Farmhouse Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Our family makes Farmhouse Slow Cooker Pulled Pork recipe at least once a month! The best meals can be the easiest meals!

Four ingredients in a crock pot for the entire day make one of our favorite meals, pulled pork. This recipe is great to feed a crowd or meal prep for several family meals.

Easy Crock Pot Pulled Pork

Putting a pork shoulder roast in the crock pot is one of the most VERSATILE meals we make. Having several pounds of cooked meat on hand gives us so many quick and easy meals for days after first making the roast.

Shredded pork is so tender that it’s easy for the kids to eat and we all enjoy flavorful and tender cuts of meat. Pork shoulder is also a great value because it may go on sale for as little as $1 per pound. Since there isn’t much waste you end up with a lot of meat after cooking the roast.

Add some Homemade BBQ Sauce and it’s all super EASY to make at home. Really, it’s one the easiest meals we make repeatedly that everyone will eat!

Our first meal is typically sandwiches or Loaded Baked Potatoes. Then we love using leftover pulled pork to make Pulled Pork Waffle Fries, BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders or BBQ Pulled Pork Crescents. A new favorite idea for using shredded pork is these amazing Pulled Pork Quesadillas!

Pulled pork is a classic meal for picnics or get togethers when served with Twice Baked Potato Casserole and Farmhouse Baked Beans. You can really take the meal up a few notches by serving an excellent chocolate dessert like our Moist & Rich Chocolate Cake, Heath Bar Cake, Milky Way Cake or a lighter Banana Cream Delight.

I often make this for birthday parties or when I have friends over. I find the crock pot is easier to use for serving a crowd because it’s easier to see inside the pot, get the pork shredded and served. I love my Instant Pot Pulled Pork recipe which does technically take less time, but overall I prefer making shredded pork in the slow cooker.

What Pop Should I Use?

Any type of pop will work. Coke, Root Beer, 7-Up, Cherry Coke. Carbonated pop with some kind of flavor is most commonly used. Another way to add variety to this recipe is our Margarita Mix Pulled Pork.

Choose your favorite flavor or whatever kind of soda you have on hand. This is an EASY recipe, so don’t make it difficult by getting caught up in details that don’t really matter.

I enjoy cherry coke and I am more likely to notice the cherry-flavored pop in the cooked pulled pork than the regular pop. Root beer will also leave a hint of a different flavor note.

If you dunk a piece of pork in the pop in the crock pot you will get a nice and light flavoring, but know that you’ll still have a great meal if water is used to cook to pork shoulder.

This pulled pork can be made plain by using water instead of soda. It can be made low carb and keto-friendly by using diet pop and serving with our Crock Pot Low-Carb Cauliflower Casserole.

Limit the amount of pop that you add to the crock pot because there are juices in the pork shoulder that will come out while cooking.

There may be a time or two that I’ve put a really large shoulder roast in a medium-size crock pot with too much fluid and it sort of runs out the exhaust holes on top of the slow cooker. This creates a mess, so I’ve learned not to get carried away with adding liquids to the crock and use at least a 6-Quart Crock Pot for this recipe.

What To Do When the Pork is Tough

Pork shoulder, Boston butt, shoulder butt, picnic shoulder are all terms that you may find on a cut that is best for making pulled pork. These cuts all come from the front leg and shoulder of the pig.

Pork shoulder will taste the best when it is cooked low and slow. The size of the roast determines cooking time. If the pork should is tough and difficult to shred then keep cooking. To want to speed up the process make sure the crock pot is on turned on high.

If you need a meal quickly the bottom of the shoulder roast should cook most quickly which means it will be some of the first pieces to shred. I’ve been known to pull enough pork to make a few sandwiches off the bottom of the roast and then keep cooking until the rest of it has cooked and become tender.

A pork shoulder has a combination of several different lighter and darker pieces of meat. The lighter pieces are leaner and the dark pieces add more flavor. When you shred them up and mix everything together with barbecue sauce the result is one of the easiest crock pot meals for your family that you’ll ever make!

Make sure it’s a pork shoulder….not all cuts get more tender as they keep cooking. Some of the cuts that only have one or two muscles or pieces of meat (like a pork loin or pork tenderloin) do better when cooking much more quickly.

The pork shoulder is ready to eat when it can easily be shredded with two forks. I have a set of meat claws that can be used to shred the pork, but I typically use forks to shred the meat into pulled pork.

How to Make Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker

1. Make clean up easier by using non-stick cooking spray or a disposable liner in the slow cooker. Add pork shoulder with fat side up.
2. Rub seasoned salt over pork roast and pour your favorite pop around the sides of the roast being careful not to pour directly on seasoned salt.
3. Cover and cook on low for 10 – 12 hour or high for 7 – 9 hours.
4. Remove any bones before adding sauce. I usually dip some extra liquid out of crock before shredding and adding barbecue sauce. Mix well. Turn down to keep warm and stir occasionally while serving.

Other Easy Recipes that Go Great with Pulled Pork:

• Country Style Scalloped Corn
• Jiffy Corn Pudding
• Crock Pot Loaded Red Potatoes
• Loaded Cauliflower Casserole
• Farmhouse Potato Salad
• Big Batch Shredded Chicken Sandwiches

Printable Farmhouse Pulled Pork Recipe