Pulled Pork Challenge - Can I Make the Perfect Sandwich

The Art of Making Pulled Pork Sandwiches at Home

When it comes to making pulled pork sandwiches at home, there's no need to break the bank on expensive equipment or ingredients. With just a few simple tools and ingredients, you can create deliciously tender and flavorful pulled pork that's sure to impress your friends and family.

To start, you'll want to make the buns for your sandwich. This is where a ring mold comes in handy. Simply place the dough into the mold and let it rise for about three hours. If the dough has expanded too much, cut off the excess and let the remaining dough continue to rise. On the other hand, if the dough still has some room to expand, let it finish rising inside the mold. Once you've got your buns ready, simply pop them into a preheated oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now that we have our buns on the way, it's time to work on the pork itself. The key to tender and flavorful pulled pork is to cook it low and slow over indirect heat. This allows the connective tissues in the meat to break down, resulting in a tender and juicy final product. To get started, you'll need a charcoal grill with a temperature control system. Set up your grill for indirect heat, using soft wood strips to create a smoky flavor.

While the pork is cooking, you can start on the barbecue sauce. The secret to making great barbecue sauce is to use the juices that come off the pork itself. Simply collect these juices in a container and refrigerate them until you're ready to make the sauce. Then, mix the juice with some of your favorite ingredients – such as ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, and spices – and let it simmer until it reaches the desired consistency.

Now that we have our barbecue sauce, it's time to think about coleslaw. This is a crucial element in balancing out the richness of the pulled pork. You'll want to create a slaw that incorporates fresh veggies and has just the right amount of seasoning. This may seem simple, but trust us – it's all about finding the perfect balance of flavor and color.

As we near the end of our journey, there's one final element to consider: the sandwich itself. Once your pork is cooked and your sauce is ready, it's time to assemble the ultimate pulled pork sandwich. With a little creativity and experimentation, you can create a truly unforgettable dish that will leave everyone at the table begging for more.

One final tip when cooking low and slow – be sure to check on your meat regularly! A good rule of thumb is to look for tenderization by checking the texture of the meat. If it's still slightly firm, it may need just a bit longer in the oven. But if it starts falling apart too quickly, it's probably done. The result will be tender and juicy pulled pork that's sure to impress even the pickiest eaters.

As we wrap up our journey through the world of pulled pork sandwiches, one thing becomes clear: cooking is all about experimentation and creativity. Don't be afraid to try new ingredients and techniques – and don't be discouraged if things don't turn out exactly as planned. The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy the process. With a little practice and patience, you'll be whipping up delicious pulled pork sandwiches in no time.

Behind-the-Scenes: Filming the Sandwich Series

As we wrap up our article on making pulled pork sandwiches at home, we want to give you a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes of our cooking channel. We're always filming new content and experimenting with new recipes, so be sure to follow us on social media to stay up-to-date on all our latest projects.

By supporting our channel, you'll not only get access to exclusive recipes and tutorials – but you'll also be helping us to continue making the kind of delicious, high-quality content that we're known for. So what are you waiting for? Join us in the kitchen and start cooking up a storm!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video was sponsored by the National Pork Board welcome back to the sandwich series where I find the best sandwiches from around the world and make every single element from scratch and for today's video it's gonna be a bit of a challenge I'm doing the pulled pork sandwich which is just the definition of American style BBQ but can I make an incredible pulled pork sandwich from scratch completely at home without a smoker and today's gonna be a little different than other sandwich series videos in the past because one I can't go out and actually get a taste of the sandwich but luckily I've had many pulled pork sandwiches and my day and two I've really been putting in some time for recipe testing and really come up with incredible recipes compared to other episodes where it might just be a little more improv a little more in the moment so let's get after this pulled pork sandwich so it's just about summer and I'm ready to get out of the kitchen and take it to the grill and you know I'm Pro home cooks we like to take it to the next level and I feel like pulled pork is the perfect representation of barbecue because you're taking a cut like pork shoulder which is a super budget-friendly protein and you're turning this into an incredible meal that could feed your whole family can feed your friends or you can use it to meal prep for the entire week so I'm gonna be showing you a really cool technique to smoke a pork shoulder without actually having a smoker by just using your grill but first we got to make a spice rub because this is an open campus of flavor potential and you get to choose what type of flavors you want in your barbecue so I'm going to be making a quick barbecue rub with the spices I have in my house all right before we pick our spices I'm just gonna turn my oven to 275 and get that preheating for our pork and this is my spice pantry over here and I've got most of the basics on hand so I'm just gonna pick some whole spices and some ground spices and we'll make a mix coriander cumin chili flakes mustard seed a little dried herb mixture allspice and cardamon just a few more things a little bit of smoked paprika powder well a lot a bit of that a little bit of cinnamon can be used for savory no problem and then we need our salt of course and I forgot a few peppercorns so I'll throw in those the reason I wrapped this up in tinfoil is because I'm gonna throw it in the oven low and slow for a few hours just to give it a head start on that cooking process since I just have a regular grill and not a smoker it's gonna be much harder to regulate the smoking and I don't want to be doing that for like 12 hours at a time but I can do it for a few hours so we're gonna split the difference and throw this in the oven at 275 I would say three or four hours so that connective tissue starts to break down then we'll finish that baby off on the grill for maximum flavor and since we've got some time right now let's make some months so for the buns I've got four medium potatoes that I poked holes in and I just microwave those for about 10 minutes until they were nice and tender then I cut those in half to at least some of that steam and once they were cool I peeled off all of the skins and toss the potatoes into a big bowl and just gave those a quick mash now to your mashed potatoes you can add five cups of flour I'm using two cups of all-purpose flour and three cups of bread flour but use whatever you have on hand in the pantry then I added a full stick of butter that was at room temperature and I incorporated the butter in the mashed potato into the flour so I don't think you ever see this technique with bread this is normally how you start a pie crust by working the butter into the flour but it just felt right and it came out really great so you're looking for something like this we've got potato butter and flour and it smells amazing now to your flour mixture add one cup of warm milk 1/2 a cup of water 2 eggs 2 teaspoons of yeast and this is instant yeast so I can just add it right to the mixture but if you need to bloom your yeast just follow your instructions on your yeast packet 2 tablespoons of honey for a little bit of sweetness finally 2 tablespoons of salt my dough is pretty wet so I added another cup of flour and I just let that rest for about 15 minutes and then once it's rested you can start the kneading process so this dough is gonna be pretty sticky it's a higher hydration though it's pretty wet but it's the only way you're gonna get really fluffy buns plus you've got the potato in there and the butter that's adding to the stickiness so another pro tip is just to let this rest whenever it gets too sticky and your kneading it out just pop the towel over for like 15 minutes you're gonna give the gluten a chance to relax but also for more back gluten structure which will make this much smoother and much easier to roll so I might let this relax maybe 1 2 3 more times during this kneading process depending on how sticky this dough is all right we're gonna let this dope proof for about an hour or two until it's doubled in size now I'm gonna take these and I'm gonna pop them right into these ring molds with a little bit of oil just to help with the proof in shape for perfect rolls we've got six buns with the ring balls and then five more over here just in a cast iron I'm just going to give them a little egg and milk wash and we'll let them proof for about an hour until this alright so you can see these are just about ready and these ring molds accomplish two things they're gonna give you the perfect circular shape compared to just letting them rise on their own and they're also gonna force them to rise up giving you a higher bun rather than rising out for a wider bun which I prefer so the last thing I'm going to do is just hit this with one more coating of egg wash to really give them that deep color and there's no way these would be the perfect buns without a little dash of sesame it just brings them to the next level so for the buns that are really expanded a lot I am gonna cut this thing right off because they will bust out and they won't look good and then for the other ones that have a little bit of room left I'm just gonna let those rise right in the ring mold in the oven all right 375 these came out amazing everything you could want in a bun right there we've got eggs we've got butter we've got potato perfect for a pulled pork sandwich and the fact that I can make these buns about taking care of this little bun right here means you should be able to make some bread as well all right three hours later nowhere near cold pork still very firm but this is as far as I want to go with it but it's a nice head start so we're gonna take this out to the grill but make sure let me show you something make sure you save all of this juice a lot of pork juice is going to come off this thing and we can use this sauce so here's how we're gonna do this thing we've got our charcoal on one side indirect heat over here with our soft wood strips so I'm just gonna start adding a bunch and I'll be replenishing the charcoal and the wood chips as they burn out now it's time to get our pork on this side all right we're smoking over here we've got our pork over here I've got some water over here to create some extra moisture because we don't want this drying out well close it and try to regulate it at around 275 for another few hours I see we're at a low smoke now which is much better was a little hot at first but once things started burning down just been slowly feeding we've got a beautiful so what I want to do now is just wrap it up in some tinfoil just so it doesn't dry out and I'll let it smoke for probably another hour all right while the pork is smoking they're just two more elements that I need to make we've got the barbecue sauce and the coleslaw and I'm gonna start with the coleslaw which couldn't be simpler but couldn't be more delicious I'm telling you this is the only coleslaw recipe you will ever need in your life and it's just a few ingredients and you can make it in probably three minutes feel like most people think a pulled pork sandwich is something that's very heavy but when you're cooking fresh pork it's actually a great source of key nutrients that are important to your health and also it pairs really great with fresh veggies and that is the point of this slaw to really balance out this sandwich so I'm throwing in a nice balance of flavor and color with these veggies and just things I have on hand in the fridge but you can customize your veggie mix for this slaw and whatever way that you want it's really just about incorporating that freshness into your sandwich and then properly seasoning your slaw I get it if you don't want to make the buns if you don't want to smoke the pork but please just try this recipe see how simple it is it is just so tasty that's a nice buck we're not having a smoker looks Wow very even too juicy all right let's rip into this thing here's a very good tip when you're cooking things low and slow check this out see it's pulling apart not bad but if you look very closely you can actually see the tissue in between the pulled layers that's a good way of knowing that it might be just slightly undercooked like it's not completely falling apart but it's pretty damn good maybe could have used another hour so for perfection but you live and you learn beautiful pile of smoked pork we definitely need some barbecue sauce to accompany it all right so you remember the pork juice that came off that pork shoulder right here I put it in the fridge specifically so I can get this separation right here this is very important so what I'm gonna do is take the fat off this put it in there to start my barbecue sauce and then I'll use the actual liquid to rehydrate this pork and really give that the juice that it needs and that it lost from that cooking process you there you go four elements coming together for the perfect pulled pork sandwich at home at least you know close to perfect I'm striving for perfection or deliciousness at least but there's still things I want to change there's still things I want to improve and that's the point of cooking so make sure you follow me at life by Mike G to learn how you can feed yourself a little more because I'm filming all the behind the scenes action of the sandwich series and just get in the kitchen stay cooking you'll feel better you'll be able to feed your friends and your family and yourself and just cooking is awesome this video was sponsored by the National Parkthis video was sponsored by the National Pork Board welcome back to the sandwich series where I find the best sandwiches from around the world and make every single element from scratch and for today's video it's gonna be a bit of a challenge I'm doing the pulled pork sandwich which is just the definition of American style BBQ but can I make an incredible pulled pork sandwich from scratch completely at home without a smoker and today's gonna be a little different than other sandwich series videos in the past because one I can't go out and actually get a taste of the sandwich but luckily I've had many pulled pork sandwiches and my day and two I've really been putting in some time for recipe testing and really come up with incredible recipes compared to other episodes where it might just be a little more improv a little more in the moment so let's get after this pulled pork sandwich so it's just about summer and I'm ready to get out of the kitchen and take it to the grill and you know I'm Pro home cooks we like to take it to the next level and I feel like pulled pork is the perfect representation of barbecue because you're taking a cut like pork shoulder which is a super budget-friendly protein and you're turning this into an incredible meal that could feed your whole family can feed your friends or you can use it to meal prep for the entire week so I'm gonna be showing you a really cool technique to smoke a pork shoulder without actually having a smoker by just using your grill but first we got to make a spice rub because this is an open campus of flavor potential and you get to choose what type of flavors you want in your barbecue so I'm going to be making a quick barbecue rub with the spices I have in my house all right before we pick our spices I'm just gonna turn my oven to 275 and get that preheating for our pork and this is my spice pantry over here and I've got most of the basics on hand so I'm just gonna pick some whole spices and some ground spices and we'll make a mix coriander cumin chili flakes mustard seed a little dried herb mixture allspice and cardamon just a few more things a little bit of smoked paprika powder well a lot a bit of that a little bit of cinnamon can be used for savory no problem and then we need our salt of course and I forgot a few peppercorns so I'll throw in those the reason I wrapped this up in tinfoil is because I'm gonna throw it in the oven low and slow for a few hours just to give it a head start on that cooking process since I just have a regular grill and not a smoker it's gonna be much harder to regulate the smoking and I don't want to be doing that for like 12 hours at a time but I can do it for a few hours so we're gonna split the difference and throw this in the oven at 275 I would say three or four hours so that connective tissue starts to break down then we'll finish that baby off on the grill for maximum flavor and since we've got some time right now let's make some months so for the buns I've got four medium potatoes that I poked holes in and I just microwave those for about 10 minutes until they were nice and tender then I cut those in half to at least some of that steam and once they were cool I peeled off all of the skins and toss the potatoes into a big bowl and just gave those a quick mash now to your mashed potatoes you can add five cups of flour I'm using two cups of all-purpose flour and three cups of bread flour but use whatever you have on hand in the pantry then I added a full stick of butter that was at room temperature and I incorporated the butter in the mashed potato into the flour so I don't think you ever see this technique with bread this is normally how you start a pie crust by working the butter into the flour but it just felt right and it came out really great so you're looking for something like this we've got potato butter and flour and it smells amazing now to your flour mixture add one cup of warm milk 1/2 a cup of water 2 eggs 2 teaspoons of yeast and this is instant yeast so I can just add it right to the mixture but if you need to bloom your yeast just follow your instructions on your yeast packet 2 tablespoons of honey for a little bit of sweetness finally 2 tablespoons of salt my dough is pretty wet so I added another cup of flour and I just let that rest for about 15 minutes and then once it's rested you can start the kneading process so this dough is gonna be pretty sticky it's a higher hydration though it's pretty wet but it's the only way you're gonna get really fluffy buns plus you've got the potato in there and the butter that's adding to the stickiness so another pro tip is just to let this rest whenever it gets too sticky and your kneading it out just pop the towel over for like 15 minutes you're gonna give the gluten a chance to relax but also for more back gluten structure which will make this much smoother and much easier to roll so I might let this relax maybe 1 2 3 more times during this kneading process depending on how sticky this dough is all right we're gonna let this dope proof for about an hour or two until it's doubled in size now I'm gonna take these and I'm gonna pop them right into these ring molds with a little bit of oil just to help with the proof in shape for perfect rolls we've got six buns with the ring balls and then five more over here just in a cast iron I'm just going to give them a little egg and milk wash and we'll let them proof for about an hour until this alright so you can see these are just about ready and these ring molds accomplish two things they're gonna give you the perfect circular shape compared to just letting them rise on their own and they're also gonna force them to rise up giving you a higher bun rather than rising out for a wider bun which I prefer so the last thing I'm going to do is just hit this with one more coating of egg wash to really give them that deep color and there's no way these would be the perfect buns without a little dash of sesame it just brings them to the next level so for the buns that are really expanded a lot I am gonna cut this thing right off because they will bust out and they won't look good and then for the other ones that have a little bit of room left I'm just gonna let those rise right in the ring mold in the oven all right 375 these came out amazing everything you could want in a bun right there we've got eggs we've got butter we've got potato perfect for a pulled pork sandwich and the fact that I can make these buns about taking care of this little bun right here means you should be able to make some bread as well all right three hours later nowhere near cold pork still very firm but this is as far as I want to go with it but it's a nice head start so we're gonna take this out to the grill but make sure let me show you something make sure you save all of this juice a lot of pork juice is going to come off this thing and we can use this sauce so here's how we're gonna do this thing we've got our charcoal on one side indirect heat over here with our soft wood strips so I'm just gonna start adding a bunch and I'll be replenishing the charcoal and the wood chips as they burn out now it's time to get our pork on this side all right we're smoking over here we've got our pork over here I've got some water over here to create some extra moisture because we don't want this drying out well close it and try to regulate it at around 275 for another few hours I see we're at a low smoke now which is much better was a little hot at first but once things started burning down just been slowly feeding we've got a beautiful so what I want to do now is just wrap it up in some tinfoil just so it doesn't dry out and I'll let it smoke for probably another hour all right while the pork is smoking they're just two more elements that I need to make we've got the barbecue sauce and the coleslaw and I'm gonna start with the coleslaw which couldn't be simpler but couldn't be more delicious I'm telling you this is the only coleslaw recipe you will ever need in your life and it's just a few ingredients and you can make it in probably three minutes feel like most people think a pulled pork sandwich is something that's very heavy but when you're cooking fresh pork it's actually a great source of key nutrients that are important to your health and also it pairs really great with fresh veggies and that is the point of this slaw to really balance out this sandwich so I'm throwing in a nice balance of flavor and color with these veggies and just things I have on hand in the fridge but you can customize your veggie mix for this slaw and whatever way that you want it's really just about incorporating that freshness into your sandwich and then properly seasoning your slaw I get it if you don't want to make the buns if you don't want to smoke the pork but please just try this recipe see how simple it is it is just so tasty that's a nice buck we're not having a smoker looks Wow very even too juicy all right let's rip into this thing here's a very good tip when you're cooking things low and slow check this out see it's pulling apart not bad but if you look very closely you can actually see the tissue in between the pulled layers that's a good way of knowing that it might be just slightly undercooked like it's not completely falling apart but it's pretty damn good maybe could have used another hour so for perfection but you live and you learn beautiful pile of smoked pork we definitely need some barbecue sauce to accompany it all right so you remember the pork juice that came off that pork shoulder right here I put it in the fridge specifically so I can get this separation right here this is very important so what I'm gonna do is take the fat off this put it in there to start my barbecue sauce and then I'll use the actual liquid to rehydrate this pork and really give that the juice that it needs and that it lost from that cooking process you there you go four elements coming together for the perfect pulled pork sandwich at home at least you know close to perfect I'm striving for perfection or deliciousness at least but there's still things I want to change there's still things I want to improve and that's the point of cooking so make sure you follow me at life by Mike G to learn how you can feed yourself a little more because I'm filming all the behind the scenes action of the sandwich series and just get in the kitchen stay cooking you'll feel better you'll be able to feed your friends and your family and yourself and just cooking is awesome this video was sponsored by the National Park\n"