Sandwiches · American
Pulled Pork Sandwich
Pork shoulder braised low and slow in a tangy-sweet sauce, then piled into toasted buns.
- Hands-on
- 1 h
- Hands-off
- 3 h
- Total
- 4 h
- Makes
- 6 sandwiches
- Serves
- 6
About 1 hour of hands-on work (browning, sauce, shredding, toasting) and 3 hours in the oven. Preheating overlaps the browning, so it isn't added. Matches the 4-hour total of the recipe it's based on.
Oven 180 °C · 160 °C fan (350 °F)
- medium
- game-day
- crowd
- make-ahead
Verified against at least two trusted test kitchens or food-safety guides · Last checked · What this means
Scaling? The pot sets the limit: the pork has to fit in one layer in a covered Dutch oven. A bigger batch needs a bigger pot (or two), and very large pieces may need longer, so go by the fork test, not the clock. Some items (like eggs) don’t halve neatly: beat them, then measure out half.
Ingredients
You need: large Dutch oven with a lid · aluminium foil · tongs · wooden spoon · large platter · two forks for shredding · instant-read thermometer · large non-stick frying pan · oven mitts
Contains: wheat · egg · fish
Method
Heat the oven
Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, 350°F).
Brown the pork
Warm the 2 tbsp oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the 3 pieces of pork shoulder (in batches if they don't fit without touching) and brown them well on every side, about 15 minutes in all. Move them to a platter and cover with foil. Wash your hands and the tongs after handling raw pork.
Ready when: A deep brown crust on all sides. The middle is still raw; that's fine, the long braise cooks it through.
Otto tried this firstOtto crams all the pork in at once and it steams grey instead of browning. Leave space around each piece, or brown in two goes.Soften the onion
Carefully pour off all but about 1 tbsp of the fat. Turn the heat to medium, add the chopped onion and cook, stirring now and then, about 5 minutes.
Ready when: The onion is soft and golden.
Build the sauce
Pour in the 180 ml (3/4 cup) cider vinegar and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Stir in the 250 ml (1 cup) water, 185 g (3/4 cup) ketchup, 75 g (1/3 cup) brown sugar, 85 g (1/4 cup) molasses, 1 tbsp Worcestershire, 1 to 2 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Turn the heat up to medium-high and stir now and then.
Ready when: The sauce has just started to bubble.
Braise for 3 hours
Put the pork and any juices from the platter back in the pot. Cover with a sheet of foil, then the lid, and slide the pot into the oven. Cook for about 3 hours, turning the pieces over halfway through (use oven mitts; the pot is very heavy and hot).
Ready when: Very tender: two forks pull the meat apart with almost no resistance. For pull-apart texture the thickest part reads about 93°C (200°F). Pork is safe from 63°C (145°F) plus a 3-minute rest, so by this point it's well past safe; the extra time is for tenderness. If it still resists the forks, cover it and give it more time.
Otto tried this firstOtto tries to shred at the 2-hour mark and the forks just bounce off. Tough pork isn't overcooked, it's undercooked: back in the oven.Shred
Lift the pork onto the platter. Spoon off the extra fat floating on the sauce. Shred each piece with two forks, throwing away any big lumps of fat, then stir the meat back into the sauce and cover the pot to keep warm.
Toast the buns
Heat the non-stick pan over medium heat and film it with the 1 tsp oil. Spread about 1 tsp mayonnaise on the cut side of each top bun only. Toast the buns cut-side down, in batches, for 1 to 2 minutes.
Ready when: The cut sides are golden brown.
Build the sandwiches
Pile the pulled pork onto the bottom buns, add coleslaw if you like, put the tops on and serve straight away.
Swaps
- Instead of brioche or poppy seed buns: plain hamburger rolls Good with pickle chips and thinly sliced onion on top.
- Instead of canola oil: vegetable oil, same amount Any neutral oil for browning.
- Instead of red pepper flakes (1 tsp): 2 tsp for a spicier sauce The range given is 1 to 2 tsp.
Make ahead, store & reheat
- Make ahead
- The pulled pork can be made up to 2 days ahead: shred it, stir it into its sauce, let it cool, cover it tightly and refrigerate. Reheat it gently in the sauce before toasting the buns.
- Storage
- Refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Cooked pork keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge or 2 to 3 months in the freezer (best quality).
- Reheat
- Warm the pork in its sauce in a covered pot over low heat, stirring now and then, until it's steaming hot all the way through, 74°C (165°F).
If something goes wrong
- The meat won't shred Why: It isn't done yet; shoulder needs time to turn tender.
Cover it and keep cooking, checking every 30 minutes, until the forks pull it apart easily (about 93°C / 200°F).
Good to know
- Turning the meat halfway lets both sides sit in the sauce.
- Spreading mayo on the top buns before toasting gives them an even golden crust.
Safety
- Keep raw pork away from ready-to-eat food. Wash hands, tongs, boards and the platter in hot soapy water after they touch raw meat.
- Pouring off hot fat and lifting a full Dutch oven out of the oven are adult jobs. Use oven mitts and tilt the pot away from you.
- Pork is safe at 63°C (145°F) with a 3-minute rest; pulled pork is cooked far beyond that for texture. Check with a thermometer rather than by color.
- Buns can contain milk, egg, sesame or soy, and Worcestershire sauce usually contains fish (anchovy). Check the labels.