~ Succulent & Savory Pulled Pork ~

I often forget to utilize my slow cooker.  I am sometimes put off when using certain meats because there is usually some searing or pre-cooking prior to placing it into the crock pot...which defeats the purpose. 
I just want to dump everything into the cooker and go.  Well, here is the best, easiest, and tastiest pulled pork recipe, using a slow cooker, that I have ever used.  My children and husband love it! 

I found the recipe through CHOW recipes.  I changed it slightly because I didn't have all the ingredients at the time.

What you will need:
2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced  (I only use one)
4 garlic Cloves, thinly sliced (I omitted, because I didn't have any on hand)
1 cup low-sodium chicken stock/broth
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar (packed)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon kosher salt, add more if needed
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (4 1/2 - 5 pound) boneless or bone-in pork shoulder (aka pork butt), remove any twine of netting.

2 cups barbecue sauce (optional - I don't think you need the BBQ sauce at all)

Step One:  Place the onions and garlic in an even layer in the slow cooker and pour in the chicken broth/stock.

Combine the sugar, chili powder, measured salt, cumin, and cinnamon on a plate (or bowl).

Pat the pork dry with paper towels.  Cover the pork, entirely, with the spice mixture.  Now place the spiced pork on top of the onions.  Cover and cook until the pork is fork tender, about 6 to 8 hours (on high), or 8 to 10 hours (on low).  Depending on your cooker, the time may be significantly less.  It only took about 5 hours to cook my pork (on high for the first 3 hours, then on low for the remaining 2 hours.

Step Two:  Turn off the slow cooker and remove and discard the bone (if your pork has one).  The recipe says to remove the pork to a cutting board and strain the onion mixture from the slow cooker; returning the solids to the slow cooker (setting aside the strained liquids).  But I just keep the pork as is, and use a perforated spoon when serving.  Your choice.

Step Three:   Using 2 large forks, shred the meat into bite-sized pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat.  If you have removed the meat to a cutting board, return the shredding meat to the slow cooker.  You can add BBQ sauce at this point - but I say eat as is, the flavor is AWESOME.  You can spoon any fat from the surface of the strained cooking liquid, and then add 1/4 cup of the liquid at a time to the slow cooker until the pork is just moistened (again, I omitted this step and just left everything in the cooker).  One less thing to wash and the pork is OH SO MOIST.

Finale:  Spoon over steamed rice, wrap in tortillas, create a pulled pork sandwich with a slice of slightly melted cheese on top...or even place on a bed of greens and eat as a main salad.  This is really good pork!

Servings:  This is such a wonderful and EASY meal to throw together in the morning or afternoon and have ready for dinner.  This amount serves our family of five with several variations of meals.  So the meat goes a long way. I have also substituted the pork with beef.  Very good as well.  As I mentioned above, I omitted the garlic and the flavor was delicious, still.