Easy Carolina Slow Cooker Pulled Pork with rich spices and a tangy broth, made fork-tender in a slow cooker.
Course Slow Cooker
Cuisine American
Keyword best southern pulled pork, north carolina pulled pork, pulled pork slow cooker
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 8 hourshours
Total Time 8 hourshours10 minutesminutes
Servings 6
Calories 266kcal
Author Plating Pixels
Ingredients
3poundspork shoulder butt roast
3tablespoonsbrown sugarseparated
1tablespoonsmoked paprika
1teaspoonsalt
1teaspoon ground black pepper
1teaspoongarlic powder
1largeyellow onionsliced
1cupapple cider vinegar
¼cupWorcestershire sauce
¼teaspooncayenne pepper
2teaspoonscrushed red pepper
1tablespoonbrown mustard
1teaspoonground mustard
Instructions
If pork roast shoulder is frozen, put in the fridge to defrost 2-3 days before cooking. Trim off any large sections of fat and discard.
In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Rub the mixture all over pork until it's soaked in and evenly coated.
Place onions in a layer on the bottom of slow cooker, place pork shoulder on top.
In a small bowl, stir together remaining ingredients from apple cider vinegar to ground mustard, plus the leftover tablespoon of brown sugar. Gently pour the liquid over roast. You should have about 2 inches of liquid on the bottom; if not add a bit of stock or water.
Cook covered on LOW for 8–10 hours or HIGH for 4 hours until pulled pork is fork tender. Important: Do not discard liquid after cooking.
Use a fork to shred the meat in the slow cooker or on a plate. Toss shredded pork with the liquid until well coated. Slow cook on HIGH for 15 minutes more to infuse flavors.
Use tongs or a slotted spoon to serve as desired, or use it to make my slow cooker Pulled Pork Sliders.
Video
Notes
Watch the recipe video within the post to learn just how easy this Slow Cooker Pulled Pork is
You can use bone-in pork shoulder butt for more juiciness and flavor, however boneless is totally fine as well.
Substitute extra brown mustard if you don't have mustard powder.
Cooking the full 10 hours on LOW, or 4 hours on HIGH, will yield the most tender pulled pork. A longer cooking time breaks down the protein in the meat, which creates the ideal fork-tender texture.
Cooking with liquid in a sealed slow cooker keeps the meat from drying out.
If you don't have a slow cooker, use a crock pot to make crockpot slow cooker pulled pork. Or use an Instant-pot on the slow-cooker setting for the recommended time.