It’s Memorial weekend this coming weekend. In Minnesota, it’s also the first big weekend of the summer to head ‘Up North’ to your cabin. We’re lucky to be able to head up to my parent’s house on a lake near Ely. They almost always have informal gatherings at the lake on summer holidays like this. Although grilling is the quintessential way to cook on Memorial Day, sometimes you don’t want to be manning the grill all afternoon. For days like that a slow cooker pulled pork still tastes like summer but allows you to have it ready as guests drop by.
There are a million ways to make a slow cooker pulled pork and I honestly haven’t had a bad one. I like this one because I love Dr. Pepper. You could use any type of cola and if you google slow cooker pulled pork recipes you’ll probably find a variety with any kind of pop you can think of. The reason I like using pop is the acid in the soda breaks the pork down a little as it cooks and helps tenderize it along with the long cooking time.
Here’s what you need:
Of course you can use your favorite bbq sauce and soda.
Start by chopping the onion and putting it in the bottom of your slow cooker.
Season the pork on all sides with a barbeque seasoning and place it on top of the onions. I used Penzey’s BBQ 3000 and a sirloin pork roast because it’s relatively lean and I also wanted a boneless cut.
Crack open the can of Dr. Pepper and pour over the pork.
Set it on low and cook for 8 hours. This is what it will look like when it’s done.
Remove the pork from the slow cooker and shred. We bought these ‘bear claws’ at Menard’s last summer when they were clearancing out the grilling stuff. Compared to hand pulling or shredding with a pair of forks, these made short work of the two pork roasts. We’ve since upgraded to– these Bear Paws Meat Claws
Here’s what it looked like after shredding.
Now throw the pork back in to the slow cooker (that still has all the flavorful juices from cooking) and stir in the barbeque sauce. If you don’t want it quite as saucy as this – then you can remove the cooking liquid and add it back a little at a time along with the barbeque sauce until you get the sauciness you like.
We like to serve ours with creamy coleslaw on top for a little bit of crunch!
If you don’t have a crowd of people coming to your cabin for Memorial Day, this also makes great leftovers. We like to freeze single serve portions of it in bags that we can thaw out whenever we’re looking for a quick dinner!
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 T BBQ 3000 or other BBQ seasoning
- 2-1/2 lb sirloin pork roast
- 1 can Dr. Pepper
- 1 bottle Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce
- Place the onion in the bottom of your slow cooker. Rub the pork with the BBQ 3000 seasoning and place in the slow cooker. Pour the soda over the pork. Cook on low for 8 hours.
- Shred the pork. Add back to the slow cooker with the cooking juices and barbecue sauce. For a less saucy pork, remove the cooking juice and add back along with the barbecue sauce until you get the sauciness you like.
- Serve now or keep on warm for several hours to serve a party. We recommend serving with creamy coleaslaw.
[…] dishes or as my director taught me goes awesome on top of smoked pulled pork sandwiches or our Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork! However you like to eat it, I hope you […]