Our BBQ pulled pork sliders with tangy slaw are not only easy, but absolutely delicious! Are you cooking for a group anytime soon or have a house full of hungry kids? BBQ pulled pork sliders are the perfect meal for you when you have a lot of hungry mouths to feed! Both Courtney and I love to entertain and it’s meals like this that make entertaining stress free because it requires minimal work and it’s always a huge hit!
To make these BBQ pulled pork sliders, it first requires throwing a few dry ingredients in a bowl to make a rub. Rub the rub (haha, see what I did there!!!) all over the pork shoulder so it’s nice and smothered.
Once the pork shoulder is fully coated in the rub, wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap. We were feeding a big crowd so we doubled the recipe. Place the wrapped pork shoulder in the fridge for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight to let all of the flavor seep into the meat.
When it’s time to cook up the pork you want to start by getting a nice sear on each side of the meat. This requires a bit of olive oil in a large dutch oven over high heat and searing each side for about 2 minutes or so. You want it to look nice and browned like these photos. From there add your veggies to the dutch oven and pour chicken broth over the top of the meat.
Slow roast the pork at 325 degrees for about 5 hours until the pork literally begins to fall apart. While the pork is roasting you have plenty of time to whip up the homemade bbq sauce and the tangy slaw
The slaw is just a combo of purple cabbage and napa cabbage, oil, vinegar, celery salt, a bit of honey and dry mustard. Mix together until the cabbage is fully coated and let it sit in the fridge to let the flavors absorb until time to serve.
You can either use your favorite store-bought bbq sauce or whip up our Homemade BBQ Sauce – GTK Style, which we definitely recommend! It takes all of 5 minutes to make and we guarantee you will LOVE it!
Once the pork is ready, transfer the pork and onions to a large cutting board – if you have a cutting board that you use for turkey or roasts definitely use it because you will have some juices draining. This is the fun part…take two forks and get busy shredding the meat and onions with the forks. My kids love to takeover during this step of the process!
It’s time to add the bbq sauce. Add the shredded meat to a large bowl and pile on the bbq sauce. Toss the sauce into the meat with tongs making sure you get all of the meat covered in the sauce.
Now this is where the magic really happens…it’s time to assemble the best BBQ pulled pork sliders ever! We love to eat the pork with toasted brioche buns but the kids prefer sweet Hawaiian rolls. Whatever you choose, pile on the pulled pork and top with that yummy tangy slaw. How good does this look? Is your mouth watering yet? You are going to want to add this to your “meals to make” list, STAT!
- 1 boneless pork shoulder (around 6 pounds)
- ¼ C dark brown sugar
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 Tbsp paprika
- 1 Tbsp chile powder
- 1 tsp cracked pepper
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 yellow onions. quartered
- 2 large carrots, chopped into large pieces
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 C chicken stock
- brioche buns or hawaiian rolls
- Your favorite BBQ sauce or GTK BBQ sauce - see recipe below
- 2 C ketchup
- ½ C brown sugar
- ⅓ C worcestershire sauce
- ¼ C cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp hot pepper sauce (we use smokey chipotle pepper sauce) - adjust based on the amount of heat you prefer
- 4 cloves garlic - minced
- 2 tsp dry mustard powder
- 1 Tbsp liquid smoke
- ¼ C molasses
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ head napa cabbage - thinly sliced
- ½ head purple cabbage - thinly sliced
- ¼ C cider vinegar
- ¼ C oil (we used peanut oil)
- 1 Tbsp honey
- ¼ tsp dry mustard
- ¼ tsp celery salt
- In a small bowl add brown sugar, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika, chile powder and S&P. Mix together.
- Rub all over the outside of the pork. Tightly wrap pork in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Heat olive oil in heavy pot or dutch oven on med-high heat, once heated place pork in pan and brown each side, about 2 minutes per side.
- Once meat is nicely browned, add in the onions, carrots and garlic to the bottom of the pan and place pork on top. Add the chicken stock to the pan, place lid over top and place in the oven.
- Cook for approx 5 hours, or until the meat is fork-tender and falling apart.
- Remove from oven and transfer meat and onions to a cutting board. Using forks, shred the meat into a large bowl.
- Pour desired amount of BBQ sauce over the meat and toss to cover.
- In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients together
- In a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, oil and honey to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the celery salt and dry mustard. Whisk ingredients together and allow to cool slightly. Once cooled, pour over cabbage and onion mixture and toss to cover evenly.
- Refrigerate slaw until ready to serve
