11 Crockpot Pulled Pork Dinners

These crockpot pulled pork dinners all start with the same cheap pork shoulder and end up in eleven different places.

From classic BBQ sandwiches to carnitas tacos, Cuban mojo pork with rice and beans, and a Hawaiian bowl with pineapple, one roast on Sunday covers most of the week.

Here’s what I do with it!

A pork shoulder is the most forgiving thing you can put in a slow cooker.

It can go two hours over and still be good, it costs less per pound than almost anything else at the counter, and one seven-pound roast shreds into enough meat for three dinners and a freezer bag.

1. Classic BBQ Pulled Pork

The one everybody knows, and it’s still the one I make most.

The shoulder gets rubbed with brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, cooks on low for eight to ten hours with a splash of broth and vinegar, then gets shredded and tossed with barbecue sauce.

Add the sauce after shredding and not before, so the meat tastes like pork and not just like sauce.

Toasted buns, pickles, and a scoop of slaw right on the sandwich.

2. Dr Pepper Pulled Pork

A can of Dr Pepper goes in the crock with the pork, and yes, it works!

The soda tenderizes the meat and cooks down into something sweet and a little spiced that plays well with a smoky barbecue sauce at the end.

Root beer and Coke do the same job if that’s what’s in the fridge.

This is the one my kids request by name, and I don’t argue.

3. Texas Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Less sweet, more smoke, and a heavier hand with the black pepper and chili powder.

The rub does most of the work, and a little liquid smoke and apple cider vinegar in the crock do the rest.

The sauce is thinner and tangier than the sticky Kansas City kind, so the sandwich doesn’t drip down your arm.

Pickled jalapeños and a vinegary slaw on top, and white bread if you’re being authentic about it.

4. Sweet Pulled Pork

The copycat of the sweet pork from the burrito places out west, and it’s a different animal from barbecue.

Brown sugar, a can of cola, salsa, and green chiles cook down with the shoulder into a sauce that’s sweet, a little smoky, and just barely spicy.

It goes into burritos, over salads with cilantro lime dressing, or on a bun with cheese, and it’s one of the few pulled porks I’ll eat cold from the fridge.

5. Carnitas Tacos

The pork cooks with orange juice, lime, cumin, oregano, and garlic until it shreds, and then comes the step that makes it carnitas.

The shredded meat goes on a sheet pan under the broiler for five minutes until the edges crisp up and brown, and that’s the difference between carnitas and plain pulled pork.

Don’t skip the broiler!

Corn tortillas, white onion, cilantro, and lime, and nothing else.

6. Carnitas Nachos

Night two of the carnitas, and my favorite of the two.

Tortilla chips on a half sheet pan, then the crisped pork, black beans, and a lot of shredded cheese, and ten minutes in a hot oven.

Pickled onions, jalapeños, sour cream, and avocado go on after, once it’s out.

It’s dinner, it’s game-day food, and it’s what I make when people show up unannounced.

7. Pulled Pork Bowls

The meal-prep version, and how the pork gets eaten for lunch.

Plain seasoned pulled pork over rice or roasted sweet potatoes, with slaw, black beans, corn, and a drizzle of barbecue sauce or chipotle ranch.

I portion four of these on Sunday night into glass containers with the sauce in a separate little cup, and they hold up through Thursday.

8. Hawaiian Pulled Pork Burrito Bowls

Pineapple, soy sauce, ginger, and brown sugar go in with the pork, and the sweet and salty thing it turns into is what makes this one.

It gets built into bowls with rice, black beans, more pineapple, and a little cilantro, and the juices from the crock go over the top.

A fried egg on top isn’t traditional, but I do it anyway.

The pork freezes well in its sauce, so I double it.

9. Kalua Pork

Three ingredients, and it’s the simplest recipe in the post.

Pork shoulder, coarse sea salt, and a spoonful of liquid smoke, cooked low for ten hours until it falls apart, and that’s the whole thing.

It tastes like it came out of a pit, and it’s the base for rice bowls, sliders, and fried rice for the rest of the week.

Steamed rice, macaroni salad, and a slice of pineapple, and it’s a plate lunch.

10. Cuban Mojo Pork

Garlic, orange juice, lime, cumin, and oregano, and the pork comes out tangy, bright, and completely different from the barbecue versions.

Marinate the shoulder overnight in the mojo if you can, and if you can’t, it’s still good after eight hours in the crock with the same marinade poured over.

Black beans, white rice, and fried plantains if you’re willing to stand at the stove for five minutes.

The leftovers become Cuban sandwiches with ham, Swiss, pickles, and mustard, pressed flat in a skillet, and that alone is a reason to make it!

11. Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese

The last of the barbecue pork, folded into a pot of mac and cheese with a little extra barbecue sauce swirled through.

It’s the end-of-the-week dinner that uses up the pork and the odds and ends of cheese in the drawer, and nobody has ever complained.

Green onions on top, and a sharp cheddar in the sauce so it stands up to the pork.

Notes on Pulled Pork in a Slow Cooker

Bone-in pork shoulder, also sold as Boston butt, is the cut, and it needs eight to ten hours on low to shred, no matter what the recipe says about high.

It’s done when the bone slides out clean and the meat gives way to a fork without any pull.

Trim the thick fat cap down to a quarter inch before cooking, and skim the fat off the liquid with a fat separator before you toss the meat back in it.

Shred it right in the crock, with forks or shredder claws, and mix some of the cooking liquid back into the meat so it stays moist.

Season the meat plainly and add the sauce per dinner, so one roast can go barbecue on Monday, tacos on Tuesday, and bowls on Wednesday.

Pulled pork freezes for three months in its juices, in two-cup portions, and reheats best covered in a skillet with a little broth.

More Crockpot Dinners on the Site

The quick crockpot dinners with ten minutes of prep post has the pulled pork that got me started on all of this.

My hearty crockpot beef stew with root vegetables is the other long, slow Sunday recipe I make.

And the crockpot meals with chicken breast that don’t dry out post covers the same idea with chicken.