Garlic Pulled Pork

[peteyfrogboy]

So as the Christams leftovers began to dwindle, I had to start thinking of what to eat next. I saw pork loin at the store for $1.99/lb. and thought that was a pretty nice price. here's what I did with it:

1. Cut the pork loin in half.
2. Peel a head of garlic and slice the cloves in half (or thirds, depending on size), then put all the garlic into slits in the pork.
3. Rub the pork with a mixture of "Italian seasoning" and kosher salt.
4. Sear all sides of the pork in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil (then set up the fan to blow all the smoke out of the kitchen).
5. Put the pork in the crockpot with some homemade chicken stock I had in the freezer (maybe 2 cups?), half a bag of baby carrots, some leftover chopped onion, and a few glugs of whiskey.
6. Cook on low overnight (about 11 hours).
7. Remove pork from crockpot (carefully) and shred.
8. Strain everything out of the juice (about 3 cups total) and marvel at how little grease was floating on top.
9. Add to the juice several tablespoons of honey and maybe half a cup of apple cider vinegar.
10. Make a roux with a couple or three tablespoons of butter and some flour (not too much).
11. Add the juice a bit at a time to make a relatively thin gravy.
12. Add gravy to the shredded pork until it's nice and moist, save the rest for potatoes (or whatever)

So far I've had it in a burrito with some shredded cheddar and it was quite tasty. Just a little dry, as pork loin tends to be, but not overly so. The main flavor that comes through is garlic, but in that subtle way that roasted garlic has, instead of the "oh god too much garlic in the hummus" way.

Comments

[ragnvaeig.livejournal.com]

Am not sure I follow. Cut the pork loin in half...but not all the way?

[peteyfrogboy.livejournal.com]

It was a long skinny piece of meat, which I cut into two shorter chunks that could be more easily arranged in the crockpot.

[ragnvaeig.livejournal.com]

So that's not the slit you mean when you say to put the garlic in--make others all over the loin?

[peteyfrogboy.livejournal.com]

Correct. The holes for the garlic are more like stabs. Very cathartic.

[desfontaines.livejournal.com]

Aw hell....reading this just reminded me that I turned off the crockpot of chicken to cool down for shredding......fourteen hours ago.