263 Reviews of Mean Chef's Pulled Pork

From: Mille® ™

On Sep 20, 2002

This is fabulous (but you already knew that). Before I was hospitalized a year ago, one of my favourite restaurants was Hogs on The Hill near the University of Maryland campus. And one of their locally famous specialties was pulled pork – I could not get enough of the stuff, and often ordered extra to bring home and freeze. Of course, my low-salt diet put the brakes on my visiting that fine establishment. I had my local butcher call me when he got a fresh pig, and he cut me a huge pork butt from it. As soon as I got it home, I thought I heard it still oinking, so I took my wee butcher knife and stabbed it all over, just to make sure that it was dead. As I was rubbing it with your spice mixture (duplicated faithfully except for salt substitution) I poked some of the mix deep into the wounds that I had inflicted. Then, after overnight resting and subsequent re-rubbing, I slow-roasted it at 250°F for close to 9 hours. The beast was so tender that it almost “pulled” itself and fell into chunks as I was trying to lift it out of the roasting pan. The outside was almost charred, and yet it was glistening moist and had me nibbling on the burned bits as I was completing the “pulling” process. Your sauce was amazing. Because I had a large cut of meat to begin with, I had to make a second batch of sauce in order to have enough to be able to serve additional sauce. Even prior to making your sauce recipe, I have found myself using dates more and more in other savoury sauces – they really add oomph to it. My wife, who previously disliked most pork dishes, wanted me to make a point of awarding your recipe a whole bunch of frequent flier miles. She took pulled pork sandwiches to work for lunch 3 days in a row.

From: Steve_G

On Oct 14, 2002

Fantastic method and a great rub. With just the two of us it's hard to justify cooking a whole Boston Butt, so I did a 2 lb loil roast with the same method. I brined the meat in 1/2 cup of salt, 1 cup of sugar and 1 qt of cold water for 2 hrs, let the rub sit on for 4 hrs. I didn't bring it up to room temperature before putting it in the oven. It cooked for 4.5 hrs to an internal temperature of 198 degrees. It was fall-apart tender with tons of flavor! Thanks MC for a terrific recipe.

From: Jangomango

On Nov 11, 2002

Absolutely fantastic! I've made this 3 times now, and it is a stunner every time. It is also the easiest thing in the world to cook and get right. Everyone who eats it wants the recipe. An interesting thing happened with one of them which I will relay in case it helps anyone. My friend insists that anything can be put into a crockpot and taste just as good. So she did hers in a crockpot and invited me to dinner. First of all, it seemed to take a much longer time. After 9 hours it had only reached about 160* F and was definitely nowhere near ready to "pull". So she put the heat up and finished it in a hurry. When the meat emerged it had a strange, slimy, yellowy coating, not at all appetising to look at. The taste was just ok, but missing was the wonderful crust that develops slowly with the juice coming out of the pork in dry heat. Back to the real thing: it makes fabulous sandwiches the next day, especially with the pigpickin' sauce drizzled over them. It also makes a great sandwich put under the broiler with some havarti cheese and jalepenos on top. Great, great recipe.

From: Mirj

On May 7, 2002

Since we don't eat pork I made Pulled Cow. It's really the rub and sauce that are the stars of this show! I used a dark brown sugar instead of the turbinado sugar, and double the quantity of minced dates. Heaven! I served this with mashed potatoes and my kids were practically licking their plates clean! My BH had 2 1/2 helpings and had to be rolled from the table. I think this would work well with almost any kind of meat. Thanks, Mean Chef, this has already started to make the rounds in my community!

From: Jodi B.

On Feb 6, 2003

I am making this awesome dish for the 3rd time & I can't wait for it to be finished cooking. I had never cooked pork butt before and had no idea how much the pork butt called for in the recipe should weigh. My butcher (who does not sell pork butt) suggested I use a 3 pound pork shoulder. It was tasty, pulled apart with ease but was quite overdone since it had cooked for the recommended cooking time. But I was not to be discouraged! My 2nd attempt was a much larger trussed shoulder (about 5 pounds) and the results were much more tender and juicy yet the crust was just perfect when pulled apart and mixed into the soft meat. The taste was amazing. It was hard to stop nibbling as I was stacking the meat on the buns. The sauce was fantastic and I will try the pig pickin sauce also this time around. I raved so much about this recipe that my friend in Whistler, B.C. cooked it ... she thought she had died and gone to heaven. Since her dh does not eat pork, she tried the rub on a chicken and swears it was the best roast chicken she's ever had. I will also try this rub on a big brisket for all my friends who don't eat pork. This rub just rocks! Thanks Mean Chef.

From: Derf

On Aug 20, 2002

WOW!!! Like everyone says, this was incredable, what a success!! Everyone that came now has the recipe. Followed everything exactly, but had to use regular brown sugar in the rub, it was wonderful anyway! In the fantastic sauce I had to use onions instead of shallots, couldn't get any decent shallots. It took about 8 1/2 hours and came apart so easily. As everyone in the thread said to use CWB, we found the cheepest possible and still can't figure why cheap white buns?? Although admittedly, they were perfect, don't know why! I made 3 different sauces, to see which we liked best and without doubt, your molasses bbq sauce was outstanding! (a bit sweet for me, but I was outnumbered!)Thanks Mean Chef for turning my thoughts about pulled pork around, dry heat is definately it and the rub is still tingling. The flavours were fantastic! There was some meat left over so I did it up in wraps and froze them, looking forward to some great lunches!

From: ciao

On Mar 17, 2003

This is just amazing pulled pork. And amazingly easy! I was a bit nervous, as it was my first time making this. But it couldn't have been any easier! The most work was chopping the few things for the sauce. And that was a cinch. My husband was begging me to try this, so I went straight to your recipe, Mean. I have orders to put it in regular rotation here. We were thinking the meat without the sauce(which is delicious, and the aroma it gives off while simmering is making me drool all over again) would make a great filling for enchiladas, with a good mole sauce. Again, this is very easy to make, even for a beginner. The ingredients are common and easy to find, and the oven does all the work. Just pop the pork in the oven,and leave it alone. Our pork butt was 3-4 pounds, and after 5 hours at 250°, registered 200° on the meat thermometer. Pulled apart very easily! Served on cheap white buns with cole slaw and Pepsi. Heaven! Thanks Mean Chef!

From: Dreamgoddess

On Oct 20, 2002

Wonderful recipe! The only change I made was to use green onions instead of shallots (couldn't find any). I made the Molasses Barbecue Sauce and the Pig Pickin Sauce to accompany the pork. Half liked the Molasses, the other half the Pig Picking Sauce. I guess I'll have to make both sauces every time I make this recipe. I served this with barbecued beans and coleslaw.

From: SuzieQue

On May 25, 2002

Absolutely awesome! So tender, so juicy, so delicious! The sauce is a little sweet and very tasty - the pork is indescribable. Everyone raved over this! I think I love you, MEANCHEF!

From: AngelicFantasia

On Mar 12, 2003

This was my first time to cook a pork butt, but they were on sale so I bought 3. My DH and DS fancy themselves pulled pork connoisseurs. My 16 year old said to his father, (whispering) "This is either going to be either really good or really bad." When those two tasted the results, they declared that it was better than Corky's of Memphis(their personal Mecca of bar-b-q joints.) This is a fantastic recipe. So easy. The aroma coming from the oven was mouth watering. Thanks so much for the recipe. I will be serving it for the next family get together.