Recipes
This Root Beer Pulled Pork Is The Perfect Slow Cooker Recipe
Who knew that these two ingredients went together so well?
Ryan Aliapoulios
05.11.18

Do you have a favorite slow cooker recipe that you always go back to? We can all probably agree that there are few easier ways to prepare your food than by using one a slow cooker or a crock pot. Though you can use them to make desserts, pasta dishes or vegetable-based dishes, cooking meat in a slow cooker is a particularly easy way to make a satisfying dish for the whole family.

If you’ve never tried it before, you can easily make delicious pulled pork with your slow cooker as well! Pulled pork dishes are typically marked by a smoky, barbecue sauce-flavored meal that has a great texture and can be served on sliders for days to come. Still, have you ever tried flavoring your pork with root beer? Though it sounds a little unusual, it makes for an absolutely sweet and delicious marinade that you’re sure to love. That’s right: our recipe today is for root beer-flavored pulled pork, all made in a slow cooker.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 2 pound pork butt or pork shoulder (boneless is ideal)
  • 1 12-ounce bottle of root beer
  • 12 or 16 ounces of barbecue sauce
  • 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of salt
  • 1 tablespoon of chili powder (optional)
  • 8 hamburger buns

Here’s what you do:

1. To get started, make your dry rub by mixing together the salt and chili powder. Make sure to pat down your pork butt or shoulder if it has any excess moisture. Once it’s ready, rub the dry rub all over the dry pork until it’s completely covered.

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2. After that, add in your root beer, one cup of your barbecue sauce and the Worcestershire sauce as well to make your marinade. Once it’s combined, carefully place your pork in the slow cooker as well.

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3. Cover up the slow cooker and let it cook on low for six to seven hours.

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4. Once enough time has passed, open the slow cooker and up check to be sure everything has cooked enough. If you’re satisfied, grab two forks and begin shredding the cooked pork, pulling it into thin strands and taking out any bone or unwanted fat chunks as you do it. Leave all the pork you want in the slow cooker!

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5. After it’s all shredded, pour in the rest of your barbecue sauce and stir everything up to combine it. Finally, put the lid back on top and let it cook for another 30 minutes.

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6. When it’s finally done, open it up and serve on toasted hamburger buns. Add extra sauce as you see fit!

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As you can see, this recipe couldn’t be easier to make and it results in some of the tastiest pulled pork sandwiches we’ve ever had. The combination of sweet and spicy flavors in the root beer compliments the smokiness of the pork perfectly, all with an added kick from the barbecue sauce. If you want to get really fancy with this recipe, you can also experiment with smaller-batch root beers for an even more robust flavor.

When it comes to serving these as sandwiches, they’ll do great served plain but you can also add in some extra ingredients to take them to the next level. Adding a sharper cheese like Swiss or white cheddar can also add a layer to these sandwiches—a few sliced onions can also work wonders. Personally, we like to include a little bit of Carolina-style barbecue sauce as well just to finish things off… but we’ll leave it up to you.

Have you given this recipe a shot? Let us know how it went in the comments below.

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