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Easy Crock Pot Pulled Pork Sandwiches

These pulled pork sandwiches are easy to make and have awesome flavor! Great for serving a hungry crowd, for camping or anytime you need a big meaty sandwich!

On Monday I mentioned that last weekend, Debbie and I went for our first camping trip of the season.  We had so much fun and we couldn’t have asked for better weather.  Maybe just a few less mosquito bites!  Grrrrrrrr! We made these sandwiches for our camping trip. There was more than one Mmmmmmm heard as we ate.

Slightly spicy and tangy, tender pulled pork, sweet caramelized onions, melted cheese and a spicy sweet mustard sauce.  Totally delish!

To see a few pictures from our weekend, scroll down to below the recipe.

These pulled pork sandwiches are just great for feeding a lot of hungry people, no matter what you are doing.

Why We Love These Sandwiches

  • If you make the pulled pork and caramelized onions ahead of time, you can throw these sandwiches together really quickly!
  • Its very easy to make pulled pork in a crock pot and you can set it and walk away and let it do its thing.  Overnight, or while your at work.
  • They taste amazing!  The flavor is awesome!
  • Its easy to feed a whole bunch of people if you make a large pork roast, and it takes the same effort to make a large roast as it does to make a small one.
  • These sandwiches are total comfort food, especially if you warm them up and melt the cheese!

Best Cut for Pulled Pork

You want to use the shoulder cut.  It’s called a pork butt roast or sometimes a Boston butt.  It can be boneless or bone in, either is good.

You want it to have plenty of fat.  Because of the fat marbling, pork shoulder doesn’t dry as quickly as other pieces of meat.  During the cooking process, much of the fat melts away, but leaves behind moist and tender meat.

Check out this post on the best cut for pulled pork for more info!

Tools You Will Need:

  • a crock pot
  • instant pot will work too – most have a slow cook option too!
  • tongs – these are a necessity!  That meat will be hot when its done!

How to Make Pulled Pork in a Crock Pot

Its so easy!

  1. First, give your pork roast a good rinse and pat dry. Mix the dry spice rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Then rub the pork roast all over with it until the pork gets all the rub soaked in.
  2. Next, place the roast and all the crockpot ingredients into the crockpot. Cover with the lid and cook for 8 hours on low.
  3. When the 8 hours is up and the pork is nice and tender, take the roast out, shred it with two forks, and get rid of the fat.
  4. Drain the fat from the juices left in the crockpot, mix 1-2 cups of the juice to the shredded pork then set it aside till your ready to assemble the sandwiches.

PRO TIPS

  • Cut your pork into large chunks, don’t use the roast as a big piece.
  • When 8 hours is up, you can tell if you pork is ready by sticking your fork in and twisting it a little.  Or two forks and pulling it apart.  If the meat pulls apart really easily then its ready.
  • If it doesn’t pull apart easily, keep cooking the pork for another hour or so until it does.

Can I make Pulled Pork in the Instant Pot?

Absolutely! We love instant pot pulled pork for when we are in a hurry! Check out the link for instructions on how to use the instant pot.

How to Make The Sandwiches

  1. If you like your buns toasted, toast them first and then butter them (optional but that’s what we do).
  2. Add the pulled pork to the bottom bun then drizzle a couple tablespoons of the mustard sauce on top.
  3. Top the meat with cheese and then the caramelized onions.
  4. If you want a warm pulled pork sandwich, you can heat them up in the oven or in a bbq, but this is optional.

Tips and Tricks

  • If you prefer, you can mix the mustard sauce with the pork first before putting it on the bun.  Rather than drizzling it on top.
  • We used the bbq to heat up our sandwiches and get the cheese all warm and melted.  You can eat these sandwiches cold too, but warm is a ton better!
  • For camping, we wrapped these in tin foil and heated them over indirect heat on the bbq, but you could use your trailer oven if you have one, or broil them open faced in your oven at home.

I love how the melted cheese gets kind of crusty and crunchy around the edges!

The Best Mustard Sauce – Sweet and Tangy

Debbie and I are both not huge fans of bbq sauce so we used a sweet and spicy mustard sauce as a topping for these pulled pork sandwiches.  It’s soooooo good!  Mustard and pork just seem to go together don’t they?

If you like bbq sauce, you could add more on your bun or even add some to the crock pot when your cooking the pork.

Likewise, if you like things a little more spicy, add more hot sauce when you are cooking the pork or add some to your bun.  When I make these next for my family, I will add a little more heat.  Each to their own right?

We think that this sauce is the best for a pulled pork sandwich, but you can use what you like best as well.

Other Sandwich Toppings

Here are some topping options for you to consider:

  • bbq sauce
  • coleslaw
  • a little mayonnaise
  • hot sauce
  • plain mustard (We would mix this with mayo if using plain mustard)
  • raw onions
  • pickles!
  • banana peppers or jalapenos

Hope you enjoy these this summer!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can you freeze pulled pork?

Yes!  Just put the leftover meat in an airtight container and pop in the freezer.  It will be good in the freezer for a few months.

What to serve with pulled pork?

Coleslaw is the traditional answer, but really, any salad is a great side dish for this recipe.  Potato salad or corn on the cob are another two favorites.

How can I eat pulled pork without bread?

Serve it with mashed potatoes or tortillas.  Tortilla chips or wraps.  Its great as a taco!

How long is leftover pulled pork good for?

You can keep your leftovers in the fridge for 3 – 4 days.  I have done up to 5 or 6, but I like to push the limits 🙂

After that, freeze it for up to a few months.

Other Sandwich Recipes You Might Like:

If you’ve tried this pulled pork sandwich recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let us know how it turned out in the comments below.  We love hearing from you!

We love to see your creations!  Tag @Cookswithcocktails if you post a picture of this recipe on INSTAGRAM
 

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

These pulled pork sandwiches are easy to make and have awesome flavor! Great for serving a hungry crowd, for camping or anytime you need a big meaty sandwich!
4.20 from 5 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Sandwich
Cuisine: Canadian
Keyword: pulled pork sandwich
Prep Time: 20 minutes
slow cooker time: 7 hours
Total Time: 7 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 8 sandwiches
Calories: 281kcal
Author: Julie & Debbie

Ingredients

FOR THE RUB

  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp cumin

IN THE CROCKPOT

  • 3-4 lbs pork butt roast
  • 1 can beer (any kind)
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 onion , sliced
  • 1 whole garlic bulb , peeled and smashed
  • 3 tbsp franks hot sauce

FOR THE ONIONS

FOR THE MUSTARD SAUCE

  • 3/4 cup yellow mustard
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 tbsp dry spice rub see above
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 clove garlic finely grated
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 2 tsp worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp adobe sauce or other hot sauce of your choice
  • 2 tbsp melted butter

FOR EACH SANDWICH

  • 1 sandwich bun use your favorite kind
  • 1/2 cup pulled pork
  • 1 – 2 tbsp mustard sauce
  • 1 slice aged cheddar or whatever cheese you like
  • 3 – 4 tbsp caramelized onions

Instructions

  • First, give your pork roast a good rinse and pat dry. Cut your pork roast into smaller (but still large) chunks.
  • Mix the rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Then rub the pork roast chunks all over until it soaks in. Make sure to save one tablespoon of the rub for the mustard sauce!
  • Next, place the roast and all the crockpot ingredients into the crockpot. Cover with the lid and cook for 8 hours on low.
  • When the 8 hours is up and the pork is nice and tender, take the roast out, shred it with two forks, and get rid of the fat.
  • Drain the fat from the juices left in the crockpot, mix 1-2 cups of the juice to the shredded pork then set it aside till your ready to assemble the sandwiches.

MAKE THE TOPPINGS AND SAUCE

  • Add all the mustard sauce ingredients together in a bowl and mix well. Pour into a mason jar or other storage container and keep in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
  • Meanwhile, make your caramelized onions. Heat a pan on medium-low heat, add the oil or butter, your sliced onions and sprinkle with the salt. Cook for 8 – 10 mins or until the onions get nice and browned and sweet. Stir every couple mins. Be careful not to burn them. Set them aside to cool.

ASSEMBLE THE SANDWICHES

  • If you like your buns toasted, toast them first and then butter them (optional but that's what we do). Add the pulled pork to the bottom bun then drizzle a couple tablespoons of the mustard sauce on top.
  • Top the meat with cheese and then the caramelized onions. If you want a warm pulled pork sandwich, you can heat them up in the oven or in a bbq, but this is optional.
  • To heat up your sandwich: Heat your bbq on medium heat on one side and no heat on the other. Keep the lid closed. Wrap each sandwich with tin foil and throw in the bbq on indirect heat for about 5 mins till the cheese gets all nice and melted. Serve right away

Notes

You can also heat these sandwiches in the oven.  
You don’t have to wrap them in tin foil if you don’t want either, you can just put them on a tray.  

Nutrition

Serving: 1sandwich | Calories: 281kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 11g | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 6g

Here are some pictures we took of our camping trip:

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Mark and Dallen chilling by the fire pit in the morning.

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Great picture of Mark and Debbie!  This picture was taken right from our campsite.  That’s Davis lake behind them.

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Family picture of Kevin, Vegas and I.  Vegas was a little nervous about the side-by-side at first, but she settled in pretty quick.

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Mark, Debbie, Keria and the baby of the family, Coco.  Things are starting to get a little dirty and wind blown by this point.

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Our puppies sure loved stopping once in a while so they could explore the woods and find mud.  They look like they are both smiling 🙂

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From right to left: Kevin’s good friend Eldon, Me, Kevin, Mark, Dallen, Quinton (Eldon’s son in Law).  Everyone is dirty and dusty but happy and having fun!

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4 Comments

  1. Every time I’ve made pulled pork it’s been just ok. So my husband and I thought we’d give this a try. So happy we did! There was a bit more involved than I’m used to, but it was sooo worth it! Got my game on now for summertime. Woohoo! Thank you so much!!

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