This burger is juicy, saucy, savoury, tangy, sweet, and messy. The sauce will get all over your hands, and probably your shirt. But it’s definitely worth the risk, because of the intense, perfectly balanced harmony of this gorgeous mess.
Now, what this burger isn’t, is authentic. It’s not really a true bbq pulled pork burger in the purist sense of any Southern tradition or otherwise. I didn’t cook it over wood, I mixed up my own crazy bbq sauce, and I’m serving it on a brioche bun, which I’m sure is not traditional.
But then, does that make this recipe suitable for Street Food Monday? I say yes, because this burger is what you can get on the dream street food alley that exists in my head. This is the kind of thing that I want to get at any kind of festival, carnival, track meet, street party, conference or seminar.
At any one of these events I swear, I won’t be fussy. Give me a whole hog slow roasted in a pit overnight, and I’m one happy gal. But this is the version that you can knock up at home, with minimal effort, and which is guaranteed to taste good – no staying up for 24 hours required.
The other great thing about this recipe is that is such an affordable way to feed a crowd. I’ve noted below that the recipe feeds six, but in a party situation, with plenty of snacks and other things going around, I think this could easily stretch to a lot more. And all you have to do is bung the thing into the oven in the morning, and then stir a few things together for the sauce.
Also, I have a feeling that this could be easily adapted to go into a slow cooker, but I don’t have one so I’ll have to leave it up to you guys to try that out. If you do, let me know how it goes! Have a great week, lovely people!
xx Sarah.
- 1.5 kg boneless pork shoulder roast
- 2tbsp brown sugar
- 1tbsp salt
- 1tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ red onion, finely chopped or grated
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp American mustard
- 2 tsp honey
- ½ a small head of red cabbage
- 1 large or 2 small carrots
- ½ red onion or some chopped spring onions
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tsp grain mustard
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- Bread rolls, to serve
- Preheat the oven to 200C, and place the pork into a roasting dish. Stir together the sugar, salt and spices and rub thoroughly, all over the pork. Place into the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove the pork from the oven and add 2 cups of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan tightly with tinfoil, turn the oven down to 140C, and cook for about 6-6½ hours, or until the meat falls apart easily.
- To make the barbecue sauce, place the oil, garlic and onion into a medium saucepan and sweat over a low heat, until translucent. Add the remaining ingredients, and simmer gently for a few minutes. Set aside until ready to serve.
- To make the slaw, simply shred the cabbage, carrots and red onion finely and place into a serving bowl. Stir together the mayo, mustard and a squeeze of lemon (to taste), and then toss everything together. This actually benefits from a little time in the fridge, so it’s great to make ahead, even the day before.
- When ready to serve, shred the pork with two forks, discarding any skin or excess fat, and toss with about 2 thirds of the sauce. Pile a good amount of the pork onto a bun, add more sauce if you want it, plus plenty of the slaw, and dig in! If you’re really going for it, you can even throw a few potato chips in there. Enjoy!
Aww, this looks fantastic. I’ve been craving something really meaty recently because the weather is so rubbish here. This looks so good…
I like that you call this a burger – I think here we’d still call it a sandwich, but it’s definitely closer to a burger! The BBQ sauce looks especially perfect – thick and tangy. What is American mustard, by the way? Like yellow mustard? I love tiny differences like that. Either way, I’d definitely take down one or two of these any day.
Oh yeah, dude, American mustard is yellow mustard! I’ve never even thought about that. Here all mustards are a kind of mustard. Like we have Dijon, American, grain, Hot English, all the funky mustards. There’s no Australian mustard, or just ‘mustard’ though. I find that stuff so interesting. Going to grocery stores i different countries is my favourite thing.
Chips in sandwich – yes please!! And OMG the brioche bun is amazing too! I am drooling over this whole creation!
Ohhhh yes. And you added chips!!! You rock.
This is everything i want and more in a pulled pork sandwich. love it!!!
Nailed it with the chips on the sandwich. Only thing better would be fries on it!
This reminds me of this crazy BBQ shack near my work. It’s only about 90 minutes from Washington, DC, but almost in Pennsylvannia–AKA practically Kentucky. You pull into a gravel drive with a hand-carved wooden Bigfoot greeting you. You can get pulled pork, beef, or “bullhawg”–combination of the two. They have giant pump containers with three kinds of BBQ sauce to dunk your sandwich and fries in. There’s a fire pit and picnic tables, and at night they have live bands. And the whole place is so cliche–like with signs about bringing your own gun and serving roadkill, etc. I think you’d love it.
I LOVE IT. I haven’t even been, but I already love it. Let’s go together!
HOT DAMN.
Now this one, I am definitely trying. My boyfriend would go bananas for it!
Yep, potato chips on any sandwich kick it up a notch, but you basically had me at messy pork. :D
I’m preeeety sure I’m in love! Gorgeous shots too!
yum, so awesome, and you could absolutely do this in a slow cooker, and then you could come home to the smell…sigh!
ALLL O DAT!
Made these. So awesome! An absolute hit and so easy to prepare in advance.
Yaaay! So glad you tried these out!
this looks amazing! question…tomato sauce … ketchup or passata? thanks!!
Good question! It’s ketchup my friend. Xx Sarah
thank-you! !
This recipe was delicious!
I put the spice rub on the night before, and left it to marinade in the fridge overnight. Then i put it in my slow-cooker with a sliced onion and deglazed the pan I browned the pork in with vegetable stock (next time I might use beer instead, I think). all of it went in with the Pork in the slow-cooker on Low for 7 hours; by the end it was falling apart and a thing of absolute beauty! The first thing everyone who came home said was ‘man, something smells great’; would use again :D
YAYYY! Lovely to hear this from you Lucy! I’m not only glad that you and your housemates were into it, but I love that you shared your slow-coooker method too! Thank you!xxx Sarah
Saw this recipe and wanted to try it, however, put it in the “too hard” basket. SO GLAD I did decide to make it though as it was awesome! Every component was delicious, and really wasn’t hard at all. Next time will make sweet potato fries to go with it! YUM!
I’ve made this recipe many times now and it’s a winner!!!!!