Thai-style Pulled Pork

Sobey's had Pork Shoulder on this week, with a little tag that read "Great for pulled pork!".  And I thought "That sounds like a good idea..."

 But what recipe to use?  I didn't really want to go all traditional barbeque with it, so after a great deal of searching (both through the web and my fridge), I decided to base it all on a nearly-untouched bottle of Thai Kitchen Roasted Red Pepper Chile.  I'd made full on Thai Curry with it before, and it tasted far too much like chipotle for me to want to use again.  Since then, I'd used it to make spicy mayo for sweet potatoes, but ultimately it sat unloved in the door of my fridge.  Alas!  No more!

Here's a go at...

Heather’s Thai-style Pulled Pork

Dry Rub:

2 tsp salt

3 kaffir lime leaves, stems removed

1 tsp white pepper

2 tbsp brown or palm sugar

2 tbsp white sugar

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp smoked paprika (pimenton)

First, grind the lime leaves fine with the help of the salt in a mortar and pestle.  Add the other ingredients and blend well.

Dry off your pork shoulder, and then 'apply liberally' all over.  Rub that rub in good.  Then, wrap it up good (I just used aluminum foil, but plastic lovers love their cling wrap) and let it sit in the fridge for as long as you can wait (4-5 hours is okay, overnight's great, overnight and a day's what it ended up for me).


Here's where I borrow greatly from Foodie's Arsenal.  Set your oven to 220F.  Fill up a roasting pan with about an inch or two of water (whatever level works without you spilling it all over the place when you pick it up).  Put a grill rack over the pan so it's balancing not-too-precariously over it.  I stole my grill rack from the toaster oven, but a cooling rack or a full on bbq rack would do, if it fits.  You're gonna put the pork on the rack, and then stick the whole darn thing in the oven.  The water helps keep moisture going in the oven without sacrificing the yummy crunch a good oven-roasted pork pull creates.

This is where we get to the cheating.  Ideally, you want to use a meat thermometer and check the meat every so often.  The trick, as I understand it, is to get the meat up to 190 as slowly as possible.  190 is where all the connective stuff (collagen) starts a meltin' away.  But not too much longer, because then it just gets dry.  But the whole process can take up to 12 hours.

So yeah - the cheating.  I've put a 4lb shoulder of pork in, with the assumption it's going to take about 12 hours.  This means that when I get up in the morning, we should be at go-time.  


Assuming that the pork turns out deliciously, the trick then is to let it swim in the sauce (but not too much sauce, since the pork is tasty as is).  I am going to make my sauce out of:

Wet Sauce:

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and mashed


2 tbsp rice vinegar (mine is seasoned, but to each their own)
1 bottle Thai Roasted Red Pepper Curry (it has yummy tamarind in it)
1/4 cup honey (unrelated, mine is from Zambia!)
salt to taste

Mash up the garlic to make a smooth paste.  A little salt will help you in this. Once well blended, add all the other ingredients.  Add more salt to taste if it needs it, with the idea that it's a sweet sauce and shouldn't be to salty.  If it needs more sweet, add more honey.  If it needs more zip, add more vinegar.  And make sure you wait a second after tasting it - the roasted chili paste gives the sauce a LOT of depth, so let it unravel in your mouth before making any sudden decisions. 

Once perfected, mix in with your pork.  You really don't want to overdress the pork, so don't worry if you think it isn't enough.  Let it wallow in its flavour awesomeness - in the fridge, though.  It can be reheated gently (NOT the microwave) when ready to eat.  If you think it's too dry before reheating, add a wee bit of water to let steam it all together.


NOTE - This amount of sauce wasn't NEARLY enough for all the pork.  So I set aside a couple cups of the shredded pork and sauced that, then left the rest undressed to 'do with as I will'.  Many people prefer having sauce on the side with their pulled pork anyhow, so this works out.