Pulled Pork Sandwich with Homemade BBQ Sauce

When one typically makes a pulled pork sandwich, one spends hours cooking the pork and then just a moment slathering on a store-bought BBQ sauce. With this recipe, you are going to do the opposite. You will spend just a few minutes heating up your store-bought pulled pork and will devote your time to making homemade BBQ sauce.

The key to this speedy recipe is Kirkland Smoked Pulled Pork. This terrific product is sold at Costco and once you've tried it, I think you may abandon any desire to make your own pulled pork from scratch. You get two pounds of heavenly pulled pork for just $9.59.

The pork is smoked over natural hickory wood for 12 to 14 hours (no liquid smoke here). Hats off to the pit master as the amount of smoke is spot on! The pork is packaged without any sauce...that's your job...and I will give you  Nutzie's fabulous recipe to make your own.

You heat the pork in your microwave...it takes just seven minutes...and then mix it with your homemade BBQ sauce. And once you've made homemade BBQ sauce, I think you will find it very difficult to go back to the store-bought variety. I typically serve these sandwiches with fresh corn-on-the-cob. This recipe serves six.

Ingredients for the Sandwiches
One, 2-pound package of Kirkland Smoked Pulled Pork
6 fresh hamburger buns, sliced

Ingredients for Nutzie's Homemade BBQ Sauce 
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
3/4 cup minced onions
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste


Directions

1. For the sauce: Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 4 minutes. Then add all other ingredients. Let simmer over medium-low heat until flavors meld, about 15 minutes.
2. For the pork: Remove cardboard sleeve. Use a knife to puncture 4 slits in top of pork plastic wrap. Keep pork in plastic tray and heat pork in microwave, on high, for 7 minutes. Let pork cool for 2 minutes when done. Carefully open plastic and put pork into large bowl. Use 2 forks to shred pork.
3. Add BBQ sauce to pork in the bowl in small increments until you have desired amount of sauce coverage.
4. Divide pork among buns and serve.

Wine pairing: Zinfandel