Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

My best friend mentioned making pulled pork in root beer, and I thought that sounded fascinating. I did some looking around and I decided to try making this with  Dr. Pepper instead. A lot of recipes I found added a bunch of stuff to the cooking, but I wanted to keep that part nice and simple and instead make a great sauce to go with it.

Ingredients:

Pulled pork:

2.5-3lbs of bone in pork shoulder or pork butt
20oz of Dr. Pepper
Salt

Sauce:

3.5 C cooking liquid strained
1t Worcestershire sauce
1t apple cider vinegar

¼ t garlic powder

¼ t onion powder

¼ t red pepper flake

⅛ t cinnamon

Directions:

Place your pork butt (don't worry it's not actually from the butt, ham comes from the butt) in your slow cooker and lightly salt the top, approx. 1t, and then pour on the soda. Slap on the lid and cook on low for 7-8 hrs.

After 7-8 hrs extract your beautiful piece of pork and place it on a cutting board (this was the hardest part for me to do because the pork was so tender it kept falling apart as I tried to lift it). Gently tent the pork with a sheet of aluminum foil and let it rest for 20 min. Remove the liquid the remains in your slow cooker, strain it, and set it aside. I wound up with 3.5 cups left over.

Now, the fun part! Use a pair of forks to pull the pork, starting in the middle and working out. Feel free to shred it as finely or as coarsely as you would like, depending on the texture you prefer. Place the pulled pork back in your slow cooker and put it on warm or the lowest heat it can provide.

Take the reserved cooking liquid and put it in a medium saucepan over medium high heat add the spices and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the sauce to 1 cup or ⅓ of the original volume. Remove from the heat and make any spice adjustments you'd like. Feel free to add a pinch of salt if the vinegar is too bitter. Once you are happy with the flavor, pour the sauce on the pulled pork and stir to combine.

Serve on a lightly toasted and buttered brioche bun and enjoy!