It finally happened. We got a slow cooker. With our ever-increasing laundry list of activities eating up our free time, we wanted to find more quick and easy ways to meal prep (vs. spending a couple hours cooking each night or eating out). Enter the slow cooker – a genius invention that allows you to cook food deliciously, effortlessly, and safely without you even being there! The first recipe we wanted to try was BBQ pulled pork, and, bruh, it was BOMBBB. Keep on reading for the recipe…
Servings: 6-8
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 8 hours
Ingredients:
For the pulled pork:
- 1 bag of tater tots
- 1 gallon Ziploc bag
- 2 tsp. chili powder (about 1/4 tsp. each of paprika, oregano, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper)
- 2.5 lbs pork tenderloin/shoulder/booty (pick your favorite cut)
- 1 cup BBQ sauce (homemade or store-bought like this one)
- 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. pepper
For the coleslaw:
- 16 oz coleslaw blend
- 1/3 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt
- 3 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- salt + pepper to taste
Additional toppings:
- 1/4 cup grilled onions
- 1/4 cup black beans
- spicy pickles
- Chopped cilantro
Recipe:
Start The Slow Cooker:
- Make the chili powder, if needed.
- Add all ingredients into a 1 gallon Ziploc bag. Give it a nice shake. (Optional: Marinate the bag in the fridge overnight for extra tenderness.)
- Once you are ready to cook, empty the Ziploc bag in slow cooker, making sure that the pork makes contact with the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Cover and set the slow cooker to Low for 8 hours (for best results) or on High for 5-6 hours (for a “quicker” meal).
20 Minutes Before Eating:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Empty the bag of tater tots onto a baking sheet and place inside the oven when it’s ready. Flip yo’ taters after 10 minutes and remove after 20 minutes.
- Test the pork for doneness by running a fork through it. If it shreds easily, it’s done! Remove pork from slow cooker and let it rest on a cutting board for about 10 minutes.
- Make the coleslaw – add all coleslaw ingredients to a bowl and mix.
- Grill some onions on high heat.
- Take a pair of forks to your pork and get shredding
- Plate tater tots (we recommend using a long bowl) and put your shredded pulled pork on top.
- Crown your mountain with coleslaw, beans, grilled onions, spicy pickles, and cilantro.
Crack open a crispy boi and enjoy!
Notes:
- This recipe is super easy to freeze as a ready-to-cook meal, or as meal prep. Store the marinated meat in the freezer, then defrost the day before you plan to cook. You can also refrigerate the cooked leftovers for meal preps for the week! (We recommend enjoying it as close to your cook date as possible, though, for maximum tastiness!)
- Use a slow cooker liner for easier cook and cleaning.
- We decided to use tater tots as the carb base, but you could sub tots for rice (or cauliflower rice), bread, hamburger buns, tortillas, nachos, or whatever you want! Sky’s the limit!
- Make sure the tater tots are EXTRA crispy. When in doubt, leave them in the oven for an extra 1-2 minutes. The toppings can sometimes make your tots soggy very quickly.
fork & spoon 