Pulled Pork

For the pork, I had a big tray of ridiculously thick chops. I've cooked these on the grill before, but they get tough by the time they're done. What I wanted was the pulled pork that you can shred with a fork.



I rubbed them down with Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning and some powdered Chipotle, grilled them for 3 minutes on each side to sear them a bit. Then I put them in my big casserole dish with about a pint of chicken broth, covered with foil and baked them overnight at 185ºF. If I had a smoker, I'd have smoked them instead, but what my oven lacks in smoke it makes up for in precise temperature control.



Em spent yesterday claiming she was going vegetarian. She did forget about this pledge long enough to eat a bologna sandwich for lunch, but she swore she'd never do that again. Then, this morning, when I got the pork out of the oven, she started by telling me my big dish of cruelty and suffering looked gross. 'But it smells really good!' she then proclaimed and asked for a taste.

I obliged. She first said it was really good, then paused and said, 'Wait a minute...that's really hot and spicy! Ahhhh!' She spit out the bite and proceeded to do everything she knew to cool the palate, which is to say she gulped soda and cursed her luck for having me for her Dad. Though the incident didn't put her back on the road to vegetarianism: she proceeded to request Spam for breakfast.



In fairness, the meat by itself is intensely spicy from the rub. But eating the meat straight isn't the idea here.

Next step is to cook up a big batch of brown rice and combine the pork with black beans and brown rice. I haven't done this yet, I had a Griefs game to get to...