I love pulled pork and was excited when I discovered this recipe on Chow.com for crockpot pulled pork. I decided to change up the recipe a bit by using beer instead of chicken stock and ditching the barbecue sauce.
The end result was wonderful. I hope you like it as much as I did.
See my step by step directions, or head to the bottom of this post for a printable recipe card with nutritional information.
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Crockpot Recipe: Beer Pulled Pork
Ingredients:
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 cup beer
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 1/2 lb boneless pork butt (no need to adjust the other ingredients as long as your pork is 2-5 lbs)
Directions:
I have an ancient slow cooker. I got it shortly after graduating from college. It may look dated but it works great, so I don’t see any reason to replace it.
Once you assemble all of your ingredients, place the chopped onions and garlic in the bottom of the slow cooker, then add the beer.
I used Bud Light when I tried out this recipe because I don’t really like Bud Light for drinking and had some in the house. I actually do like Bud Light for cooking. It gives the food a touch of beer flavoring that isn’t so strong it will turn off people who don’t like beer. This can was room temperature because I was going to use the rest for some beer bread…but it shouldn’t matter if the beer is cold for the crockpot recipe.
Combine the sugar, chili powder, salt, cumin, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Pat the pork dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture all over the pork and place the meat on top of the onions and garlic.
Be sure to cover both sides and the edges well.
Cover and cook until the pork is fork tender, about 6 to 8 hours on high or 8 to 10 hours on low.
Turn off the slow cooker and remove the pork to a cutting board. Set a strainer over a medium bowl. Pour the onion mixture from the slow cooker through the strainer and return the solids to the slow cooker. Set the strained liquid aside.
Using 2 forks, shred the meat into bite-sized pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat.
Return the shredded meat to the slow cooker and mix to combine. Use a spoon to skim and discard the fat from the surface of the strained cooking liquid, and then add 1/4 cup of the liquid at a time to the slow cooker until the pork is just moistened.
Taste and season with salt as needed.
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Want nutritional information?
Click on the + sign in the recipe card below for complete nutritional information.
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Yum! I just have to tell you that I love that you called your blog futureexpat! When you travel, do you ever use your experiences as inspiration for your cooking?
I definitely love exploring food when I travel and it sometimes inspires me in my cooking. After I came home from Costa Rica, I tried just about every plantain recipe I could find in hopes of duplicating what I had on the trip.
I love making pulled pork in the crock pot! I usually do BBQ pork but I’m getting a little tired of it. This would be a great one to try!
YUM this looks GOOD! Does it only work with Pork Butt Roast?
I’ve only made it one time so far, and I used pork butt since that’s what was used in the recipe that inspired me. I’m sure other cuts of pork that typically can shred when cooked slow would work too. If you try it with something else, come back and let me know how it worked out!
I used a pot roast last night and it tasted AMAZING. I’m not a fan of pork. Try it 🙂
I made this tonight, it was AMAZING
So glad you liked it!
It is really good. I made it with a wheat ale and cut back on the cumin and chili powder and added paprika and some liquid smoke. It is very good. Next time I will make it with Sam Adams cherry wheat. See what that does.
I used your recipe for my “take out Thiusday” meal for my 3 daughters and families. They LOVED it. I will save it and use it again. It was easy and very tasty.
So glad you liked it. I’ll be making it the next time I invite over a crowd.
This was so nasty tasting. My poor man and I wasted a great cut of meat and looked forward to it all day just to be horribly let down.
I’m really sorry you didn’t like it. I do know that what beer your choose makes a big difference in flavor and we all have different preferences in what we like. I do appreciate you giving it a try and coming back to share your experience.
I made this for a Superbowl party and everyone loved it! I added a few more spices, garlic powder, smoked paprika and ground mustard, to the rub… made the house smeel delicious all day and the entire party kept saying how great it was!
Thanks for coming back and sharing that you liked the recipe. I’m so glad it was a hit for your party.
Made this recipe once already for the 4th of July this year, and it was such a hit, everyone requested it again for Labor Day. Used a dark ale the first time, trying it with a barrel-aged stout this time around. Waking up early tomorrow to pop my butt in the crock. Thanks for the recipe!!
Just found this and it’s in the slow cooker now:) I had to adjust the seasonings with what I have… So for mine I used: garlic powder, onion salt, sweet onion salt, dash of pepper,cumin, chili powder and for the beer we had rolling rock… And I added r garlic on top…. Ohhh I can’t wait!
Would you recommend Bud Light or a Spiced Harvest Ale?
The more flavor in the beer, the more flavor in the meat. I would got with the Spiced Ale but have made it with Bud Light myself and it turned out good.
I just put it in the pot! Hope its as good as it sounds! Have friends coming over for dinner. And since I opened that Bud light….Im having a few!!
I’d love to hear what your friends think!
I am trying tomorrow, but with less salt. Have you ever tried using the salt substitutes?
I have never tried them, but I’m sure it would work. Let me know after you try it!
5 stars Loved, loved the cooking detailed cooking instructions and the use of beer! The recipe made a lot too. Personally I found the cinnamon disconcerting for BBQ and added BBQ sauce to enough for pulled pork sandwiches after shredding the pork. After thinking about it the meat reminded me of latin flavors. I used the other half of the pork and rolled into flour tortillas to make baked flautas. I thought they were one of the better flautas I’ve made and this will now be my go to recipe for that. (Plus I’ll continue with the crockpot method you’ve shared.) I now happily have shredded pork for sandwiches and a batch of flautas in the freezer. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Hey Karen – this was a wonderful and easy pulled pork recipe! I used Shock Top Sunset Orange beer. It was almost too sweet to drink, put perfect for the pork! My pork was not quite 2 pound pork loin, but I used all the spices. I misread and put the pork on top of the onions, dumped the whole bottle of beer and then realized I needed to rub the spices on the pork and that I used way too much beer! So I rubbed the exposed part of the pork and just dumped in the rest. Lot of liquid went to waste when everything was all done, but c’est la vie, right? Usually DH adds BBQ sauce to his sandwich, and it was not needed at all. We did have coleslaw and pickles on the bun along with the pork. Perfect!
PS The link to see the whole directions isn’t working for me, so I had to keep scrolling up and down.
PS – If there were stars, this would get the maximum and then some extra!!!
I couldn’t be more pleased that you loved it. 🙂
Don’t you just love recipes where you can mess up with the directions and it still turns out great! And thanks for the reminder about the directions. I used to use a plugin that added a recipe card, but it was causing issues so I removed it. I need to go back and offer a straightforward list of instructions on the ones with a lot of pictures.
Great crock pot pork! Love that I can use it several ways…..can do it in tacos, use barbecue sauce for sandwiches or just add some sides and have several meals. The cinnamon was a surprise….I’ve never put that in before. Not overpowering, but adds a little something. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
I’m so glad you gave it a try and liked it!