up a few items very convenient.

ALDI is German-based discount grocery store chain. Founded in 1913 in Germany, it expanded to the U.S. in 1976. In the past few years, it has quickly expanded across the country including Baton Rouge where we have three outlets now. To keep costs down, the number of selections are limited — keeping to popular items. Many are private-label store brands. Shopping carts are rented for a quarter. Bring your own shopping bags. I have shopped at the store only twice to pick up just several items; so can’t yet make a full assessment of what I think about this new way of discount shopping. Some obvious items, such as ziplock bags, were missing. I don’t think it will replace my main shopping habits and stores.

My boneless shoulder butt roast from the ALDI grocery store was a “loss leader.” It was priced at a low cost; intended to lure you into the store for other purchases. (And, it worked.) The sale on boneless shoulder butt roasts was great ($1.79/lb); we’ll see how it cooks up.

Ridiculously Easy Recipe

This is another ridiculously easy recipe. Thanks to ALDI, the boneless roast was perfectly trimmed of excess fat. I didn’t need to do anything to prepare the roast. (If the fat pad is thick on the roast which you are using, I’d cut off most of the fat first.) I smeared a dry rub of made of seasonings and brown sugar onto all the surfaces of the roast and let this marinate for a hour in the refrigerator. (You could let it sit as long as overnight.) To roast, I tented the pork with foil, and let it roast in the oven at 300 degrees for five hours. Every hour, I added one or two cups of water. I checked the temperature with a quick-read thermometer to make sure it was 165 degrees.

Ingredients:

Here are the ingredients for my slow-roast, pulled pork.

To make the recipe, combine the ingredients for the dry rub — brown sugar, garlic powder, thyme leaves, paprika, and onion powder in a small bowl. Smear all over the roast and let marinate in the refrigerator for one hour up to overnight. Notice that there is no salt in the dry rub. I’m trying to maintain some low-sodium meals. (You could add 1 tsp salt, if desired.)

When you are ready to roast to pork, remove the meat from refrigerator. Place on some sort of rack in the bottom of the roasting pan to elevate the roast off the bottom. Place with the fat pat on the top. Tent very loosely with foil and insert a meat thermometer. Add about two cups of water — keeping the water below the roast. Roast in a slow, low temperature oven (300 degrees) for about four to five hours — adding more water as needed.

The hardest part of this recipe was continuing to add water to the bottom of the pan. Plus, it was difficult to gauge when the roast was cooked. At the temperature of 165 degrees after four hours, my roast was still rather “tough.” I cooked it to an internal temperature of 180 degrees, which took five hours.

Remove the roast from the oven. Let set for about 10 to 15 minutes to let the juices settle.

Then carve it or pull the meat off into shreds. In my case, I carved it. There was no “pull apart” meat to shred in my case.

However, the roast was delicious. The flavors of the dry rub — brown sugar, garlic and onion powders, thyme – accented the roast perfectly. For this meal, I served it with roasted potatoes and vegetables.

Earlier in the year, I prepared a pork “picnic” shoulder roast using the same recipe and cooked in a low-temperature oven for 4-1/2 hours. Still, couldn’t shred the meat. It did, however, make some awesome pulled pork po-boys.

How did my experiment with slow cooking a boneless Boston Butt from ALDI in the oven work out? The pork was tasty — and will make many meals of sandwiches and stews. The well-trimmed roast (thanks, ALDI butchers) made a low-fat pork entree. And, the salt-free “dry rub” was a success.

I’ll keep this recipe in my file box to use in the future. It was ridiculously easy to prepare, plus it was tasty and low in sodium — my kind of recipe.

Reference:

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/1214-the-difference-between-pork-butt-and-pork-shoulder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_butt#:~:text=In%20Colonial%20and%20Revolutionary%20New,in%20the%20publication%20Hotel%20Monthly.