There’s nothing quite like a slow-cooked, tender, juicy shredded pork. It’s versatile and freezes well, so I love making a big batch of this Chili Rubbed Pulled Pork to keep on hand for quick dinners later. This heavily spiced pulled pork has become one of my favorites over the years and is probably one of my most cooked recipes. It’s just too easy, with the slow cooker doing all the work, and the results are soooo delicious!
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Use a Slow Cooker for Tender, Moist Meat
Pulled pork is super easy to make, especially if you have a slow cooker. Slow cooking holds in all the moisture during cooking and slowly breaks down connective tissue, so the meat is so tender that it just falls apart and shreds with the touch of a fork. Combine those spectacular results with the fact that slow cookers are essentially hands off, and this is, without dispute, my favorite way to make pulled pork.
How To Use Chili Rubbed Pulled Pork
This delicious shredded meat can be used so many different ways. Pile the pork into rice bowls, burritos, quesadillas, tacos, or just enjoy on a bun. I also love using it to top salads for an extra shot of protein.
Freeze the Extras
This makes a BIG batch, so keep some in your fridge for the week and freeze the rest. To freeze the pulled pork, divide the pork into more manageable portions (I usually do 1-2 cup portions), then chill it completely in the refrigerator overnight. Transfer the pork to the freezer once completely cooled and keep frozen for up to 3 months. Any freezer safe container works.
Chili Rubbed Pulled Pork
Servings 6 (1/2 cup each)Ingredients
- 3 lbs. boneless pork butt or shoulder ($4.47)
- 2 Tbsp chili powder* ($0.60)
- 1 Tbsp smoked paprika ($0.30)
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp onion powder ($0.05)
- 1 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
Instructions
- Combine the chili powder, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper in a bowl.
- Cut the pork butt into 2-3 inch cubes. Place the pork cubes in a large bowl, sprinkle the prepared spice mix over top, then stir to coat the meat in the spices.
- Place the seasoned meat in a slow cooker, place the lid on top, and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or low for 8-9 hours.
- After cooking, stir the meat with a fork to shred the meat. If it's not tender enough to fall apart when stirred, return the lid and cook for an additional 30 minutes and try again. After shredding the meat, it is ready to serve, or portion and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Keep the shredded meat in the juices from the slow cooker until ready to serve for the best flavor.
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Equipment
- Slow Cooker
- Color Cutting Boards
- Chef’s Knife
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!You might also like our Slow Cooker Carnitas recipe!
Chili rubbed pulled pork served as tacos in corn tortillas with sliced jalapeños, pickled red onions, and cotija, Cumin Lime Coleslaw on the side.
How to Make Slow Cooker Pulled Pork – Step by Step Photos
Prepare the chili spice rub first. In a small bowl, combine 2 Tbsp chili powder, 1 Tbsp smoked paprika, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp onion powder, 1 tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper. Stir until they’re evenly mixed.
Cut one 3 lb. boneless pork butt or shoulder into large chunks (about 2-3 inch pieces).
Place the pieces of pork in a bowl and pour the spices over top. Stir the pork pieces until they’re evenly coated in spices.
Place the seasoned pork in a slow cooker (I’m using a 5 qt slow cooker and it’s only about half full). I do not add any water or liquid to the slow cooker, as the meat will release quite a bit of liquid as it cooks. If your slow cooker specifies that you must add some liquid, you can add a cup of water.
Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-9 hours. After cooking it should be so tender that it begins to fall apart when stirred. If it doesn’t, simply put the lid back on and continue to cook for 30-60 minutes more. Sometimes that last little bit of time makes a huge difference in the texture.
Stir the pork in the slow cooker until it has shredded into smaller pieces. Serve immediately or transfer to a food storage container and refrigerate and/or freeze for later. I like to keep the meat right in the cooking juices during storage for maximum flavor.
It’s soooo tender and juicy! And those spices!!
And it makes the absolute BEST tacos!!
I made this a few nights ago. Absolutely delicious, and SUPER EASY! I eat it as a standard pulled pork sandwich with barbecue sauce, or in a rice bowl with salsa, black beans, and cheese. Thank you!
Pork is quite hard to get where I live, so do you think this rub would work with a whole cut up chicken or a beef roast?
Yep, I actually think this would work great with either! :) The flavors are pretty universal.
Can this can be made with a picnic roast with no problems? The picnic roast was on sale for 45 cents a pound! I couldn’t pass that up. I tried googling the difference between a picnic and a butt roast, and it said a picnic roast was more ham tasting. I have another recipe I could use the roast in, but the spices in this one sound so good! Thanks.
I’ve never tried that cut, but if it was on sale for 45 cents per pound, I’d definitely risk trying it out with this recipe. :)
I finally got around to getting the roast defrosted and made yesterday. It was delicious! My roast was 11 pounds (8 after I got the skin removed). I cut off as many chunks as I could and then threw the bone and meat I couldn’t cut off of it and the chunks in the crockpot. To account for the massive size, I tripled the spices and cooked on high for 5 and a half hours.
It got thumbs up from everyone in the family, and my two pickiest eaters kept snitching pieces while I was shredding. I ended up with a whopping 12 cups of meat! It made a divine tamale pie, and the rest is tucked away in the freezer to make burrito bowls, posole, quesadillas, and enchiladas. Thanks for the recipe. It’s an excellent change from the normal carnitas style pork that we make for Mexican recipes.
Awesome! Thanks for the update! :D
I made this last week with a pork roast sirloin and my kids LOVED it…best way I’ve had pork in a long time as well. They’ve already asked me twice to make it again. Now I’m trying it with a big pork loin. I love how its not as greasy as some pork things I’ve tried. They loved it in tacos, I made a burrito bowl/salad type meal for myself. Thank you for sharing, super easy and so yummy.
I have made this several times and have commented before about how delicious it is.
Today, I eliminated the first bowl. I cut up the meat and put it directly in the slow cooker instead of a bowl.
Then followed the recipe as written.
One less bowl to clean!
I just cooked this recipe and had a bite before storing it away to eat later this week and it’s delicious! However, this is the first time I’ve cooked pork, and I noticed mine was a little pink. I cooked it on low for 4 hrs as suggested but did open the lid 2 to stir the meat around. Is this pinkness normal or did I undercook it?
Probably, it needs to be on high for four hours. :( You can do it on low, but it will need closer to 8 hours.
This rub is wonderful, and made even easier by the fact it consisted of seasoning we had readily available.
I tried to make a version of this last night but with a pork loin rather than butt or shoulder, because the loin was on sale and the butts/shoulders were all 7+ pounds. The flavor was great and we’ll definitely be eating all of it, but it was pretty difficult to shred and seems a tad dry. Would you guess that this would be because of the cut of meat?
Thank you!
Yes, probably. The thing that makes the shoulder/butt so tender is that it has a lot of connective tissue and fat, whereas loin is fairly lean. :)
This was so freaking incredible…
I thought I had left it in the fridge for a day to marinate before I crocked it the last time I made it but I don’t see that in the instructions (but yes, in the comments). I think I did it because I prepped meals for the week on Sunday, maybe? <<>> but it did turn out way awesome!
Another winner! I had a very small pork roast, so I didn’t bother to cut mine into cubes. I just rubbed it down with the spice mix, and threw it on high for a couple hours (about 2 1/2 did it for me). Very yummy. I am loving this website.
wow, this was YUM and EASY. I used a larger (4.5 lb pork shoulder) cut of meat and doubled the rub, but instead if using the packaged chili blend i subbed (and doubled!) with straight hot New Mexico red chile powder and a little cumin. It came out PHENOMENAL – like some of the best carne adovada we had in NM. The rich sauce left in the pot after the meat came out was almost exactly like our favorite enchilada sauce. This was much easier than making a NM red sauce from dried red pods and then marinating the meat for a full day before low-and-slow roasting. this will DEF go in my regular rotation!
Could you cook on low for 8 hours instead of high for 4? I want to make this for dinner on a weeknight but don’t have time to pop home halfway through the day.
Thanks!
Yep, that should work fine. :)
This was super easy, took almost no hands on time, and really good! Great in burrito bowls (with rice, black beans, pico de gallo and avocado), and even better in pulled pork sandwiches with Southwest Slaw- my husband whipped some together by mixing mayonnaise, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, honey, cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder, and then pouring it over slivered green cabbage. I don’t usually like slaw (or anything with mayonnaise), but it made the pork sandwiches even more magical!
As always, this recipe is spectacular. We enjoyed it the first time with roasted veggies and I added the leftover meat inside some bad dough mix I picked up from a local market. I am going to make a batch just to use in bao dough for freezer lunches. The slightly sweet dough pairs so perfectly with this.
I used this in the Chili Basic recipe and it turned out so good!
I made this tonight and we had pulled pork sandwiches with a little bbq sauce-looking forward to using the leftovers in burrito bowls for lunches this week!