PW: Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Full disclosure:

1.  We made this recipe in January, right as the Sweet as Pie Cooking Club was starting.  I had just told Mick that I'd joined and needed a blog, and only a few days later we woke up on a lazy Sunday morning to PW cooking on Food Network.  As we tend to do on the very best Sunday mornings like that, we committed to cooking that meal.  So we actually cooked this before we even had the cookbook or made our first cooking club recipe.  It was spicy then, almost too spicy, and I have since figured out why.

2.  I need to get movin'!  There are only a few days left in April and I still need to make the pistachio cake, the olive cheese bread, and the pasta salad!  Yikes!

Okay, so onto the recipe.

Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Verdict: Good for the grown-ups.  The kids passed. And it makes a LOT.
Cook it Again:  Well, duh, since this is round two already! 
Cost Factor:  The canned chipotles are a few dollars and of course pork varies widely,  but that's it. 

I didn't take many photos.  Truth?  I was lazy.  I took a few with my cell phone and that's it, so forgive this wordy, not-too-colorful post.

The recipe is super, super easy.  You take two whole onions, quarter them, and put them on the bottom of a Dutch oven.  You take a Boston Butt, season it with salt and pepper, and throw it in the dutch oven.  Top it with 11 ounces of the chipotle peppers, then pour 28 ounces of Dr. Pepper over it. put the lid on it, and bake at 300 for six hours.

Pork all seasoned and sitting on the onions waiting for the peppers and Dr. Pepper.  Note:  these are not Boston Butts.  Whoops.

You're supposed to turn it every two hours, but I kinda forgot.

Also, you're supposed to use 11 ounces of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.  Now, the chipotles come in an 11-ounce can, but when Mick and I made this in January they didn't have the 11-ounce can, and I don't know why, but whatever we did then made the pork WAY spicier than whatever I did this time.

I used the same brand of peppers.

PW shows the blue can.  We used the blue can, both times -- but only one can in this round, versus two the last time we made this.  Still have to try the red can.  It's on hand for round 3.

I used the same amount of Dr. Pepper.  (By the way, I hate that I need Dr. Pepper, because we don't typically drink it, and I seem unable to buy it in small enough quantities to not waste it.  I end up giving my sister free Dr. Pepper, which seems to work for her and makes me feel less guilty!)

But thinking back, I wonder if Mick and I didn't just use TWO 7-ounce cans of peppers, and this time I used only ONE.  So maybe it's that last time, we over-spiced and this time under-spiced?  No idea.

Either way, it was very yummy, and last time I wasn't quite sure I could eat too much and the kids didn't eat much at all (especially CAM, who didn't eat ANY), because it was so spicy.  This time it was really just right with a nice amount of kick -- enough that you knew it wasn't just regular old pulled pork, but not so much that it was spicy.

I even got CAM to eat some, by mixing hers with ranch instead of the juices from the pot.

I originally intended to serve this with the Pasta Salad, but when I was at Publix getting the chipotles, corn on the cob was on sale and manohman do I love corn on the cob.  Especially with bbq!  So the corn trumped.  Tomorrow we're having chicken and I've already made the pasta salad to go with it.

Two more things:

First, I knew I was going to cook this on Thursday and I was already at Costco, so I picked up a pork roast without paying attention (are you noticing this theme with my cooking this week?) to the fact that it was pork loin, as opposed to Boston Butt.  It didn't make a difference.  Still cooked up nice and tender and pulled apart easily. 

Second, my GOODNESS does this make the house smell AWESOME.  Wow!!!  I was tutoring while this was cooking and every single kid said they wished they could stay for dinner!

--Jen

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