Tastebud Chicago

The Pork on the grill.

I already wrote about the pork meat buying adventure on Lake Street, as promised here’s the write up of the actual cooking of the meat. Things turned out really well. This is the second time we’ve made pulled pork this way, both times turned out great. We followed the recipe for North Carolina style pulled pork from Steven Raichlen’s "How to Grill", one of our favorite grilling books.

The recipe takes a little bit of time to prepare, but is much easier than you’d think. Prep-wise, you need to pull together a bunch of spices for a basic BBQ rub and a vinegar sauce for the sandwiches. We’re fans of vinegar based pork sandwiches, instead of traditional BBQ sauce sandwiches. Once the rub and sauce are made, the rest is pretty easy. Pat the meat with the rub and put it on a grill set up for indirect grilling. Add some soaked wood chips to a grill bag (or directly on the coals) for smoke flavor, mop the meat with your sauce every hour or so, then wait six hours, or until the meat reaches 195 degrees.

Let the meat rest for ten minutes, and then start pulling it apart. Add a cup of the sauce, mix it all up in a bowl, put some of the meat on a bun with some coleslaw and you’re all set. Although it’s time consuming, the recipe is really pretty straight forward. It impresses the heck out of guests.