Asian Pulled Pork Sandwich
Posted by Jimmy | | Posted on 12:35 PM
I have, however, watched countless hours of food shows about smoking and I might have even pulled the coleslaw recipe from a show I've seen but I can't be too sure. I made so many mistakes this first time around but the result was actually pretty tasty as a few people can attest to. So, without further adieu, here are my adventures!
I got myself 5lbs of pork. This was a mistake! I went to Smart and Final (think a smaller version of Costco) and all they had was Sirloin. So I figured I'd give it a try. The Sirloin is way too lean and requires a REALLY long time to get to a decent consistency for food. Definitely get a butt if you want to smoke.
I got some Hickory wood chips from Home Depot and soaked it for 30 minutes before getting them started.
I then started with a dry rub. I don't have ratios (super top secret recipe) but here are my ingredients:Garlic powder
Onion Powder
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
Chinese Five Spice
Salt
Pepper
Rub the mix onto pork 1 hour before smoking. I have a Charbroil Red grill. It's a gas grill that uses a U Shaped bin to amplify the heat. It was a perfect place to put the wood chips for smoking. It has 3 Gas controls so you can shut them off and on f your smoke is too hot or too cold.
I placed a water bath underneath my pork and placed the pork on the top rack and smoked for 2 hours trying to keep the temperature as close to 225 as possible at all times. One small bag of chips was only enough for 2 hours of smoking. One thing about the grill I chose is, the hole has vents to let the smoke out. So, I had to cover the holes with Aluminum foil and duct tape.
Since I had such a lean cut of meat, the 2 hours of smoking wasn't nearly enough. I stuck the pork in the oven with Coke as the braising liquid. Filled the pan up 2 inches of coke, Seal Tightly and braise at 225 degrees in the oven. After two hours I took it out and it was shred-able but not tender enough to eat as a pulled pork sandwich.
The picture on the left you can see the pink ring on the outside of the pork. That's the smoke ring that serious BBQ'ers love to see. After shredding I stuck it back in the oven with the braising liquid covering the meat for another 2 hours. 6 hours of cooking total and the meat came out perfect! The cola gave the meat a nice amount of sweetness to it.
I then mixed the pork with an Asian BBQ sauce that I concocted and topped with a honey-wasabi coleslaw. My first variation of the coleslaw had wayyyy too much wasabi. But wow! does it clear your sinuses.
Here is the recipes I ended up with -
Asian BBQ Sauce: Honey-Wasabi Dressing:
1/4 Cup Ketchup 1/2 Cup Mayo
1/2 Cup Hoisin Sauce 1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar 1 Tsp Wasabi Powder
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar 2 Tbsp Yellow Mustard
1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Seeds
Mix the ingrediants of the BBQ sauce together and set aside. For the honey-wasabi dressing mix the wasabi powder and the yellow mustard and let it sit and bloom for a few minutes. Then mix together the rest of the ingredients and set aside till you're ready to mix it into the slaw mix.
Layer the slaw on the bottom of the bun, add about 4oz of meat on top and top with toasted sesame seeds and sriracha if you like it spicy.
Hope you give smoking a try or make an Asian Pulled Pork Sandwich. It was very tasty even with all the speed bumps.
-Jimmy
I must say Jimmy. you do make a MEAn pulled pork sandwich!
This website isn't good for me right now - I'm planning on going on a cleanse next week. SMH...