BBQ Pork in a Crock Pot!

While I am not particularly proud of the lazy photos taken for this recipe, I was very proud of how easy this BBQ Pork crock pot recipe was.  I decided on a Saturday morning a few weeks back that the pork that had been defrosting needed immediate attention, lest it wastefully go bad.

We can't be wasting food round these parts.  I can't stand wasteful things.  Like not recycling.  Or not finishing a glass of wine.  Or people who don't finish a plate of nachos.  Seriously?

Me and BBQ Pork are tight.  If there is BBQ Pork to be had on the menu, there's a very high probability that that is what I am ordering.  So, after consulting a few recipes on the intrawebs, I threw the pork in the crock pot and started adding ingredients.  Now, I could have used a bottle of BBQ sauce, but I didn't have any on hand.  However, all you need is a few ingredients to whip up a homemade BBQ sauce:

•  Ketchup - 1/2 cup
• cider vinegar - 1/4 cup
• brown sugar - 1 or 2 tbsp
• spicy mustard (optional) - 1 or 2 tsp

Mix it all up in a bowl, tasting as you go along.  Maybe it's too tangy - add more brown sugar.  Too vinegar-ish?  Add some more ketchup.  The spicy mustard is optional, but I liked the way it blended together.  Once you have a preferred BBQ taste, pour mixture over pork and into crock pot.   If I had had them on hand, I would have chopped up some onions and thrown them in here too.

Turn on your slow cooker and walk away.  You can do high for 6 hours or low for 8.  That's right.  Walk away and let the magic happen all on it's own.  Trust the slow cooker, it is your friend.

This is what I came back to.  I have to admit.  I was scared.  It was so dark and scary and I hadn't done ANY stirring or anything.  I was shocked - the sauce had gone from scarily red to scarily over brown.

Take two forks and start shredding the pork apart.  This is easy.  As this was happening, the sauces started blending back to a less burnt looking color.  It started to look like a BBQ sauce color.

 Once you've shredded, add to a sandwich.  I picked up a loaf of country wheat from Panificio in Beacon Hill.  So good.

Here's the final sandwich:

Stop judging. I was hungry. And it was BBQ Pork. Next time I make it, you'll see the ultimate BBQ pork sandwich, with onions, maybe some apple slides and a tangy slaw. But I have to admit, this pork, as lovely and plain as it was, did not last long in my house.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Thank you California Pizza Kitchen for turning me onto the wonder that is Barbeque Chicken Pizza.  If you have ever had this pizza, it's phenomenal.  It's also very, very easy to recreate at home.

Or your home away from home for a weekend in Vermont. 

Which, by the way, had a full kitchen and counterspace. And a dishwasher.  And a full stove.  It was magnificent.  I didn't want to come home to my little (cockroach infested) studio kitchen. 

Sob, Sob.  Cockroaches.  I digress.

Behold: A little red onion that had big dreams of becoming something bigger than his little onion self.  Like a caramelized onion.

Start by halfing the whole onion.

And chopping into perfect little red onion slivers.

And toss the entire slivered onion into a moderately hot pan filled with a dash of EVOO.  Cover and allow to cook for approximately 30 minutes.  Stir on occassion.  Enough to keep from burning the onions to the bottom, but not too much that you keep the onion from getting a gorgeous brown color.  During this process, the sugars from the onion are releasing and making caramelized amazingness.

Like this.  Mmmm.... mmm.... If you find the onion sticking to the bottom, simply toss a tablespoon or two of water into the pan to destick and deglaze.  Be patient.  Caramelizing an onion is a process that takes patience.  While your onions are caramelizing, start the pizza.

This is a wheat Boboli crust, topped with plain old generic BBQ sauce.  Find a perfect balance of sauce.  You want enough sauce so that it's not dry, but not too much that your toppings slide straight off.  If you decide to use a dough crust, make sure you prebake your crust before putting on the toppings.  This will ensure that your pizza crust has enough time in the oven. 

Soggy crust and overcooked toppings are a bad combo.

Top with all those caramelized onions.  I thought this might have been excessive, but in the end, it was the perfect amount.

Add in your chopped cooked chicken.  I didn't do anything fancy to the chicken.  I marinated and then cooked in the BBQ sauce.  Careful not to overcook or the chicken will be chewy.

Cover entire pizza with cheese of choice.  Mine was about 5 ounces of white Cabot cheddar from Vermont.  (Note: A significant amount of cheese was sacraficed in the shredding of this block.)  So tasty.

Drizzling of BBQ sauce for effect.

Bake in the oven until the toppings are cooked to your liking. Basically, since everything is already cooked, you're just melting the cheese. I like mine nice and brown.  This was about 10 to 15 minutes.  I then topped with chopped parsley and served.

The caramelized onions were the key to this pizza.  Along with the freshly shredded Vermont cheddar cheese.  Using regular mozzerella probably wouldn't have been as good.

I didn't take any pictures after this because I was too busy stuffing my face. 

We at My Kitchen, My Sanctuary love our pizzas.... for more pizza, see here and here.