Sweet, boozy, easy-to-make homemade honey whiskey barbecue sauce on top of smokey, slow cooked shredded pulled pork. Practically cooks itself!
Brace yourself for the most scatterbrained post on this blog. Ready?
1. Over the weekend, I went to an Italian restaurant with my bff. A hole in the wall and, a total Yelp find! My favorite kind of places. I’m not a HUGE fan of Italian food because too much cheese makes me sick. I know right? I’m so weird. Adding seafood though makes me love Italian food to the fifth power. What did I order? Spinach fettuccini in a creamy lobster sauce tossed with shrimp and mixed mushrooms. IT WAS AMAZING! Oh and my bff had the ravioli stuffed with gorgonzola cheese and pear with figs and marsala wine. Also, amazing. Maybe I should try to recreate these dishes. What say you?
2. After cleaning out my camera roll on my phone recently, I found SO many pics that never made it to the ‘gram. My Instagram game’s been strong lately! My personal account, anyway: @holajme – follow me!
3. Have you updated your iPhone to the new iOS 10 yet? SO FUN. You can draw, send confetti, post stickers, react to speech bubbles, GIFs! ALL THE GIFs! As if we needed anymore distractions, ya know. I couldn’t imagine being a kid during this era. I would have probably flunked out of school!
4. My Snapchat feed was FULL of Kanye concert snaps this weekend. Made me regret not buying tickets. Yes, I’m a Kanye fan. I ain’t sorry! I love his crazy ass. Today, I was listening to “Last Call” from The College Dropout album. Great song, it’s 12 minutes long! What are your music favorites lately? I feel like music, in general, is hanging by a thread. Maybe it’s just my old age showing…
5. Who are your favorites on Snapchat? I follow so many people but there’s always room for more entertainment! Let’s exchange notes. ;)
“You’re as smooth as Tennessee whiskey, you’re as sweet as strawberry wine…”
Yes, I’m also a country music fan. Such extremes, huh?
Honey whiskey is one of my favorite spirits. Since I love to experiment in the kitchen, cooking with it was calling my name!
In the past, for BBQs, we’ve made our own bootleg version of this BBQ sauce by just grabbing store-bought barbecue sauce, adding honey whiskey, and mixing it all up.
To my surprise, after reading this, it appears that even the big boys do this same hack. Who knew!? From the same article, I also learned that the magic formula for homemade BBQ sauces is tomato base + sweet + salty + spicy + smoky + acidic.
As soon as I finished reading this, I went straight to the kitchen to try it out!
Since pulled pork is one of the staples in my kitchen (see spicy BBQ pulled pork + cuban-style pulled pork aka lechón), I decided to make this Honey Whiskey BBQ sauce for yet another pulled pork recipe. I just can’t get enough!
Hope you make it this week and you LOVE it!
Slow Cooker Honey Whiskey BBQ Pulled Pork
Ingredients
Honey Whiskey BBQ Sauce
- 1/4 cup onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup honey whiskey I used Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey Whiskey
- 1/3 cup tomato paste
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
- 2 pound bone-in Boston Butt roast
- 1 cup Honey Whiskey BBQ sauce
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon cumin
Instructions
Honey Whiskey BBQ Sauce
- In a saucepan, cook the onion and garlic, low and slow, at medium high heat, until the onions are translucent.
- Carefully pour honey whiskey in the saucepan. Once reduced slightly, add tomato paste, dark brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, honey, apple cider vinegar, and smoked paprika.
- Let simmer for around 30-45 minutes until reduced. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, but still pourable.
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
- Poke holes in the roast with a cook's fork and place in the slow cooker.
- Add 1/2 tablespoon of salt, pepper, paprika, and cumin. Save the other 1/2 tablespoons for later.
- Cover and cook in the slow cooker on low for about 6 hours, or until fork tender. Slow cooker times will vary.
- Drain the liquid into a bowl. Save about 1 cup of the liquid.
- Using two forks, pull apart the meat into shreds, removing the fatty pieces (unless you like it, you can leave it in).
- Add the remaining tablespoons of seasonings - 1/2 tablespoons of salt, pepper, paprika, and cumin plus 1 cup of the liquid. Add Honey Whiskey BBQ sauce. Mix it all together.
- Cook for another 30 minutes on low. That's all folks!
Notes
Looking for other sauce ideas?
- Avocado Chimichurri
- Homemade Honey Mustard Sauce
- Cilantro Garlic Sauce
- Homemade Lightened Up Chipotle Mayo
- Lemon Yogurt Sauce
- Avocado Sauce
- Cilantro Garlic Chimichurri
- Avocado Crema
- Mango Rum Sauce
- Lightened Up Big Mac Sauce
- Arugula Pesto
- Homemade Lightened Up Caesar Dressing
- Mango Mojito Dressing
- Avocado Dill Dressing
- Homemade Honey Whiskey BBQ Sauce
- Guava BBQ Sauce
Hi Jamie!! Question…you only put the BBQ sauce on the meat after you’ve shredded it? What liquid do you cook the meat in? It looks like it’s just dry rubbed with spices.
Hi! Yes, you only add the BBQ sauce at the end. There’s no need to add any liquid during the slow cooking process as the meat will let go of a lot of its own juices. Be sure to follow the instructions exactly. Hope that helps!