Beer Braised Pulled Pork Sliders




Prep: 30 min
Cook: 4 hours
Yield: 10-12 servings

The hardest part of this recipe is enduring the amazing aromas that will be coming from your oven for hours before you eat. I’ve used a variety of homebrews with this recipe, and the flavos in the pan juices tend to turn out best with darker, more malty brews. Keep this one in your back pocket for BBQs when the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Ingredients

  • 2-3 pound pork butt (shoulder)
  • ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp. chili powder
  • 1 Tbsp. garlic powder
  • 2 tsp. ground coriander
  • 2 tsp. ground mustard seed
  • 1 cup Caribou Slobber, or your favorite Dark Ale
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • ¼ cup chili sauce
  • 2 Tbsp. whole grain Dijon mustard
  • 3 Tbsp. Worchestershire sauce
  • ⅓ cup dark brown sugar

Directions

  1. Combine spices in a bowl and mix well. Rub all over pork butt. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour and as long as overnight.
  2. Preheat oven to 500°F. Unwrap pork and place in a roasting pan with sides about 2 inches high. Cook 45 minutes until dark browned and even blackening in places. Remove from oven & reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
  3. Pour beer over the top and add chopped garlic and onion around the pork. Cover tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil or two layers of regular foil. Poke about 10 holes all over the top of the foil. Cook pork butt 2 1/2 hours longer until so tender that it comes away very easily from center bone.
  4. Place the meat on a plate and pour the pan juice into a saucepan. To the pan juices add remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer until reduced by half and thick, about 20 minutes.
  5. While the sauce is boiling down, pull apart the pork with 2 forks. Pour the sauce over the pulled pork and work through until fully absorbed. Then serve atop split slider rolls.


About the Chef

Craig Blum

Long before I was a brewer, I started out as a restaurant line cook and then worked my way all the way up to Executive Chef. So great beer AND great food are never far from my mind. I don’t miss the frantic pace of the restaurant world. But I do love taking what I learned there and putting my own homebrew spin on it. The best of both worlds!