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.
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.
Try These Other Pulled Pork Recipes:
- Pulled Pork King Ranch Casserole
- Slow Cooker Mississippi Pulled Pork
- Crock Pot Teriyaki Pulled Pork
- Crock Pot Root Beer Pulled Pork
- Pulled Pork Burritos with Cheesy Sour Cream Sauce
Watch the short video below to see how easy this recipe is to make:
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.
Notes
Nutrition
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This was fantastic! I’ve gone through a TON of online Carolina BBQ recipes and this one is by far the favorite. I live on the OBX and we have a few killer BBQ places around. The taste of this hangs right up there with what they’re doing. Very good 🤤
I cook this every other month, I sub paprika for the crushed red peppers, since kids eat it. But it’s a favorite in our house. I also don’t drain the liquid, I find the meat will soak up most of it after it’s shredded and use that more as the sauce instead of making an additional BBQ
The recipe sounds good, but I would increase the ketchup to at least a full cup in the final sauce and add 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of Hickory Liquid Smoke in order to get a full BBQ flavor. I would also add a teaspoon of onion powder, a half teaspoon of garlic powder and at least a 1/2 cup of minced onion. Obviously, the second sauce has to be reduced down to thicken it. I am not sure that 20 minutes is a sufficient time in order to properly thicken that sauce.
Truth be told, I haven’t tried this recipe yet, although it sounds deliciously perfect with just one exception: Toss out the sauce/pot liquor because of the grease? Simply use a separator to degrease the existing sauce, and then add more if needed. If you don’t own a separator, pour the cooking juices into a wide-mouth anything and refrigerate for a few hours. The grease will rise and can then either be skimmed off or if left overnight, broken off in solid chunks. I plan to try this recipe this week because it sounds really great! But please – do not commit the crime of throwing away all that good juice!
As you said, they take their BBQ serious in north Carolina. This is Lexington style, not Eastern North Carolina style. Lexington style is a tomatoe vinegar base. Eastern North Carolina is a vinegar only base, no tomatoes. 🤦🏻♂️
I agree with you. My father who was born and raised in Raleigh NC often made his family style BBQ or pulled pork as some call it. Never ever did he (and now his children) add any Ketchup or tomatoes to it.
This is really excellent. I’ve lived my whole life in the Carolinas but it feels empowering to be able to make my own ‘cue instead of always having to go out for it. I do add liquid smoke to the cooking sauce and it provides a nice enhancement although it would never be confused with genuinely smoked meat. The ketchup-heavy sauce recipe would actually qualify as “Lexington style”, which is common to the Piedmont Triad area. The further west you go, the thicker and sweeter the sauce gets. I’m more fond of eastern N.C. style, so I blend cider and white vinegar, cut the ketchup in half and add a little water. The sugar also helps cut the acidity. I usually double my sauce recipe so I have some left over to bottle up as a table condiment.
Easy to make, delicious and tender! What a great find! Thank you
If you add ketchup to the sauce, you have made western Carolina sauce. Eastern style does not use any tomato product. Usually they use equal parts white and apple cider vinegar as well. Sugar or honey is optional.
This is very true. I lived in Eastern South Carolina And there was no tomato in it, but this is good.
I THIS is just awesome!!! I have made this a few times and it comes out perfect every time. My family and friends love it! As a Southerner I can tell you this is true Carolina bbq!!! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
This has become my “go to” recipe for pulled pork. I made it for a party a year ago, and it still gets raves from family and friends.
Iam very anxious to try this recipe
Thanks for sharing really helpful for me.
Cooked it in an instant pot on low for 8:50. Meat was at most partially cooked. I don’t know if it’s becuase our Boston butt was bone in or if were doing something else wrong.
Try upping the time to 12 minutes. Add 3minute increments until desired tenderness is achieved. Then finish with the BBQ sauce on saute mode, stirring frequently until BBQ is at the consistency you want.
The instant pot has 3 slow cook settings. Low is equivalent to keep warm. Select the medium option for low and high when you want high.
Hi! We’re from up north and decided to make this recipe for the Fourth of July (it’s cooking as I write this). The instructions say to cook on low for 8-10 hours. We’re using an instant pot so we put the setting to slow cooker, put the heat to “less” and turned venting on. We checked it after about 8 hours and 50 minutes and the meat was at the most, partially cooked. I’m wondering if this was because we used bone in Boston butt or if our instant pot’s low setting isn’t hot enough. Do you have an idea of what we might have done wrong?😅
I don’t really have any experience using the Instant Pot as a slow cooker so I’m not really sure what went wrong. The bone shouldn’t have been an issue.
its because you vented it
My IP never cook properly when i use slow cook. I use my regular crockpot/slow cooker. Just finish making this recipe and it is fabulous. I can say this because i was born and raisedbon NC pork barbeque.
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OMG! I had my laugh for the day reading the comment from Gerry in Oregon. Thank you Rachael for your thoughts. If the intent was to place the excess fat on top of the onions, the meat would not have had to have been trimmed, now would it Gerry.
However, quite yummy. My new favorite pulled pork recipe!
Hi Christina, I made this pulled pork and gosh! it was nice. My wife took it to her office for the potluck and won first prize! I did make some modifications, like adding caramelized leftover onions from the crockpot (I had to put the drained remains from the crock in a flat pan until onions got fully caramelized and almost burnt), modified the ratio of ketchup to apple cider vinegar a bit. Also added a little dried Thyme and Basil. I also increased the garlic to two portions.
I usually cook Indian food pretty well and am the main cook in my family.
Thanks a lot for sharing!
I’ve made this recipe once before and it was delicious. I’m making it again, using the same cut – pork shoulder butt with the bone. Does it matter if it’s bone side down in the pot? Should I flip it over halfway through? I can’t remember what I did the last time. It’s in my crock pot now, bone side down.
This recipe is the bomb!!!! I cooked this in my Instant Pot with chicken instead of pork and added a dash of liquid smoke afterwards! LOVE Carolina style bbq! I can’t wait to do this with pork or beef!!!
How long did you cook it in your instant pot?
Thank you for this recipe!! I haven’t had Carolina bbq since I moved away from North Carolina YEARS ago. This was just what I’d been missing!!