Pulled Pig Sliders with Jack Honey BBQ Sauce

How good does that look??? It is that good! And quite simple too. If I can make my own BBQ sauce, so can you!

First: The Pulled Pig. For the meat, I used a 3 lb pork tenderloin, but you can use pork shoulder, as well. Both are great choices. The tenderloin was on sale, so I went for that.

There are a few different schools of thought on cooking pork. I have tried at least two of these methods and both render a fork-tender, pull-apart pork as a result. The method I prefer is to braise the meat in the oven. I use very little seasoning. The reason for this is because I tend to have plenty of leftover meat and I want to use it in different recipes. I don’t want any one particular flavor dominating every dish.

So, take your pork tenderloin and rub sea salt and fresh ground black pepper liberally on all sides of the meat. Place the meat in a roasting pan with two dried bay leaves. {Fresh bay leaves would be great here, too.} Then add enough water or chicken stock to come up 2/3 of the way up the sides of the meat. This method is braising the meat. Now, cover it, and cook it slow and low! For my 3lb hunk of meat, I cooked it @ 300 for 4.5 hours.

Once the meat is done, remove it from the pan, place it in a bowl and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then take two forks, back-to-back and shred away!

Now for the Jack Honey BBQ Sauce! Yummmmm!!!

Jack Daniels Honey. A good friend introduced us to this a couple of years ago, and, well, it’s just good. You can find a bottle of this yummy goodness in our freezer pretty much all the time.

I’m not sure my husband knew I was stealing a little for this sauce, but he might have given me some resistance! It’s just that good. Smooth, sweet, woodsy Jack Daniels-y.

The rest of the ingredients {some pictured below} make up the rest of the sauce. You can change it up how you wish. If you don’t have lemons, only limes…go for it!! If you don’t have Jack Honey…wellllll, you need to head to your local liquor store and buy some. In my opinion, there’s no substitute for the Honey!

I love to change things up and make them my own, so I completely and whole heartedly encourage you to do the same. The sauce I came up with, the recipe follows.

Jack Honey BBQ Sauce
yields: 2 cups sauce

Ingredients:

4 cloves of fresh garlic
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
pinch of dried red peppers
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup Jack Daniels Honey
2 {14.5 oz} cans of pureed tomatoes
1 cup ketchup
juice of 1/2 a lemon
juice of 1/2 an orange
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp horseradish brown mustard {if you can’t find the horseradish variety, any brown mustard will be fine}

1. Begin by roasting the garlic. To do this, place the peeled garlic cloves in a medium, heavy-bottom sauce pan with the EVOO. Turn heat to LOW. Cook garlic very slowly and on low 18-22 minutes, or until garlic is slightly brown and soft. I would not walk away during this process. Garlic tends to burn easily. If you think the oil is too hot and the garlic may be cooking too quickly, remove the pan from the heat for a minute. Roasting garlic is a slow process, but the result is freakin’ amazing!

I didn’t tell you earlier this recipe had roasted garlic, did I???

Once the garlic are soft, smash them with the back of a fork.

{Let the pan with the smashed garlic cool for 5-7 minutes, so the  remaining ingredients do not pop when added in the next step.}

2. Add remaining ingredients and bring heat up to medium high. Sauce should begin to bubble.

3. Turn heat to LOW and simmer 25 minutes. Stir occasionally. Sauce should thicken and reduce to about 2 cups.

You are done with your sauce!

Now to assemble the sliders…

Heat a cast iron pan or skillet to medium high. Drizzle EVOO on Hawaiian rolls split in half. Place face down in skillet. Watch closely! Those babies burn easily.

Top with shredded pork and BBQ sauce. DEVOUR!!! I serve them with coleslaw and a good, cold amber beer like Shiner Bock. Be advised that your family may think you actually hung the moon after this one. And make sure there are enough buns for everyone {even 2 year olds} to eat at least two sliders. These should be called “gone” sliders. “She gone.”

I joined the party at these linkies: housewifehowtos.com cupcakesandcrinoline.com  dianarambles.com   shakentogetherlife.com