Southern Yank Pulled Pork BBQ

USE ROOTBEER!!I made this the other day. It was actually my second time. This time I substituted some of the water with a good rootbeer used a little honey bourbon(don't worry, the alcohol cooks out) and some honey, cut back on the sugar a little bit and balanced out the sweetness with some hot sauce and red pepper flakes. It was much much better the second time around. Hope someone trys my version and I hope you like it!!

I put this on before church and after watching a couple a couple of football games when we got home, we totaled it. It was so tender it fell apart as I was getting it out of the crockpot, dropping back in and splashing the juices all over the place, including my Sunday pants! The only change I made was to add some Liquid Smoke. This is a definite favorite in this house.

Excellent!! Used a little less water for a slightly thicker sauce.

Hi all, I'm the guy who contributed this recipe but no longer have the ability to access the account due to a hacker lol. Anyway, I wanted to address the consistency of the sauce. Yes, it's a bit watery, but I have a great fix. After removing the pork shoulder from the crock to shred it, use an immersion blender on the sauce remaining in the pot. Just whizz it all up. This will not only thicken the sauce but also more evenly distribute the flavors. Once done, add the shredded pork back to the pot. If you don't have an immersion blender, get one lol. Kidding. A regular blender would work too. Hope this helps!

This recipe is pretty good! I grew up on carolina bbq so I can't give this 5 stars.... but for bbq from a slow cooker and not a bbq pit this is awesome Here are my mods: Used Sweet Baby Rays Maple Sugar bbq sauce and left out the honey and brown sugar. it was plenty sweet enough I dumped about half a bottle of hot sauce into my pot before it had enough kick to it I left out the celery Added a few splashes of white vinegar and maybe a teaspoon of spicy brown mustard this turned out so well I'll probably make it again for a fourth of july party I'm going to. DELICIOUS

Followed the recipe exactly and it turned out great!

This recipe was awesome! We really enjoyed it! Thanks so much for sharing it :) We definitely will make this again.

I made this yesterday exactly as written. Smelled really good. Had some rolls to make like bbq sandwiches. It didnt come out as thick as I thought it would. Maybe next time I will reserve some of the bbq sauce or not add the water. But overall, it was a really good flavor. We had lots left cuz I made a 5lb roast for 3 of us. So we will be eating it again tonight. Just trying to figure what to eat it with...

This was the best pulled pork we have tried. Wouldn't change a thing!

Wow, this was outstanding!! I made this nearly to a T, just added more garlic, and a little less water. This was my first time making pulled pork, and what a hit. I HIGHLY recommend making this. Cooked on low from 8am-5pm while I was at work, it took 3 minutes to shred and done! Totally making this again and again!!

this was my first slow cooker recipe, and it was awesome, my husband said it is a keeper! Gail, Beverly, MA

It was very easy and it came out great...

Great recipe. great sweet BBQ flavor

I cut down the honey and sugar to roughly 3 Tbsp each and used 1/2tsp Thai Sriracha pepper sauce instead of Tabasco. I also cooked it in a dutch oven at 300 for about 4 hours instead of a slow cooker. Came out amazing, tender, moist and flavorful.

Well I have been looking for a mouth watering heavy zing BBQ pork sandwich receipt and this was fabulishous... I had no root beer so I substituted good ole Pepsi... this was so good we warmed it up three nights in a row and it just keeps getting better. Thanks deHawk

This is absolutely wonderful. I used only 1 teaspoon of chili powder and omitted the hot sauce. I did find the sauce to be watery but after the pork was finished cooking I simply transferred the sauce to a saucepan and let it "cook down" on low heat and it thickened naturally and I was left with a wonderful sauce that was just perfect. The pork was so tender and flavorful.

We have tried many other BBQ pulled pork recipes and this is by far our favorite. We substitute the celery with tamed jalepenos and slow cook the pork for 6 hours. The kids love it too!

This recipie was really easy and very tasty straight from the crockpot, but something changed (not in a good way) when I put it on a bun. I think I will try a different bun/roll/bread next time. The thing that put it back on track for me was adding Mom's Coleslaw from this site as a condiment. Mmmm...yummy!

Awesome recipe, dont change a thing :)

The most delicious pulled pork recipe! Only thing I would change would be to add less water to make the sauce thicker. Otherwise it was perfect! Made this for my in-laws and they loved it! Definately plan on making this again! Super easy too!

My family absolutely loved this, didn't modify the recipe at all.

very tastey! too much water left over though. i even used more meat than the recipe called for, a 5lb pork butt. GREAT taste! would use this recipe again with a few adjustments: a whole bottle of bbq sauce and maybe a 1/4 cup water, just to rinse the bottle out. forgot to add salt and chili powder and i do not regret forgetting those! it was great just how it was!

This is absolutely divine! My husband & kids agree 100%. I am giving it a 2nd go tonight using the recipe just as is. The 1st time I made the recipe a few weeks ago, it created a bit too much liquid but I just boiled it down in a separate pot & then drizzled it on the sandwiches. Didn't want to waste any of that delicious sauce! Tonight I added a bit more meat - it is smelling wonderful. Bon appetit!

AMAZING!!!

sauce came out a little to runny (sp?) for me...flavor was very good! maybe it was the water. not sure. what I decided to do was shredd the pork and use about 1/4 of the sauce cooked and another bottle of sweet baby rays. than cooked that for about 45 min - 1 hour. Very good recipe though

Made this and enjoyed it with my family. This dish was delicious. Since I cook everything from scratch i substituted the bottle BBQ sauce and the ketchup, with my own BBQ that contains homemade ketchup. This was enjoyed by all and I even had to hide a bit of the leftovers just so I could have some the next day, it went that fast. I will definitely make this again and again, and I will make this whenever we go to a BBQ.

I have a double batch in the slow cooker now. My wife and 2 boys love it. I add a little corn starch at the end to thicken the sauce. This is great for freezing and serving at a later time.....Thanks.

This is a great recipe and couldn't be any easier! I did find it to be a bit on the sweet side. I used Sriricha instead of Tobasco. I think next time I will add the liquid smoke, as a previous review recommended. But it was delicious, all-in-all!

This was the bomb.com. So many people asked for the recipe after the party.

We loved it! However, we're only rating 4/5 stars simply b/c we wished it were saucier. After cooking, I pulled the pork out of the liquid, shredded it, then spooned a little of the liquid back over it. Then I poured a little extra BBQ sauce over the top (we use Frank's BBQ wing sauce), then mixed together. We served it on grilled garlic rolls with ranch slaw. Definitely the best recipe we've ever used and it's going in the keep pile. My 6-year-old son said he gave it 10 stars and ate two sandwiches. Thank you so much for sharing this!!!

I made this for the first tie this weekend. My husband loved it so much he went out and bought two more pork shoulders. It was a little runny for our tastes, so next time I will omit some of the water. We also added a 1/4 cup A1 sauce. We will also try one with a little root beer. It was even better the second day. Will recommend this recipe to everyone I know.

Sauce a little thin; transferred it to a skillet and thickened with cornstarch. Tastes awesome!

Great flavor and very easy! I recommend this recipe over the root beer one on this site.

This recipe was great! We aren't huge pork fans but this made it a delicious way to enjoy it on New Years day. Made it following the recipe and it turned out great. It is good on a bun or by itself. Thanks for sharing!

This was awesome, but it isn't a recipe that can handle a full day's cooking while you're at work. I'll be reserving it for weekends when I can cook it for a shorter time period and keep an eye on it to prevent burning.

I'm new to the whole slow cooker thing. This was my first pulled pork attempt. This was very easy to make. EVERYONE enjoyed it, I was just wondering how I could make the sauce thicker. That was the one and only I didn't give it a 5 star rating. I will be making this again!!!!

My BF and I really like this recipe. I used a sweet and sour BBQ sauce. It turned out a little sweet, I would definatly use a richer smokey BBQ sauce next. As said in by others the sauce was really runny. I would reduce the amount of water next time.

Thank you so much for a great, homemade recipe for pulled pork! It is absolutely delicious; I love a sweet BBQ sauce with pork...guests can always add the the spice to their own comfort level later. I will use this as my staple pulled pork recipe!! AWESOME!

easy to cook. Served this at several parties with much success!

Awesome. I used beef broth instead of water. I also removed the fat and cut roast into chunks before putting in cooker. Can cook for 4 - 6 hours on high if cut in chunks.

This is so flavorful. I used it in the Barbecue Lasagna recipe on this site. To thicken up the standing crockpot sauce, I ladled it into a bowl and mixed with a tad more plain bbq sauce. Didn't take much to get it to an ideal consistency.

My kitchen smelled amazing all afternoon, and the pork tasted just as good! I had all ingredients except honey, but it was sweet enough. Next time I will add less water, as the sauce was a little thinner than ideal. Great recipe!!

I need to make this again and not have it in the crock pot so long. I had to have it in there for about 10 hours on low and it was a bit over cooked. Still tasted pretty great though! However, next time I won't add as much water b/c it was a bit too runny.

I've had better. There's something just not quite right about this - my husband and I both read over the ingredients over and over to see what that odd after taste was from and couldn't figure it out. I think I'll be looking for a new bbq recipe.

Loved it and it was easy to make!! Next time I will thicken the sauce though.

my family loves this recipe and the bbq sauce that I have to make a big bowl so i can use it for other meats.

I'm a new cook and made this recipe for the first time and my boyfriend loved it! I don't have a slower cooker so I made it in the oven and it still came out GREAT!!!

It was good. Sauce was thin so I would decrease water next time and it was more sweet than anything so would add a more pepper sauce

Awesome Recipe !!!!

Very good recipe. This is the first time I have made pulled pork in a slow cooker. Normally I make it in my smoker. I make a new recipe exactly as written, then if I feel changes should be made I do it on the next time I make it. I do not feel it is right to make changes then rate it with the changes made. With that said, I admit I made a change in making this recipe. I did not add the water and there was plenty of sauce. Will definitely use this recipe again. Thank you BarleyJack.

This was just ok for me, however my daughter really liked it. Hearing all the comments about the thickness of the sauce(or lack of), I only put in 1/2 cup of water instead of a cup. It still had too much liquid, I even used the immersion blender after taking out the meat(as BarleyJack,the chef of this recipe)suggested in a comment. I also strained out the oil on top. Too much work for something that is just alright and not amazing for me. I'll be looking for another one.

Loved this recipe!! VERY easy and quick to make and is fantastic for a week night - prepared the night before of course! I've made it a few times and the last time I made it I didn't have enough Bar-b-que sauce and used spicy Diana's sauce instead and it tasted even better - very yummy!!

We didn't like this one at all.

This recipe is excellent!!!! I have tried atleast 10 different pulled pork recipes, and none of them have even came close. I change a few things though, instead of celery, i use green pepper. Like the majority of the other reviewers i used rootbeer, or coca cola instead of water. I cut the honey out, otherwise it is way to sweet. As for the BBQ sauce and ketchup, i use the recommended amount for bbq sauce and i put in sweet baby rays, but instead of ketchup i use open pit same measurements!!!

Yummy....I only added a little water to thin out the sauce....1 c. would have been too much and too watery. I actually made the sauce the night before and store in the fridge overnight. Put the meat and sauce in the crockpot the next morning and let it go. Leftovers freeze woonderful! Eating them tonight...thanks!

A very easy recipe. There was (in my opinion) too much liquid in the pot so I drained and saved the sauce before pulling the meat apart. I then added some sauce back after pulling the meat apart, then kept the leftovers for those who like to add more sauce. It was very moist and sweet. I used Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce so may omit the brown sugar next time. All in all a good recipe and it will be added to my 'recipe box'.

The sauce is VERY thin. I had to drain the slow cooker!

Delicious!

Absolutely delicious! I left out the celery because I don't care for but it was awesome!

My boyfriend has made this recipe many times since we first tried it. We love it, and it was the only crock pot left empty at a big get together he once brought it to!

This was ok, but the sauce was much too thin and I followed the recipe exactly. I ended up having to strain the meat from the original sauce and then add 1/2 to 1/2 BBQ and sauce in crock pot and mix together and add into the pork until it was the desired amount of sauce. I don't like tweaking with things that much, so I won't make this again, but the flavor was good.

For the amount of work that goes into this, it's pretty good, but it's certainly not amazing. Great for a hands-off weeknight meal. I will make this again because it's so easy.

Fantastic recipe, the family absolutely loved it. I was out of honey but substituted it with maple syrup, still great.

Amazingly delicious! Meat just fell apart it was so tender. Brought it to a family event and everyone asked for the recipe.

really good, made as written, forgot the salt and pepper, didn't miss it.

My daughter asked all day what was cooking because it smelled so good! When it came to dinner, she says "I love this chicken!" Needless to say but this is a hit at our house!

I would've given this 5-stars, but the 1 cup of water would've diminished the flavor and made the sauce very thin and runny. Fortunately I know enough about slow cooking foods to know that the meat cooking in that environment would produce enough liquids on it's own to thin out (but not too much) the thick consistency of the sauce mix. Had I added the 1 cup of water called for in the recipe it would've had a watered down flavor and been too soupy. If you feel you must add 1 cup of liquid, I would suggest something like french onion soup or beef broth to add flavor, not water the flavor down. That being said, the flavor of this is the best pulled pork recipe I've tried to date. Definitely won't be looking any further - thank you so much for sharing!

I am personally not a huge fan of anything barbeque; however, I made this for my fiance and he absolutely loved it. I made it exactly as written and he couldn't keep his hands off the leftovers.

I made this exactly as written except I used a larger pork roast. it did not matter. I have made this several times and not matter if I used a 3 or 5 pound roast, it always came out fantastic. I have a friend that ordered her pulled pork from a famous place in North Carolina known for there pulled pork. They had nothing on this one. I would not make it any other way.

Made this a few times now, it's my go-to recipe when I want really saucy pulled pork to serve over mashed potato, rather than on buns. I use cola (or root beer) instead of water, less sugar and a good BBQ sauce instead of ketchup. Then you can simply toss the pulled pork back into its sauce and ladle all the goodness over whatever tickles your fancy. When I have the inclination, I cook it for 18 (!) hours on low.

This was good. I do wish the sauce was a little thicker. I had to pour a lot of it off or the shredded meat would of been swimming. Good flavor though.

Loved it and will definitely make again!! I tweeked it alittle by instead using only 1/2 cup onions, no celery, 1 cup juice off the meat (cooked earlier in crock pot) instead of water, only 3/4 tsp chili powder, and cayenne pepper to taste rather than hot pepper sauce.

Turned out great!

I didn't add as much pork, I was looking for a recipe that would utilize and allow me to shred what pork we had, I think I used about a pound.... I added a few of my own spices from the spice rack, but everything else to the tee and it was amazing and spicy! I guess it depends on the type of bbq sauce you use, I used "Stubbs- Spicy". I was thinking after reading some of the reviews that beer would have been interesting, but it was perfect as it was. We poured it over rice for dinner, delicious!

Hey guys this is a perfect recipe, just remember to put your favorite BBQ sauce for maximum affection. If I could do anything different it would be to use a loin not a shoulder.

It's tasty, but there was way too much liquid and it had to be drained off.

i made this for a large group and everyone raved, asked for the recipe and had it for leftover lunch the next day. It was agreed that it worked cold as well as hot. I used the allrecipes adjustment to make the recipe for 10. The only changes I made was to cut water done to 1/2 Cup (called for 1 & 2/3 C) but it could have got without it completely, and I was out of celery. We all agreed that any more water would have made it too thin and no one missed the celery. Oh yeah.. I also traded half the ketchup for tomato paste. Next time I would additive a bit more garlic only because I personally love garlic but that's apersonal choice. Great recipe!

This cut of pork is extremely fatty, so I took the meat out of the liquid ran the liquid through a gravy separator. I also removed as much solid fat from the meat that I could while shredding it. I left out the sugar because the barbecue sauce I used was pretty sweet. It was delicious, but next time, I'll try a pork tenderloin to cut down on the fat.

This recipe is fantastic! Followed recipe to a tea except I left the celery out, I don’t care for cooked celery. House smelled wonderful while cooking. Flavor is robust. Whole family enjoyed!

I made it for the first time and my wife loved it!! :-)

Great flavor. I omitted the celery because I didn't have any at hand

I will totally make this again, but I'll tweak it a bit. =)

I'm a Yank, and love Southern food, so this was right up my alley. It was very tasty and tender, but next time I'd leave out the celery. I love the spices and the sauce it created. Yes, maybe a little thin, but I didn't quite have a big enough piece of pork anyway. Very good recipe, easy, and I'll make again.

I am a beginner. I just followed the directions exactly as they were and the family thinks I am a cooking genius.

Was a big hit at dinner. Served to guests as well as the family. Good flavoring, easy to put together and everyone commented how good it was.

I love this recipe! I have tried about three other recipes from this site and go back to this one, even though there are many more ingredients, making it a bit more time consuming than the root beer recipe. The extra time is so worth the delicious results!

I found this to be a little too sweet. The roast cooked up perfectly and everyone else loved it. I would make it again and omit some of the sweetness. I think I was looking for a balanced blend of sweet and smokey flavor.

I've been making this recipe for years. I follow the recipe exactly and it's just delicious!!

Left out the water, used 5 garlic cloves, used Weber barbeque sauce to eliminate the corn syrup, cooked in a Le Creuset covered pot in the oven for 2 hrs at 300, 4-5 hrs at 230 (lost track of the time). I like cooking above 212. Excellent recipe.

This was delicious. I added some honey and did not use the fennel. I will not mix in all of the sauce next time. I like my BBQ a little drier. I will definitely be making this again soon. The flambé part was fun.

It becomes Yankee want to use beef

This was delicious! I omited the celery, ketchup, hot sauce, and bottled bbq sauce (I let people add the bbq sauce to their sandwich if they wanted), and cooked it in my instapot for 45 minutes. It was soooo good! I think it would be even better topped with coleslaw. I will definitely make it again -- especially since it was such a big hit with my guests!

I wish the sauce had been thicker. I reduced it a bit, shredded the pork and added it back. The flavors were delicious.

I used an enormous (9 pound) bone-in pork shoulder that I had. I kept all other ingredient measurements the same. I used sugar free BBQ and ketchup (because we have to not because we want to). I only added 1/2 C water because others had said 1 C was too much. Despite all that, I did have a ton of liquid in my slow cooker. I had the meat on low for 8 hours. The meat should reach an internal temp of 190. The meat pulled apart easily, separated meat from bone and fat. Flavor was really good. Recommend.

I made this recipe but omitted the water after reading all the reviews. I also used pork tenderloins. This was a hit with the family. Instead of rolls we use wraps and topped with coleslaw, some shredded cheddar cheese and if you like a kick some sliced jalapeños.

One of my family's favorite recipes!

this was my first slow cooker recipe, and it was awesome, my husband said it is a keeper! Gail, Beverly, MA