From my previous post of slow cooked lamb stew you will know that I am a fan of cooking with a slow cooker. It’s a bit like having a 50s housewife with none of the commitment. You get to come home from work to a nice, home cooked meal but you don’t have to pay for her shoes! (The downside is there is nobody to clean your house for you either, a slow cooker can only do so much!).

Anyway, the people at Appliances Direct part of the Buy It Direct company very kindly offered to send me the small appliance of my choice as long as I reviewed it for them. I got very excited and chose a Crock Pot slow cooker as I have been looking for a bigger slow cooker for months. When browsing the site I was amazed at how good value everything seemed to be. I will definitely be ordering future kitchen appliances from them!

Here is a picture of me with the slow cooker. (They remind me of when you show off your presents for the camera on Christmas morning!)

The very first thing I made in my lovely new slow cooker was some pulled pork. I wanted to make it before, but my old slow cooker was very small, too small for pork shoulder.

To make the pulled pork you will need:

1.2kg – 1.5kg pork shoulder

1/2 a bottle of barbeque sauce

250ml Coca Cola (not my beloved Diet Coke)

A good pinch of salt

Chilli Flakes

If you prefer brown the pork shoulder before cooking by lightly frying. I personally didn’t (I was running late as usual) and it came out fine. Place your pork shoulder in the slow cooker. Cover with the barbeque sauce, the Coca Cola and the salt and chilli flakes. Switch the slow cooker onto the low heat setting, cover and leave to cook for 6-8 hours.

  After cooking remove the pork from the sauce and gently remove the fat and pull apart the pork and place in a serving tray or bowl.

Keep back the sauce and reduce by cooking on a high heat until the sauce is more sticky and viscous. For all you Coca Cola haters out there – this sauce does not actually taste like Coke, it’s really sticky but savoury.

Pour the sauce over the meat and serve. Pulled pork is particularly nice in a burrito but Miss S and I loved it just as much with guacamole and salad in a sandwich.

We both managed to get covered in the sticky barbeque sauce. What a pair!