Do you know what makes buried in a foot of snow better? Jerk pulled pork flavored with Caribbean spices thrown in a slider roll and topped with pineapple salsa. If you can’t look outside and see palm trees and warmth, you can at least taste it in your mouth…amirite?
I probably couldn’t have timed this any worse, or better, depends on how you look at it. Regardless we’re about to get slammed with snow and now is the time to start thinking about your snow day menu and hit the oh so crowded grocery stores.
I actually had no idea a snow storm was coming so this slow cooker thing is a total coincidence. My mom recently went to Jamaica and brought me back a Jamaican Jerk marinade that I threw in the crockpot with a pork roast a few weeks back. I FELL IN LOVE. Jerk anything is delicious, it’s spicy yet sweet and filled with warming spices like allspice and nutmeg, and balanced with spicy scotch bonnet peppers and tangy citrus.
My first time making this was my first ever time making pulled pork in the crock pot. I’ve always kept it low and slow in the oven, and I have plans with the smoker as soon as it’s tolerable outside. This.was.perfect. The pork was fork tender, the au jus made it perfect for basting and dipping, and the exterior of the pork was beautifully charred, just as if it came out of the oven or smoker. I am too excited.
This recipe has two components: the pork and the marinade.
Whether you want to make this for the weekend storm or serve this for Superbowl Sunday, this is perfect for entertaining or a simple weekday dinner that you can get started hours ahead. I’m only feeding my household of 4 so I went ahead and bought a 2.5 pound pork shoulder (AKA Boston Butt). To make life easier, at the bottom of the post I whipped up a chart guiding you in how big of a pork butt you’ll need.
As far as the prep, all you have to do is trim any excess fat then throw it in a bag of marinade. SPEAKING OF.
Let’s just pretend that picture is pretty, k?
When you first look at the ingredients you’re probably going to be like woah, that’s a ^%#@ ton of ingredients. After REALLY looking at it, you’ll realize it’s nothing more than staple ingredients (brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, onion, etc). Traditional Jerk marinade is made up of a few important ingredients like scotch bonnet peppers, all-spice, ginger, thyme, and often soy sauce. I found that scotch bonnets were ridiculously hard to find so I used a combination of habanero, jalapeno, and serrano. You can do whatever combo you’d like!
Marinade the pork for a few hours, stick it in the crockpot, set it on low, and come back 6-8 hours later. Set it and forget it. And then realize how life changing a crockpot is and yell at yourself for not using it more often.
The pork is incredibly tender as you can see above. I used two forks to shred it in the pot then swirl it around in alllll its flavorful juices. It’s ready to eat as is OR…
…buy some King Hawaiian roles, store made pineapple salsa, coleslaw, and build yourself some Jamaican Jerk Pulled Pork Sliders. I liked this. A lot.
As you can guess from the marinade, the pork itself is spicy, has a touch of sweetness, and a tang of citrus from the orange and lime. This is delicious and sure to warm you up – I can’t wait for you to make this.
To all my east coast friends, be safe, stay warm, and enjoy!
- 1 jalapeno pepper, stem removed and roughly chopped (see note below)
- 1 habanero pepper, stem removed and cut in half (see note below)
- 1 serrano pepper, stem removed and roughly chopped (see note below)
- 3 scallions, roughly chopped
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger (or 2 teaspoons ground ginger)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup orange juice, preferably fresh
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 lb. boneless Boston Butt, trimmed of excess fat
- 1 large onion, sliced into thin slices or julienne
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until ingredients are well blended and marinade forms. It won't look pretty but I promise it tastes pretty!
- Add the pork to a heavy zip lock bag and pour in the marinade. Refrigerate for a minimum of three hours to overnight. Remove from fridge one hour before cooking.
- Transfer pork to crockpot with all of the marinade. Add the onion slices. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until fork tender.
- Pull pork with a fork and enjoy as is, or serve in between Kings Hawaiian rolls with pineapple salsa or coleslaw.
- Enjoy 🙂
- If you can find scotch bonnet peppers, use three of those. If not, you can use any combination of peppers you like. I left the seeds in, but you can remove to adjust heat preference.
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I just got back from the store, so ready to make this! I have an important question, though. I was rereading the intro where you mentioned it’s mostly staples like brown sugar, but that was not in the recipe. Should I add a tablespoon or so of brown sugar?
YES! oh my goodness, fixing now. two tablespoons 🙂 let me know how it turns out!
Question! So I made this and it looked NOTHING like you’re beautiful pictures. It tasted absolutely delicious, my husband and our company raved over it and we almost finished the entire roast in one sitting. But it just didn’t get that char like yours did. I’ll admit that the charred top is the only reason I have never tried making pulled pork in the slow-cooker, but when you said that your’s got a beautiful char I decided to try it. I have re-read the recipe a few times, and I don’t think I did anything differently. The only “substitutions” I made were I used fresh tangerine juice instead of fresh orange juice, and yellow onions instead of scallions (I already had tangerines and yellow onions on hand already). Do you think it’s just variation in the slow-cooker? Or do you have any tips for getting that char?
It really was so delicious, and I plan to make it again soon, just no char 🙂
Hey Mary! So funny, I never made any meat-dishes in the slow cooker until the jerk pulled pork. I was so hesitant for the same reasons as you (I think I shared that in the post). I was STUNNED when my pork came out so charred and it still amazes me when I make this recipe (it’s a frequent here!). I’m curious as to why yours did not char though. I wish I could tell more because I’m far from the crock pot expert (this pulled pork is my only slow cooker recipe), so I want to say it could be the brand and/or variation in the slow-cooker. I have the “Crockpot” brand (that is literally the brand, weird right?) and it has “the original slow-cooker” labeled on it. I think since the char adds such a wonderful texture and flavor, you should make this in the oven next time. I have a recipe titled “Delectable Oven Roasted Pulled Pork” where you can use the same cooking times and methods, just with the jerk marinade. Hope this helps, and so glad you enjoyed this!