For Slow-Cooker Fiesta Pulled Pork, season a Boston butt with spice rub, cook in a slow-cooker along with salsa and shred for zesty pulled pork.
Tex-Mex and Southern cuisine have one key element in common: pork. Both use a lot of it in their daily recipes. Slow-cooker Fiesta Pulled Pork puts a South of the Border spin on a classic and well-loved Southern staple: pulled pork. I made a rub with a distinctive cumin flavor which makes the pork well suited as a tacos, burritos and enchiladas component.
Pulled pork is, hands down, my favorite thing to cook in the slow-cooker. The longer is simmers, the better it gets and never gets soggy or picks up that gooey texture that I find in many slow-cooker dishes. Of course, you won’t get the same smokey delicious that you’ll get by low and slow smoking but that is a time intensive ordeal. You have to stand over your pork for about 8 hours outside where it’s probably hot as blue blazes.
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The best thing about this recipe, second only to the flavor, is the easy factor. You make up a rub with a few basic ingredients, slap it all over the pork roast, plop the thing into a slow-cooker and add salsa. Then you forget it all day. When it’s done, you simply pull it out of the slow-cooker, shred it and add back some of the cooking liquid.
Done!
Looking for a great side dish for Fiesta Pulled Pork? Instant Pot Mexican Rice is the perfect choice.
In case you didn’t know, Boston butt is the same thing as pork shoulder or pork butt. It’s confusing. I don’t know who came up with those names for the same cut of meat. Obviously, it was someone who wanted to play with our minds. Who gives those kind of people such power?
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Slow-Cooker Fiesta Pulled Pork
I prefer a bone-in roast to boneless because the bone adds flavor. Substitute approximately 1 tablespoon chili powder for cumin, paprika and garlic powder.
yield: one roast
Make the rub:
1 tablespoon brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Mix together and set aside.
Prepare the pork butt:
1 (3 – 4 pound) Boston butt, bone-in or boneless (pork shoulder, pork butt)
2 cups salsa, homemade or commercially prepared
Sprinkle the rub all over the Boston butt. Rub in as best you can.
Place the Boston butt in a slow-cooker with fat cap up.
Pour in salsa.
Cover and cook on low for 10 to 11 hours or high 5 to 6 hours or until the pork is easily shredded with two forks.
Remove the whole Boston butt from the slow-cooker and shred. Discard large sections of fat.
Add a little of the cooking juices back into the shredded pork.
Slow-cooker Fiesta Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- yield: one roast
- Make the rub:
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Mix together and set aside.
- Prepare the pork butt:
- 1 3 - 4 pound Boston butt, bone-in or boneless (pork shoulder, pork butt)
- 2 cups salsa homemade or commercially prepared
Instructions
- Sprinkle the rub all over the Boston butt. Rub in as best you can.
- Place the Boston butt in a slow-cooker with fat cap up.
- Pour in salsa.
- Cover and cook on low for 10 to 11 hours or high 5 to 6 hours or until the pork is easily shredded with two forks.
- Remove the whole Boston butt from the slow-cooker and shred. Discard large sections of fat.
- Add a little of the cooking juices back into the shredded pork.
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