Recipe: Father’s Day, Allergen-Free, Brown Sugar Pulled Pork [Sponsored]

“This is the pork dish you dream about.” That was from one of my taste testers and I could not agree more.

Luscious, sweet, succulent and rich, this recipe is the one that your guests will think you spent days and years and sleepless night perfecting but you will know that you barely did a thing. 

Three ingredients – sugar, salt and pepper - plus pork, it does not get easier. And completely top 8 allergen-free.

A great option for an allergen-free Father’s Day!

This is also an excellent recipe to get little cooks into the kitchen, as there’s no chopping or slicing, no browning; just rubbing pork shoulder with sugar, salt and pepper and then a long slow cook in the oven, without any hands on work (except spooning the juices over the meat now and then). Especially for Father’s Day, children will feel such a sense of pride if they can present this to dad and say: “I made this!”

Kids love to help cook: it gives them ownership over the food they are consuming and for children with food allergies, all kinds of food allergy risk management life lessons abound when you get them in the kitchen: reading labels, kitchen safety, food safety, what they can and cannot eat, cross contact, clean hands, clean surfaces. Get them in that kitchen!

I purchased all the ingredients at Fairway Market in Harlem here in New York City. They have boneless pork butt (i.e. shoulder) all tied up and ready to go in their meat department.  I bet your local Fairway or grocer will too. If not, ask your butcher.

Recipes notes:

--I use Morton’s coarse Kosher salt - I use one third of the amount called for in the original recipe. Remember you can always add salt but you cannot take away once a dish is cooked. One tablespoon of salt was perfect for me and my testers.

--I use freshly ground pepper from my own pepper mill and I cut it in half because I didn't want it too peppery.

--I use Sugar In the Raw turbinado sugar. I used a scooch more sugar than the original recipe because I love the brown sugar taste here.

--If you're concerned that there’s no liquid in this recipe, fear not. The dish creates its own juices with which you will baste the meat to succulent, falling-apart goodness.

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Recipe: Allergen-Free, Brown Sugar Pulled Pork

Lightly adapted from Epicurious

YIELD: 4-6 servings

ACTIVE TIME: 10 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 5 hours (plus overnight seasoning)

4-5 pounds of boneless pork butt (i.e. shoulder)

¼ cup + 1 T Turbinado sugar

1 T Kosher salt

1.5 t fresh ground pepper

Combine sugar, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Place pork in Dutch oven and rub all over with sugar mixture, then cover and chill in fridge overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake the pork covered for 4 to 5 hours or until very tender, basting every 30 minutes. (NB: I cooked mine 4.5 hours and braised once every hour and it was perfect.) Once tender remove from the heat. Let stand at least 15 minutes before reminding the string and shredding. NB: It will fall apart in your hands with big luscious chunks of brown sugar glazed hunks calling to you. Try not to gobble every last bit up.

Serving ideas:

Serve over steamed white rice and side salad, which is how I had it.

Serve with yellow rice, black beans, plantains – go for it!

Serve with your fave safe BBQ sauce, cole slaw, baked bean and safe for your hamburger buns.

Serve with bread & butter pickles or marinated onions as a sammy.

I love Martin’s potato rolls and I bet King’s Hawaiian  rolls would be a delight, both nut free. 

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Some pictures of the process:

4.28 pounds of boneless pork shoulder from Fairway

Sugar, salt & pepper

The GORJ pink Le Creuset I won on Instagram through HipFoodieMom1

Pork with spice rub to go into fridge overnight

Pork coming out of fridge at 8:30am and going into oven

Pork after 4.5 hours of baste once every hour. LUSCIOUS!

Thank you Fairway Market for sponsoring* this delicious allergen-friendly recipe!



(*My policies regarding my sponsored posts.)

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