Heston’s Slow Cooked Pulled Pork
Updated January 2025
Pulled Pork. It’s so on trend right now. London is in love with the flavours of the Deep South. We are seeing pulled pork, buttermilk fried chicken, hush puppies and all that on lots of menus.
From street food stalls to high end eateries, we have embraced these dishes and served them up with our own twist. I have collected so many Pulled Pork recipes and have not had a chance to try them all. Some of these are quite intriguing like the one that uses a can of Coke, ketchup and some chopped onions in a slow cooker. I will have to test that one out soon.
Stove top Pulled Pork Recipe by Heston Blumenthal
Here is a very easy Pulled Pork recipe that I cooked recently for the Waitrose BBQ Off party. It’s one that Heston did for his Ultimate BBQ series for Waitrose. It doesn’t take that long, only 1 1/2 hours on the stove and is really good. This recipe yields quite a lot of BBQ sauce too and I used that leftover sauce to make some BBQ Pork Ribs too. I just added the ribs to the leftover sauce in the pan, braised them for about an hour and grilled them for the nice charred effect afterwards. I will definitely make this one over and over again.
This recipe uses pork shoulder steaks which has a bit of marbling. Pork loin will not work well for this as the meat with be very dry and stringy cooking it this way.
It starts with making a barbecue sauce as the braising liquid for the pork. Here, Heston’s little trick to making this taste smokey is to add Paprika or pimenton, that fabulous spice that the Spanish use in everything. Without adding too much flavour or heat, it add a gorgeous red hue and smokey notes to the sauce. An alternative is to add smoked salt (Cornish Sea Saltor Maldon).
Once the sauce is done, sear the spice rubbed pork steaks in a separate pan and add it to the braising liquid in a heavy-bottomed cast iron pot. Braise on a low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the meat and tear or pull the meat apart with 2 forks to serve.
You can serve the meat in a big bowl for everyone to share and make their own or you can make individual portions for everyone. I used wraps instead of burger buns as I prefer them. In addition to the pork, it’s always better when you add some crunch vegetables for a different texture. Here I used a red cabbage slaw. You can add lettuce, salsa, avocado or any other sides of your choice.
Reserve the remaining sauce and reuse it with ribs, chicken or even more pork shoulder. It should keep in the fridge for a week.
Equipment needed for Pulled Pork
For this recipe, I used my new cast iron Chasseur pot from Viking which has a 5.2 litre capacity, ample for the amount of pork in my recipe. These pots are really heavy and solid and have a matt black finish. The heavy cast iron ensures even heat distribution and is great for this slow-cooking recipe. After cooking it it was very easy to clean too (it’s also dishwasher safe). Their cookshop is on sale right now and you can get these cast iron posts at a great bargain price. Top tip: In the sale, you can get a Chasseur cast iron pot for about 1/3 of the price of a Le Creuset equivalent.
Pulled pork in a pressure cooker or slow cooker
Instead of cooking pulled pork on a stove top, you can do this in an Instapot, Ninja Foodi or any other pressure cooker. You will get the same results faster. Just cook the pork on high heat for 45 minutes and release pressure for 15-20 minutes.
In a slow cooker, at the braising stage, put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low heat for about 8 hours or until tender or high heat for 3-4 hours until the meat is tender. Then proceed as below.
Heston’s Slow Cooked Pulled Pork
Ingredients
For the braising liquid
- 1 x ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 x ½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 1 x ½ tsp mustard powder
- 1 x ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
- 1 shallot peeled and finely sliced
- 1 clove garlic peeled and roughly chopped
- 500 g pack Heston from Waitrose Chicken Stock
- 325 g Cooks’ Ingredients Soffritto Passata
- 250 g tomato ketchup
- 175 ml cider vinegar
- 175 g dark muscovado sugar
- 10 ml Worcestershire sauce
- 25 g golden syrup
- 1 tsp tamarind paste
For the pulled pork
- Pack of 4 essential Waitrose British Pork Shoulder Steaks or an equivalent weight Pork Shoulder from a butchers
- Spice mix reserved from making the braising liquid
- Heber Chicory Wood Chips for smoking optional
- Braising liquid
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 burger buns or wraps
Instructions
For the braising liquid
- Combine the ground ginger, paprika, mustard powder and salt in a bowl. Mix well.
- Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. When hot, add the shallots and sweat until very soft and caramelised for approximately 8 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to sweat for 1 minute.
- Add half the spice mix – reserving the other half for a rub – and the rest of the ingredients to the pan and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer for 15 minutes then blitz with a hand-held blender until smooth.
- Pass the liquid through a fine meshed sieve and set aside.
For the pulled pork
- Season both sides of the pork steaks with the remaining spice mix. Sear in a hot pan (or place on a hot barbecue – see smoking tip, below) to colour both sides for approximately 1 minute on each.
- Remove the pork shoulder steaks from the heat. Place the braising liquid in a large pan, add the seared steaks and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat until the liquid barely simmers. Allow to cook for 90 minutes.
- After the time has elapsed, allow the meat to cool in the sauce completely. Remove the steaks and place on a chopping board. Use 2 forks to pull the meat apart until it is finely shredded. Place the shredded meat back into the barbecue sauce.
- When ready to serve, warm the meat in the barbecue sauce by placing the pan over medium heat. Check the seasoning and adjust with salt and freshly ground black pepper if necessary. Warm the burger buns or wraps by placing them cut-side up in a warm oven or on a warm barbecue. Place some of the meat on the bottom half of the bun, add some slaw and place the other half of the bun on top.
Notes
To intensify the smoky flavour of the meat, place wood chips in a square of tin foil, folding it round the chips to make a closed parcel. Using a sharp knife, poke holes in the parcel. When the barbecue has cooled down slightly, put the parcel on to the coals. Place the steaks on the grill and cover with the barbecue lid, allow to stand for 10 minutes, flipping after 5 minutes.
You can find more Heston Ultimate Barbecue recipes here.
The Chasseur pot was a review item from Viking Direct.
