Pacific Pineapple Pulled Pork {Slow Cooker}

This pulled pork is a little bit teriyaki and a little bit char siu and all flavor! It is great on a sandwich and perfect over rice. Throw it in your slow cooker and dinner will be ready when you are!

     I'm sure by now you know all about our love affair with pulled pork. It's just such an easy way to feed a crowd! Of course it doesn't hurt that my amateur pit master brother lives across the street and is usually happy to throw an extra pork butt on for us when he fires up the smoker.


      He isn't always firing up the smoker though and it's definitely a labor of love to slow smoke food, so I hate to ask him too frequently. Besides, it's fun to switch it up sometimes. We've done pork braised in beer, or balsamic and rosemary. We've had carnitas,  and even an apple cider pulled pork.  Each was delicious, but I wanted to try a different flavor profile this time.

     So I  went to my other current obsession, pineapple and went from there.  This warm weather has got be so pie eyed for pineapple. I'd happily find a way to put it into everything. I was actually tempted to make pineapple the theme of our Easter party this year and put it in everything.

    Luckily for our guests, I ended up with a bit more variety. I did put it in some delicious pineapple sweet rolls though. You have got to give those bad boys a try!

     Back to this recipe, I thought my two loves would work really nicely together. Then I added in some of the flavors from char siu to round it out. A bit if Chinese 5 spice, some soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic. You know, all of the good stuff! It made for a great flavor profile!

     I served it on homemade Sweet Hawaiian Rolls for a real treat. The leftovers were great on rice as well. I even made a pizza out of a bit with a spicy pineapple sauce and some habanero cheese. We put it on the grill for a really fun experimental pizza!

     While typing this I just had a fun new idea I want to try for pulled pork. When's the next party?! In the meantime, what are your favorite pulled pork recipes?

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Pacific Pineapple Pulled Pork

by Cooking With Carlee May-24-2017

Ingredients

• 20 oz can crushed pineapple
• 4 T soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
• 1 T garlic powder
• 1 T ground ginger
• 1 large pork butt
• 2-3 T vegetable oil (optional)
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Optional, but encouraged: Cut the pork butt into large fist sized chunks. Heat the vegetable oil over medium high heat and brown the pork on all sides. 2. Stir together remaining ingredients in a large slow cooker. Place pork into the sauce. 3. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-6. 4. You can shred the pork and shred it at this point if you'd like, but I prefer to defat the liquid in a fat separator if serving the same day or by placing it in the refrigerator if making it ahead of time. 5. To serve, pull the pork with a couple of forks. Add enough cooking liquid back in to reach your desired level of "juiciness."note: If you would like the juice to stick to the meat a bit more, stir in a couple of tsp of cornstarch dissolved in a little bit of cold water the defatted liquid. Bring to a simmer until thickened then add to the pork.

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 8 hour Total time: 8 hour 30 mins Yield: serves 16