Root Beer Pulled Pork Sliders

Made with Locally Brewed Devil’s Canyon Root Beer

Root Beer Pulled Pork Sliders made with Devil's Canyon Root Beer. Recipe and photo by Luisa Ormonde of Luisa's Catering.

Recipe compliments of our friend Luisa Ormonde of Luisa’s Catering in San Carlos. Luisa says, “A few posts ago I used a locally brewed root beer in a cake and it made me want to use it again for a savory recipe. After tweaking a few similar recipes, I came up with this one and it’s PERFECT. I love how the 5 spice compliments the root beer flavor – slight Asian twist, but subtle! This one is definitely a keeper!” Time 8 hours (plus an additional 8 of marinating time). Serves 8.

What you need:

• 16 mini brioche buns
• 4 lbs pork shoulder/butt

Pork Dry Rub:

• 1 TBL Chinese Five Spice Powder
• 1 TBL granulated sugar
• 3 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

    Root Beer BBQ Sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups locally brewed Devil’s Canyon Root Beer (made with cane sugar)
• 1 cup Sir Kensington Classic Ketchup (find at Sigona’s!)
• 1 small onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 large clove fresh garlic
• 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup muscavado sugar (or dark brown sugar)
• 1/4 cup organic honey
• optional condiments: pickled red onion and shredded fresh red cabbage

Directions: Rinse pork under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. In a small bowl combine all the dry rub ingredients. Now just rub the dry ingredients all over the pork. Wrap in butcher paper or plastic and chill 8 hours/overnight.

Make the root beer sauce: place all ingredients into your blender and puree until smooth. Keep in fridge until ready to use.

Unwrap marinated pork and place into slow cooker. Pour sauce over the pork. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

When you are ready to roll, carefully take the lid off (don’t let all that water on the lid drip into your meat). Using two forks or a pair of tongs, carefully shred the pork, mixing it in with the liquid and juices in the slow cooker. I just keep it in there for serving so it stays warm.

Warm up your buns in the oven, place a mound of pulled pork on each bun. Add pickled red onion and shredded red cabbage, if desired.