Pulled Pork

If you have all day to cook, this is a great dish.The meat comes out tender and full of flavor from the slow cook process. I like to use the pulled pork for sandwiches, tacos, or on a salad. One of my favorite way to eat this dish is to buy a fresh loaf of bed and assemble a sandwich with the pulled pork, pickled cabbage, avocado, and tomato. It's my Salvadorean inspired sandwich.I'll post this assemble in a future post.


Ingredients
Brine
3 cups warm water + additional cold water
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1 onion
4 garlic cloves

2-3 pound pork butt (shoulder)
4 Tbs dried oregano
4 Tbs ground cumin
1/8 c. paprika
3 Tbs garlic powder
3 Tbs onion powder
1/4 c brown sugar
1 Tbs cayenne pepper
1/8 c. salt
4 Tbs black pepper

Brine Preparation
The night before brine the pork shoulder.
1. In a small cooler or large bowl and add 3 cups warm water. Add 1 cup salt and 1 cup brown sugar. Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar.
2. Add 1 corsely chop onion and 4 garlic cloves that were bruise or chopped.
3. Place 2+ cups of ice into the water to bring the temperature of the water down.
4. Place the pork shoulder in a small cooler and add water to cover the shoulder. Place the cooler in the fridge overnight.

Pull-pork rub and cooking
1. Pre-heat the oven to 225F.
2. In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients except the pork butt. Mix evenly. This will be the dry rub for the butt.
3. Rub generously the dry rub on the pork butt. Place the pork butt in a pan.
4. Cover the pork with foil and place in the oven. Cook for 6 hours cover at 225F.
5. After 6 hours, remove the foil cover and increase the oven heat to 300F. Cook for an additional 3 hours at 300F.
6. Remove pork from the oven and let pork butt rest for 10 minutes.
7. Pull the pork and serve.