GF Shredded Pork Tacos

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to post this recipe. The problem is it's so totally delicious that it seriously gets 100% eaten up faster than I can grab my camera! Every.single.time!!!!

When preparing to host the jr. high youth group for dinner last Sunday night (which went really well, by the way...crowded, but good) I asked SD what I should make for dinner? He immediately said I should make this, which was great, because that was exactly what I was thinking too.

This time I bought 2 roasts so I could double the recipe to make enough for that many people. It was PERFECT!!!!! Everyone loved it and we even had enough leftovers for dinner the next night too!!! Which of course thrilled my family because 1 roast usually only makes enough for 1 dinner and they're begging me for leftovers!

The best part of all is that it's a crockpot recipe, and seriously one of THE easiest recipes I've ever come across...just a handful of simple ingredients, throw it in, leave it alone for hours, and then shred/pull the meat apart with a fork when it's done. And chances are you might already have all the ingredients in your pantry.

The original recipe said to serve the meat over large potato rolls, but since I haven't had time to experiment with a good GF hamburger bun, we've just converted this into tacos with soft white corn tortillas, or sometimes hard crunchy corn tortillas, whatever we're in the mood for.

But last night I had some HUGE success with a new GF flat bread/snack wrap recipe that I think this shredded pork would work well with too!

Anyway, enough of that, on to the recipe! It's so good, it's become a new family favorite!!!

Shredded Pork Tacos

1 4- to 5- pound pork shoulder roast or pork shoulder blade Boston roast (Boston butt)
3/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Place meat in a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. In a small bowl combine vinegar, brown sugar, salt, red pepper, and black pepper. Pour over meat. 

2. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 10 to 12 hours or on high-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours.

3. Transfer meat to a cutting board; reserve cooking juices. When cool enough to handle, cut meat off bones and coarsely chop. In a medium bowl combine meat and as much of the juices as desired to moisten.

TIP: Cut up the roast in a couple of really large pieces before cooking to allow for more even cooking. Also, as you're shredding the meat, dump the pieces back into the crockpot in the juices to stay warm and moist. You can drain the juices and save to make a gravy.

CrockPot Hirino Psito, Slow-Roasted Pork

As I mentioned earlier in the week we've been eating the most AMAZING shredded pork recipe this week!!!!

No surprise, it's another incredible find from one of my favorite blogs, A Year of Crockpotting. Despite the fact that she said she slightly overcooked the top of her meat, after seeing the photo of her finished recipe, I knew I simply HAD to try this one!

There were a few ingredients I didn't have, such as the sage, rosemary, bay leaves, dijon mustard, and beer, so I had some added cost here...but it made so much that this one recipe has worked for dinner, plus the next day's lunch, plus STILL some leftovers for sandwiches here and there that's fed our family of 6 for several meals!

I don't normally buy beer, so when IK saw this item as we were putting away groceries he was shocked & stunned and simply couldn't believe me when I told him it was an ingredient for the meat. He thought the concept of beer meat was hilarious and totally ridiculous, so because of that I made HIM cook this recipe! After all, it's not that hard to dump a ton of stuff into a crockpot and plug it in, right?

CrockPot Hirino Psito, Slow-Roasted Pork

Ingredients:

3-4 pound boneless pork butt or shoulder (I bought 2 smaller, 2lb. pork pkgs.)
10 whole garlic cloves
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon gluten free Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup beer (Redbridge is gluten free)

The Directions:

1. Use a 6 quart slow cooker. Put the meat into your crockpot, and pour on dry spices, and brown sugar. Flip the meat over a few times in the stoneware so the spices are kind of stuck to all sides.

2. Peel garlic cloves and add whole.

3. Add Worcestershire sauce, mustard, honey, and cranberries. Top with bay leaves. Pour in the beer.

It should look something like this:

It's not pretty, but trust me, it's worth it!!!

4. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, I cooked mine about 9 hours, and the meat was incredibly tender and flavorful! Since I was home I also rotated the meat twice to avoid drying our or burning on the top.

5. Serve over rice or pasta, or on your favorite sandwich rolls.

And when it was done, it looked like this:

It wasn't dry at all, perfectly moist and easily shredding with a light touch of the fork! The flavor is a little difficult to describe, because it's not your typical shredded pork BBQ flavor...it's different and it's amazingly delicious!!!

We served them on small potato rolls. Some people ate them plain on the rolls, others added a little mayo to the roll and BBQ sauce to give it a little spicy kick.

This is a recipe I will DEFINITELY make over again!!! If you're not a huge ham fan, you could try this as a great Easter dinner alternative!!

The Easiest BBQ Ribs you'll ever make

Need an easy recipe for ribs that tastes AMAZING? Start by purchasing a large pack of country style ribs, I usually buy the pork ribs instead of beef simply because they're a lot cheaper & you really can't taste the difference anyway.

Open the package and place all of the ribs in a deep corningwear dish with a glass lid. It's okay to place some of the ribs on top of each other if they won't all fit lengthwise.

Next randomly drizzle a little bit of your favorite BBQ sauce over the ribs. I don't measure this, but I would say about 1/4 cup. I typically use a honey flavored BBQ sauce.

Cover the dish with glass lid and cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Then turn down oven temp to 200 degrees and let it cook for at least 4-5 hours. When you pull them out of the oven they should be so soft they're falling right off the bones.

Drain the ribs and place them on a cookie sheet. Using a pastry brush or the back of a spoon coat the ribs generously with BBQ sauce. Place them back in the oven at 200 degrees for another 15-20 min.

This last step makes the BBQ sauce actually stick to the ribs. I usually serve these with baked potatoes (well, microwave potatoes: wash off, poke several holes all around potatoes, place in microwave for 8 min., turn over and cook another 2-3 min. or until soft when poked through with a fork). Add some green beans and you're all set.

I love this meal because it's really easy to just throw the ribs in a dish and forget about them while you're busy all day long. Then in the last 20 min. you can throw together some baked potatoes and veggies and your meal is ready.