LUSCIOUS

Enough already – if you watch the Food Network, it’s all rub this and pulled pork that. Every show this summer has been focused on using dry rubs, for some weird reason, and/or pulling pork. So when the chef came home with a 7.5 pound pork butt, we looked at each other……dry rub and slow cook? Well, of course. But no pulling. We have to draw the line somewhere.

Since we have the great homemade buns I made yesterday, we decided to make chopped pork sandwiches with a spicy chipotle sauce. And boy, it was spicy. Chipotle peppers bring smokiness, sure, but it’s the heat that got our attention. Yikes. It was fantastic.

Start by applying your house dry rub liberally to the pork butt:

Put the pork in a roasting pan, on a rack. Set the oven at 225 and roast for a total of 8 hours, or until the internal temperature of the pork is 170.

To make the sauce, you’ll need five good-sized dried chipotles. They’re pretty tough, so he whirred them in the blender and then took the pulverized peppers to his mortar and pestle to finish them off.

smoky dried chipotles

Start by sauteeing one medium to large yellow onion (chopped) and three huge cloves of garlic (chopped) in a little butter. When they’re translucent, splash in a bit of red wine, then stir in a bit more dry rub. Then a bit of cider vinegar, some brown sugar, and the ground chipotle peppers. After simmering it for 15 minutes, puree it in the blender until it is relatively smooth. Back to the stove, continue to simmer with 2/3 can of tomato sauce. Thin it out with a little water, then pour that in the bottom of the roasting pan under the pork that has been roasting for 6 hours already, at 225. Mix it with the pan drippings and let it continue roasting for the last couple of hours.

Here’s the pork butt when it finishes roasting:

YUM. Ours had this great layer of fat that became leathery and crisp as it roasted.
He peeled it off before chopping, and as it came off, the smells that filled the room?
AMAZING.

Now. You could pull the pork, but why. Chop it. It’s much quicker, for heaven’s sake.

Schmear some of the absolutely luscious sauce on the bun, for starters.
Apply liberally. You’ll be so glad….. (and hey, look at that bun!)

that bun, that sauce, such great taste and texture!

Now pile on the chopped pork. Really, pile it on.

Layer in a few raw onion rings, slap the top on, and get ready to chow down.

Our summery couscous salad was a nice accompaniment.

My mouth is still tingling from the wonderful sandwich. The sauce was very spicy, the pork was moist and delicious, and that bun was simply great. Just another wonderful meal in the luscious food household.