Serve this East-meets-West pulled pork on hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls with shaved cucumber and carrot ribbons tossed with rice vinegar. Or stuff it into tortillas for Asian-style tacos with matchstick-cut cucumber and carrot.
The sauce was very average. I would definitely try adding crushed red chile pepper, but I don't think that will be enough to make it worth making again.
Made it tonight and it turned out very nicely. Meat was moist and flavorful. Browned it first before putting in the oven. While braising, turning it every 30 minutes helped distribute flavor. Had the 3 1/2 lb roast in the oven a little over 2 hours while I was doing a lot of household chores.
Fantastic recipe! The sauce transforms this dish into something special. I served this at a party to rave reviews and many requests for the recipe. I have made this in the crockpot, and also in the oven. The pork gets incredibly tender. Freezes well too, which is great since it is hard to find a small pork shoulder!
So delicious and tender! I followed the recipe exactly and it was a perfect dish to just throw in the oven, and let the sauce work its' magic.
This recipe adapts perfectly to be made in a slow cooker. Normally I would have browned the pork as directed before putting it in the slow cooker, but I was in a rush the day I made it and skipped the browning step. I combined all the ingredients except for the pork and green onions in a small bowl and mixed them together. Put the pork in the slow cooker fat side up (I didn't trim it) and poured the sauce on top. I cooked it on high for about 2 hours, and then low for another 4-5 hours. Then I removed the pork from the slow cooker and transfered the sauce to a sauce pan to reduce. While the sauce was reducing, I removed the fat from the pork and shredded it and returned it to the slow cooker. After the sauce had reduced I poured it over the pork in the slow cooker and let it cook on low for another hour. I served it with flour tortillas and the shaved carrots and cucumber along with a side of broccoli slaw tossed with store bought sesame ginger dressing. Flavors were amazing!
Tasty and easy. Do brown the pork as the caramelization will enhance the flavors of the sauce. I found no need to reduce the sauce after 4 hours of cooking time. Doubled recipe. Surprisingly my family preferred this on corn tortillas over bread.
This was a terrific dish for a crowd, and was not terriby labor intensive once the shoulder is in the oven. I used a pork shoulder that was about 7.3 lbs, and after it was browned, let it cook at 300 for about 3 hours (turning every thirty minutes), and it was perfect - tender and falling off the bone. It took longer to reduce the sauce because it was doubled, but it was outstanding.
Yum yum yum. Tested out my new french oven with this recipe and it came out amazing! Delicious flavor. I added some chinese fried wonton noodles to the sandwiches for a little crunch. One note- in a french oven, don't put the heat higher than medium or you will burn the oil (as I did on my first attempt)! Can't wait to make it again.
I cooked exactly as directed, though mine was 4.25 lbs.and boneless. I would have left in the oven longer, if I'd had the time, but it came out very tender. I did check it with a meat thermometer to make sure it was cooked through. I tore the meat into chunks instead of shredding it and tossed it back into the juices with snow peas for some veg. Served over coconut rice. Very, very delicious, moist and tender Tempting to cook in the crockpot, but I don't really want the meat falling apart.
Oh heck yes! I love this recipe. I just made it, only instead of a pork shoulder I only had some pork steaks which have MUCH less fat. The taste is still fabulous, only no straining fat. And reducing the juices at the end really did a lot. I added 1T of brown sugar to the end reduction and I feel like bottling the stuff. The flavors and textures are perfect. My husband and I actually wound up dipping raw cucumber slices in the extra sauce.
I cooked it exactly like the recipe stated and my whole family thought it was delicious. I had a 4 1/2 pound Boston butt and cooked it for 2 hours (after browning it), flipping it twice. It was perfectly cooked and the meat had a lot of flavor. After shredding the meat and mixing with the sauce, I served it on kaiser rolls, topped with a salad of diced cucumber, red onion and cilantro tossed with rice wine vinegar. My husband is already begging me to make it again. Next time I'll try it with sriracha like someone else suggested.
The cooking time on this recipe cannot be correct. I used the exact size Boston butt specified and the inside was still bloody after two hours. It was tough as a rock to boot! As I had hungry mouths waiting for dinner I had to microwave it to finish the cooking and then chop the meat. No way would it pull as you can usually do with this cut. The meat had almost no flavor from the cooking liquid. The sauce however, is incredible. The problem is that it is incredibly fatty (pork, hello)! I did my best to skim the fat, but I don't have one of those special devices so I wasn't terribly successful. The flavor of the sauce was really great. I will make sauce again and again, but will not cook the meat in this manner. I have had great success with other cooking methods for pork, so this recipe was a disappointment.
Really tasty. I did not marinade it, but I browned it before I stuck it in my crockpot on high for 4 hours. I also added red pepper flakes to the soy cola mix. We used the shredded pork in Asian style tacos. I chopped cilantro, carrots, green onions and lettuce and topped the pork and corn tortillas. Sriacha would have been awesome!
Even my 5 year-old found this to be fantastic and requested it for lunch the next day. I find that it's hard to expect a 5-pound hunk of meat to absorb flavors no matter how it's cooked, which is the reason for shredding it and covering it with sauce. The only thing I'd do different it put it in the crock pot instead of the oven, letting it simmer for 8 hours instead of 2. It tasted fantastic to our whole family.
We doubled the recipe and cooked 7lbs of Boston butt for about 4 hours at 300. This seemed to help with the issues the other reviewers were having about flavor. We didn't have real ginger, so we used ground, but it was still really tasty. Would use real ginger next time for more of a bite. Also, we threw on some sriracha when making it into a sandwich - delicious!
Followed SnowBun's advice, kinda. Did not brown and marinated in sauce for 1 hour. Cooked in crockpot on high for 4 hours. Removed pork to rest and shred and reduced sauce on stovetop. Also added a bit of mayo and celery seed to the cuke and carrots for more of a slaw taste. Everyone loved it, including husband who is near religious about his more traditional pulled pork. A great variation on a family favorite. Note: CL portion sizes are too small for my guys. I used 4.9 lbs of pork (2 smaller shoulders) which was enough for 2 meals, but just barely. A side would round it out. I only gave it three stars because I didn't think it was a special occasion meal, but it would be a great dish for a potluck or large group.
Hoison sauce is the GREATEST !! For the lady above, try cooking on the stovetop at a slow simmer and don't put it in the oven, adding water if necessary, takes awhile but worth it - OR 100% in oven...If you cook in the Oven, DON'T brown it first. I do that with beef, but not pork!! Put the shoulder in a big bag with a some of the sauce, shake it or roll it so the meat gets covered & marinate it over night. Every so often flip it, for more consistent coverage. Put it in a roasting pan at 200', pour a little more sauce cover with foil, (not too tight against the pork, but sealed up. Cook for 3 hours, then remove foil put a little more sauce on top and cook for another 2-3 hours, or just keep checking it. If it's pretty moist and done after the 3 hours, just turn up the heat and brown the top instead. For the gravy, just pour that stuff into a skillet or sauce pan and cook it down. The ingredients ARE GOOD. Maybe just the cooking style didn't work for you.
This smelled so good cooking but I thought the taste was just decent but not fantastic. I did not feel the pork picked up any flavor while braising. The sauce definitely saved this dish. There are some "wow" recipes with pork shoulder so I wouldn't bother making this again.
