Is it me or does it seem like the kids here get a lot of breaks from school? 🤣 There’s Fall Break, break between Christmas, and New Year’s, and Spring Break. I don’t remember having that many week-long breaks in schools in Vietnam. What I do remember clearly is that my school days were half days, from 1-5pm. Could this be the reason for having only one week-long break, the Lunar New Year? So what did we do for Fall Break? We went to the apple orchard…again. I bought a half gallon jug of apple cider because my son insisted that he will absolutely drink it🙄. Well, he absolutely did drink it…a small cup of it. Since I don’t like to throw good food away, I decided to use it to make apple cider pulled pork.
Marinade for the apple cider pulled pork
This particular apple cider I bought has no added sugar. All the sweetness comes from the apples they used. So I knew I had to balance the out the sweetness with some salt. I also wanted to add a bit of tang or tartness to the marinade so I added hoisin sauce, yellow mustard, pepper, fresh garlic and paprika to the apple cider. Gave it a whisk to make sure everything is well mixed. When making a marinade, always give the marinade a taste before adding it to the meat and adjust seasonings accordingly.
Don’t have any apple cider? No problem, just use apple juice instead.
Cooking the pulled pork
I like to purchase meats on sale and prepare it by cleaning it and portioning it out into 1 pound portions to freeze. This is super convenient because of days like today when I want to make apple cider pulled pork. All I had to do was pull out 2 pounds worth of pork from the freezer, and placed it frozen in the crock pot. Poured the marinade over. Closed the lid and let it cook on low for 8 hours. Don’t forget the crock pot liner. My favorite is the Reynolds brand.
Sauce for the pulled pork
When I order pulled pork at a restaurant, I always ask for the sauce on the side. To me, all the BBQ sauces out there are too sweet. That is why I used the drippings from the pulled pork, reduced it down with some additional seasonings to make an Asian inspired BBQ sauce for the apple cider pulled pork.
Ways to serve apple cider pulled pork
A traditional way is to serve it as a sandwich on homemade buns topped with the Vietnamese version of pickled red onions. The pickling recipe I used came from my previous “Pickled daikon & carrot (đồ chua)” post. The only thing I did differently was to use red onions instead of the daikon radish and carrots.
Surprisingly, my husband prefers to have the apple cider pulled pork with Jasmine rice and a sprinkle of grated cheddar cheese 🤣.
Storing leftovers
I like to store the pulled pork separately from the drippings it cooked in. If you used the drippings to make a sauce, definitely store it in its own container.
Apple Cider Pulled Pork (Xả Xíu)
Equipment
- 1 Crockpot
Ingredients
Ingredients for the pork marinade:
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp yellow mustard
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 sliced onion
- 3 cloves chopped garlic
- 2 cups apple cider or apple juice
- 2 pounds boneless pork butt
- 2 tsp hoisin sauce
- ¼ tsp paprika
Ingredients for the BBQ sauce:
- 2 cups juice/dripping from the pulled pork
- 3 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ tsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp dried ginger or freshly grated ginger
Instructions
Instructions to make the pulled pork:
- Add all the ingredients for the pulled pork marinade in a bowl. Except for the onions
- Mix well to make sure all ingredients are combined. Give it a taste and adjust seasonings accordingly.
- Place the sliced onions on the bottom of the crock pot.
- Add frozen pork butt on top then pour the marinade over the pork.
- Close the lid and set the crock pot on low heat to cook for 8 hours.
- Remove the pork after its cooked.
- Using two forks, shred the pork while it's hot.
Instructions to make the BBQ sauce:
- What's left in the crockpot is the juice/drippings from the pork cooking. Strain it and place it in a container in the fridge for an hour. This will help solidify the fat from the pork so that it can be removed off the top with a spoon.
- After the fat has been removed. Pour the drippings into a saucepan and add all the ingredients for the BBQ sauce into the pan. Mix well to combine.
- Turn the heat to medium low and let the sauce reduce down by half. Should take approximately 30 minutes.
- After the BBQ sauce has thickened. Drizzle some sauce onto the pulled pork and serve.
If you’re like me and find yourself more and more busy as the holidays approaches, pull out the crock pot and give this recipe a try. It will alleviate the stress of “what’s for dinner” tonight because dinner is cooking while you’re out living your life. Leave me a comment below if you’ve tried this recipe. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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