North Carolina Easy Chopped Barbecue Recipes

NORTH CAROLINA EASY CHOPPED BARBECUE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Wrap pork in aluminum foil and place in a broiler pan. Cook for 7 hours, about 1 hour per pound. Remove from oven and let stand for 1 hour.
• Wearing heavy rubber gloves, pull skin from the meat and discard. Remove most of the fat and all of the bone. Cut meat into 8-ounce chunks and place in large pan.
• Place meat on a charcoal fire and cook, covered, for another 30 to 45 minutes, until well smoked, turning meat over every 10 to 15 minutes. Pour barbecue sauce over meat during the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking.
• Remove meat from the grill and chop into bite size pieces. Serve with additional barbecue sauce if desired.
• Mix all ingredients in a 6-quart stainless steel pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer, about 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let stand, about 30 minutes. Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA BARBECUE

Steps:

• Add hickory, oak, and maple chunks or chips to your smoker. Refer to the directions for your smoker to determine the correct amount of chips for the meat and for lighting instructions. When the chips are ready, add the pork and smoke it for 2 to 2 1/2 hours at 250 degrees F. Remove the pork and wrap it in heavy-duty aluminum foil. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F. Cook the pork for 6 to 8 hours or until the meat is tender and falls apart when the bone is removed. Chop the pork coarsely and mix in salt and Barbecue Sauce, to taste. Serve with more Barbecue Sauce on the side.
• In a medium saucepan, combine the vinegar, red pepper, garlic, and salt over high heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium-high. Boil for 15 to 20 minutes and then remove from the heat. Let cool then add the black pepper.

GRANDMA'S CHOPPED BARBECUE

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 250 degrees F.
• With the tip of a knife, make 8 (2-inch) pockets all around the pork and insert a smashed garlic clove in each.
• In a small bowl, combine the seafood boil seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Rub the seasoning all over the pork then let rest at room temperature up to 2 hours.
• Place the pork in the bottom of a roasting pan and add enough vegetable stock to fill it to an inch deep. Cover very tightly with several layers of aluminum foil, getting the seal tight is really key here. The steam being locked in breaks down the pork to make it pull-worthy.
• Roast the pork, covered, in the oven for 2 hours then pull back the aluminum foil a bit and prick with a fork. If it is tender, remove the aluminum foil and a place back in the oven for 1 more hour. If it isn't tender yet, cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour more, making sure to add more stock if needed. Once tender remove the aluminum foil all together. If the liquid evaporates here, it's ok; it has done its job. Remove from oven then let rest at room temperature, then chop down to small chunks and mix with enough of Sunny's Pork Sauce, recipe follows to make it wet or dry to your taste.
• In a saucepot on medium-low heat, add the oil. Add the onions, garlic, and season with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Cook until both are tender, but not browned and then add the ketchup, vinegar, orange juice, and Sriracha. Taste and then add the sugar, to taste. This should be a loose sauce. Refrigerate or use right away.

NORTH CAROLINA PULLED-PORK BARBECUE

Steps:

• Bring vinegar to a boil with sugar, red-pepper flakes, 2 tsp salt, and 1 Tbsp pepper in a small nonreactive saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then cool. Set aside 2 cups vinegar sauce to serve with sandwiches.
• While sauce cools, score pork skin in a crosshatch pattern with a sharp knife (forming 1-inch diamonds), cutting through skin and fat but not into meat. Pat meat dry and rub all over with 1 Tbsp each of salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before grilling.
• Prepare grill for indirect-heat cooking over low heat, leaving space in middle for disposable roasting pan.
• When coals have cooled to about 300°F (45 minutes to 1 hour; when most coals will have burned out), put disposable roasting pan on bottom rack of grill between the 2 remaining mounds of coals, then fill pan halfway with water. Add a couple of handfuls of unlit charcoal to each charcoal mound, then put grill rack on so hinges are over coals.
• Oil grill rack, then put pork, skin side up, on rack above roasting pan. Grill pork, with lid ajar (for air, so coals remain lit), basting meat with sauce and turning over every 30 minutes (to maintain a temperature of 250 to 275°F, add a couple of handfuls of coals to each side about every 30 minutes), until fork-tender (a meat fork should insert easily) and an instant-read thermometer inserted 2 inches into center of meat (avoid bone) registers 190°F, 7 to 8 hours total.
• Transfer pork to a cutting board. If skin is not crisp, cut it off with at least 1/4 inch fat attached (cut any large pieces into bite-size ones) and roast, fat side down, in a 4-sided sheet pan in a 350°F oven until crisp, 15 to 20 minutes.
• When meat is cool enough to handle, shred it using 2 forks. Transfer to a bowl.
• Serve pork, cracklings, and coleslaw together on buns. Serve reserved vinegar sauce on the side.

EASY NORTH CAROLINA BARBEQUE

Steps:

• Trim the fat from the roast; place in slow cooker and cook on Low overnight, at least 8 hours.
• To make the sauce, whisk together the vinegar, melted butter, salt, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, hot sauce, black pepper, and sugar in a bowl.
• Carefully remove the roast to a cutting board. Pull the meat from the bone with a fork. Return the pork to the slow cooker. Pour the sauce over the pulled pork. Simmer for 1 hour more.

CAROLINA-STYLE PORK BARBECUE

Steps:

• Cut roast into quarters. Mix brown sugar, salt, paprika and pepper; rub over meat. Place meat and onions in a 5-qt. slow cooker., In a small bowl, whisk vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, sugar and seasonings; pour over roast. Cook, covered, on low 6-8 hours or until meat is tender., Remove roast; cool slightly. Reserve 1-1/2 cups cooking juices; discard remaining juices. Skim fat from reserved juices. Shred pork with two forks. Return pork and reserved juices to slow cooker; heat through. Serve on buns with coleslaw.

CAROLINA CHOPPED PORK BARBECUE SANDWICHES WITH SPICY VINEGAR SAUCE

Steps:

• Combine first 8 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Simmer over medium heat 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 2 hours.
• Place handful of torn newspaper in bottom of charcoal chimney. Top with 30 charcoal briquettes. Remove top rack from grill. Place chimney on lower grill rack. Light newspaper; let charcoal burn until ash is gray, about 30 minutes.
• Open bottom grill vent. Turn hot charcoal onto 1/2 of bottom rack. Using metal spatula, spread charcoal to cover approximately 1/3 of rack. Fill 2 small foil loaf pans halfway with water and place next to charcoal on bottom rack. Sprinkle 1 cup chips over coals.
• Place top rack on grill. Arrange pork shoulder halves on top rack above loaf pans. Cover grill with lid, positioning top vent directly over pork. Place stem of meat thermometer in top vent with gauge on outside and tip near roast (thermometer should not touch meat or grill rack); leave in place during cooking. Use top and bottom vents to maintain temperature between 250°F and 325°F, opening vent wider to increase heat and closing to decrease heat. Leave other vents closed. Check temperature every 20 minutes.
• Cook pork 3 hours. About once an hour, light more charcoal in chimney set on bricks or cement to replenish charcoal in grill. Add 12 hot ash-tinged briquettes and 1 cup drained wood chips when cooking temperature drops below 250°F. Using sharp knife, make several crosswise slashes in meat (do not cut through). Brush with some of sauce. Cover and continue cooking pork until meat thermometer inserted into center of pork registers 165°F, about 2 1/2 hours longer, adding additional hot briquettes and chips as necessary to maintain temperature and basting occasionally with sauce.
• Transfer pork to cutting board; remove any tough rind. Chop meat into bite-size pieces. Transfer meat to large bowl and add enough sauce to moisten. Arrange bun bottoms on work surface. Top buns with pork; cover with tops. Serve, passing additional sauce.