Coca-Cola Pulled Pork

I normally make pulled pork using this recipe.  On this particular day I decided to try something new, even though we LOVE the 'normal way' and the results were pretty danged good.  It all started when Jamie was home sick from work...


A little background:  Jamie is the worst sick person I have ever met.  He is literally incapable of staying in the bed and just resting.  Instead he does things like wander around the grocery store on a Tuesday discovering a 4lb pork butt on sale for $8.   When I called to check on him, he told me that he went to the store to get a gatorade and just happened to be in the meat section.  Since many of you have never been in our grocery store: this literally can't happen unless you are deliberately walking to the meat section. Not close to each other at all. Not even close.

So now it's Saturday and we have a 4 lb pork butt that has to be cooked or frozen today. My normal recipe calls for beef broth, liquid smoke and coffee.  We had 2 out of 3.  I was like, "Meh.  I don't want to go back to the store, what else can I use?"  The answer: A couple of cups of Coca-Cola.

What you need:
1 pork butt
2 cups of Coke
1 bottle of Jack Daniels Original BBQ sauce
2 tbs liquid smoke
your favorite dry rub
Crock Pot






What you do:

• Rub the pork butt with the dry rub, cover and refrigerate 30 minutes to overnight.  Obviously the longer the better. 
• In a medium bowl combine the Coke, liquid smoke and 1/2 cup of Jack Daniels' Sauce. 
• Place pork in the crock pot fat side up and then pour the bbq sauce mixture over. 
• Cook on low for 8 hours. 
• Drain the liquid and transfer the pork to large plate or platter (or if you're me, an old cake pan)
• With a couple of forks begin to shred the pork, removing the bone and any fat.  Once it's all shredded put it back in the crock pot and mix in the barbecue sauce.  Let that cook on low for 30 minutes
• A note on the Jack Daniel's sauce-- we didn't like it!  I couldn't believe it because we love all things Jack Daniels but this sauce + the liquid smoke was too "hickory-like."  I don't know how to explain it. We are definitely Carolina Sauce or Sweet Baby Ray's people. 

Easy enough right?   When the 8 hours was over the pork literally fell off the bone.  I had use a slotted spoon to get all of the meat out of the crockpot.  The meat was so tender and so juicy. Yum.  The first day we ate it on whole wheat buns with the Nine-Day Cole Slaw.  I am now the proud owner of a freezer full of pulled pork!  That'll come in handy the next time it takes me four hours to get home.