Pulled Pork for a Crowd

You should know by now, if you are a regular reader of this blog, that I am having a baby shower here at my house in 2 days!!  Everything is pretty much on schedule so I thought I would take a minute and share an easy recipe with you.

I love making pulled pork for sandwiches when I am having a party.  There are many reasons for this:

• It is inexpensive
• It is easy
• It can be made ahead of time and rewarmed the day of the party
• It can be left in a slow cooker for hours and still taste as good as when you first put it out
• Leftovers freeze well
• There are tons of meals that can be made with the leftovers
• It is delicious
• It is easy to serve

When I have had big summer parties (200+) and have served pulled pork it really keeps the cost down. Especially since I have all the guests each bring a side dish to serve.  You can serve these sandwiches for less that a dollar per person.

You can use pork shoulder (also known as pork butt, but it is the shoulder), picnic ham or country ribs.  Just buy whatever is on sale and stock it in your freezer.  All these cuts come from the same area of the pig and can be used interchangeably.  You can also cook several different cuts together.

Of course you don't have to make this for a crowd.  You can also make it for your family.  The recipe is the same except for amounts.  You can find my slow cooker pulled pork here and try it for your family before making it for guests.  

I used 25 lbs. of pork shoulder and slow cooked it in my electric roaster overnight while I slept.

It smelled delicious in my house when I awoke.

Season with a little salt and liquid smoke, turn the roaster to 250* and let it cook for up to 10 hrs.

This is how it looked when I opened the roaster this morning.

No, there was no added liquid when it started cooking.

Well, except for a few oz. of Liquid Smoke.

This is all rendered from the pork shoulders.

Remove the pork to a rimmed cutting board and start separating the meat from the bones and fat, and place the meat into a large bowl.  There will be a lot of juice coming from the pork so you either want a rimmed board or to be over a sink when you do this.

This is a very large bowl of pure shredded pork.

I will probably (I hope) have leftovers since I am also serving Italian Sausages at the shower.

My mouth is already watering thinking of bbq pork quesadillas!!

This bowl will now go into the refrigerator until Saturday morning when we will smother it in Frank's homemade BBQ sauce, put it back into the roaster and turn it on low so that it is ready to serve when it is time to eat.

I just wanted to show you how little waste there was from these 3 roasts.

Not much considering how much meat I got.

I am sharing this post at Thrifty Thursday, stop by for tons of great recipes and ideas.