Slow Cooker Carolina-Style Pulled Pork is a favorite at our house because 1) It’s super easy to make, 2) It’s super delicious, and 3) It makes a large quantity. Yay for leftovers! I made this pulled pork with an Eastern North Carolina-style sauce.
Yes, pulled pork is serious business in North Carolina and there are different styles depending on the part of the state.
Easterners like their pulled pork with a thin, vinegary sauce that’s very tangy and peppery. It tastes wonderful on a sandwich with a creamy, sweet coleslaw to balance out the tang.
When I don’t feel like making my own coleslaw, I swing by the drive-thru at Bojangles and pick up a large container of their coleslaw. It’s much better than the prepared coleslaw at the grocery store. If you don’t have Bojangles near you, try the coleslaw at KFC or Popeye’s.
If you want to make homemade coleslaw, I love this Buttermilk Coleslaw Recipe.
Type Of Pork To Use
You will want to use a 6 to 8-pound Boston Butt for this recipe. You can use either boneless or bone-in. If using bone-in, you can easily remove and discard the bone at the end of the cooking time.
Recipe Tips
- You will need a 6-quart slow cooker for this recipe.
- Cut as much fat as you can off of the Boston Butt.
- When I cook pulled pork in the crock pot, I pretty much make 2 sauces and the first one ends up getting discarded. You’ll want a sauce to flavor the pork while it cooks, but Boston Butt releases so much fat into the slow cooker, it’s swimming in fatty liquid by the time it’s done cooking. The best way to get rid of this fat is to dump most of the liquid out and add a new sauce to the cooked pork. Then you have fully flavored pork, that’s not too greasy. Whether you serve this pork with baked beans and corn, or on a sandwich with coleslaw, it’s a super easy and flavorful meal that will fill your families bellies.
Pin this now to find it later
Pin ItTry These Other Pulled Pork Recipes:
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- Slow Cooker Mississippi Pulled Pork
- Crock Pot Teriyaki Pulled Pork
- Crock Pot Root Beer Pulled Pork
- Pulled Pork Burritos with Cheesy Sour Cream Sauce
- Instant Pot Pulled Pork
- Slow Cooker Smokey Pulled Pork
Slow Cooker Carolina-Style Pulled Pork
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 small sweet onion, chopped
- 1 (4 to 6-pound) Boston Butt,, with or without bone
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
BBQ Sauce
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Place chopped onion on bottom of a slow cooker.
- Trim excess fat from Boston Butt and place in slow cooker on top of onions.
- Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour on top of pork. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours.
- Combine all ingredients for BBQ Sauce in a medium saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes.
- Remove pork from slow cooker (after 8-10 hours) and place in a large bowl. Use forks to shred the meat.
- Discard the majority of liquid in the slow cooker. Return meat to slow cooker and add BBQ Sauce. Cover and cook on low 30 minutes. Serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
“Trim excess fat from Boston Butt and place in slow cooker on top of the onions”
I’m confused. I trim the excess fat from the Butt and place the FAT in the crockpot on top of the onions? Please clarify….gerry in Oregon
Those instructions are very unclear. Thanks for pointing that out. Discard the fat and place the Boston Butt on top of the onions.
Honestly if you can’t logically come to that conclusion then I’m curious how you survive in life. Much less cook in the kitchen
Not nice, Rachel
i think Rachel’s comment was appropriate. because of guys like Gerry, common sense is not so common anymore.
Wow Rachel, you’re a real winner aren’t you……have you never been young and learning to cook or maybe from a home where you weren’t exposed to home cooking, or did you plop out with a chef hat on?? At any rate being nice is something you should aspire to.
Thank you for that reply Christin, some people didn’t grow up cooking along side their mom (or grandpa like you). We all have to learn and I’m glad Gerry asked that question because what it showed was a pure desire to learn in her, and bitterness and unhappiness in those that responded rudely to her.
wowwww thankyou for sharing <3
Way too much vinegar for this easterner. The acidity of this quantity of vinegar actually dries the pork out, so I made a second BBQ batch and married the two for a just-right flavor profile…not too sweet, not too acidic. Accompanied by kohlrabi coleslaw with a wicked bite, and served atop our guests’ choice of cornbread jalapeno waffles or pumpkin waffles.
I like vinegar based pulled pork, but with my acid reflux, I u sed rice vinegar ( less acidic); everything else was followed as written. The pork smelled amazing by the 6th hour. It was hard to wait 3 more hours to taste.
Remember, I used the lowest acidic vinegar, but I’d have to say this was way too vinegary. You absolutely have to have the coleslaw on the sandwich to cut down the sharpness of the vinegar.
That being said, the meat came out perfect. I am definitely going to make this again but will cut down on the vinegar in the sauce
How many servings does this make?
I would say 6-8 servings.
Sounds great. How many servings (sandwiches) does this recipe make?
This is the best mouth drooling images i’ve ever seen. Thanks for the recipe and notes as well.
Loved this Carolina style. I bet if you represent this to anyone. He or She, actually both of them will love you 🙂
Excellent recipe.
Loved the whole idea of it. Thanks for sharing those ideas and keep up the good work!
After seeing the images, i can’t hold drooling 🙂 Can’t w8 much longer to try it. Thanks for the awesome recipe@@@