My super power was in hyper drive the other day. What is my supper power you ask? I have this innate ability to pick the slow line. No matter what line I pick at the grocery store it will be the slowest one. Invariably the cashier will run out of register tape and need to replace it. Someone in line ahead of me will have something that needs a price check, or their card won’t read in the machine, or a manager needs to come and fix a price that is incorrect. It’s the same story on the freeway. Whatever lane I pick will be the slow one. As soon as I move over the other lanes suddenly take off while I sit stuck in the only one that isn’t moving…sigh.
What’s your super power?
Recently I was waiting in line at the grocery store when I spied the latest Allrecipes magazine; Our All-Time Top Rated 5-Star Recipes. Because of my super power I had plenty of time to peruse it. Many of my very favorite recipes over the years started with an online search at Allrecipes.com. It’s by far the world’s largest food community with over 22 million members. There sure are a lot of fellow foodies out there ☺️
As I flipped though the magazine there were several recipes that sounded really, really good so I tossed the magazine in my cart. A splurge for me. I decided I am going to conduct a food challenge and make a few of the recipes featured in the magazine to see if they really do warrant their 5-star rating. Over the next few weeks I will be posting recipes from the publication and sharing my results.
My highly trained staff of food tasters will be providing their unbiased opinions and provide their input. Ok that would be my husband and my teenage son, LOL. Their qualifications you ask? They love to eat and they are pretty picky, probably much like your family. So if they both give it a thumbs up, we can be pretty sure we have a sure fire winner recipe on our hands.
My personal top criteria is that it needs to be easy to make. Let’s be honest, we are all busy and don’t aways have the time or energy to make complicated, overly involved recipes that take hours to prepare with multiple steps and a long list of ingredients. Yes there are special occasions when we want something a little more extravagant and extra special, but for our everyday lives, most of us want something that’s both delicious and easy to make.
The hardest part was deciding on which recipe to start with. It has to be easy to make and delicious. So I turned to the very first recipe featured in the magazine, All Time #1 Pork Recipe, Slow Cooker Pulled Pork. It has been saved 340,601 times. Holy smokes that’s a lot of saves. But where the rubber really meets the road is in the reviews. When I checked, this recipe had 3796 five star reviews. Seems like we might just have a winner on our hands and a good place to start this cooking adventure!
So let’s get cooking!
Start by placing pork tenderloin in a slow cooker. I was skeptical about using a pork tenderloin in the slow cooker. Pork tenderloin is an extremely tender cut of pork but it is also a very lean cut of meat, which means it easily dries out when cooked for long periods of time. I typically use a pork shoulder if I am slow cooking pork. It has a higher fat content which keeps the meat juicy and keeps it from drying out. After years of cooking I was dubious that I would get good results using a pork tenderloin in the slow cooker. But for this first recipe I wanted to follow the directions exactly as written so I ignored my misgivings and used the pork tenderloin that is called for in the recipe.
Pour in the can of root beer.
Cover and cook on high for 3-3½ hours or cook on low for 6-7 hours.
Drain off all the juices in the slow cooker and discard.
Shred the pork using two forks and return the shredded pork to the slow cooker.
Place barbecue sauce in a small bowl and heat it in the microwave on high until hot, about 1-2 minutes. Or heat the sauce on the stovetop over medium heat in a small saucepan until hot.
Add barbecue sauce to the shredded pork in the slow cooker. Stir to combine and coat the shredded pork with the barbecue sauce.
Cover and heat while you toast the buns.
I didn’t preheat the barbecue sauce, I just squirted it right into the slow cooker with the shredded pork, covered it and kept it cooking for a few minutes while I toasted the buns. Once the buns were toasted, the sauced pork was heated through and ready to eat. It worked out perfectly.
Use tongs and place a heaping amount of the sauced meat onto the toasted hamburger buns.
Round out the meal and serve sandwiches with a side of potato chips and a creamy coleslaw if desired.
Need an easy to make, delicious coleslaw recipe? This Creamy Buttermilk Coleslaw fits the bill and it’s the perfect side to round out this meal.
So what’s the verdict? Like I said this recipe has been saved over 340 thousand times. I saved it because of how utterly easy it is to make. But where the rubber really meets the road is how it tastes. We all know, even if it’s easy to make, if nobody likes it, it’s never going to make an appearance on your table for a second time, right? In our humble opinion…does it warrant the designation of all-time #1 pork recipe?
- Teenager…LOVED it!!! 5 Stars
- Hubs…liked it but said it was a little too sweet for him. 4 stars
- I loved how easy it was to make, but I too thought it was a little on the sweet side. I give it a solid 4.5 stars.
Overall a very good meal and we give it an overall rating of 4.5 stars. These sandwiches will definitely be making an appearance on the table again! Your kids will definitely love it!
Hubs took the leftovers to work the next day. He nuked a potato and topped it with leftover pulled pork and melted some cheddar cheese on top. He said he liked it better the next day as leftovers served on a baked potato. Although his co-workers were perturbed at him for hogging the microwave so long to cook his potato for lunch. LOL!
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
Equipment
- 4 qt Slow cooker
Ingredients
- 2 lb pork tenderloin
- 12 oz can of root beer
- 18 oz bottle of barbecue sauce
- 8 hamburger buns, toasted
Instructions
- Place pork tenderloins in a slow cooker.
- Pour in root beer.
- Cover and cook on high for 3-3½ hours or cook on low for 6-7 hours.
- Drain off all the juices.
- Shred pork using two forks and return shredded pork to the slow cooker.
- Place barbecue sauce in a small bowl and heat it in the microwave on high until hot, about 1-2 minutes. Sauce can also be heated on the stovetop over medium heat in a small saucepan.
- Add heated barbecue sauce to the shredded pork in the slow cooker. Stir to combine.
- Use tongs and place a heaping amount of the sauced meat onto toasted hamburger buns to serve.
- Delicious served with a side of potato chips and coleslaw.
So will you be following along as we cook our way through some 5-star rated recipes? Sign up and subscribe to follow the blog posts. Head on over the the main page and enter your email address so you don’t miss out on any of the goodies I will be posting. I promise not to spam you with a bunch of garbage, Scouts honor! My son is a scout so you can trust me on this! Just some great recipes with a few creative craft projects and home decor ideas thrown in will be coming your way.
When your’e short on ideas, remember you can always visit Nature Way when you need some inspiration for what to cook for dinner.
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Deuteronomy 6:4-5
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