Red Curry Coconut Pulled Pork
Spring is in the air and flavorful, fruity recipes are on my mind! This time of year is always pretty busy for me, but spring of 2016 is proving to be especially crazy, mostly because I’m officially six months away from my wedding (yes, shockingly someone has stepped up to the plate to spend the rest of their life with me, who knew).
So I’m knee-deep in all sorts of wedding planning and bridal budgeting, while trying to juggle a day job, all my blogging projects, and SXSW, which completely takes over the city of Austin in both good ways (parties, events, and bands galore!) and bad ways (traffic, omg the traffic).
Basically, this leaves me with zero time to cook. The good news is, I have a slow cooker. And with a slow cooker, you cannot fail. Throw some ingredients in there, set it, forget it, come home from your job or event or meeting and you have a piping-hot meal waiting for you to devour. In this case, that meal is a mouth-watering, sumptuous pulled pork that you will be oh so happy to say aloha to after a long day.
Of course, the ingredients you throw into that miracle slow cooker need to be good. And this recipe here is full of good stuff. We’re starting with a boneless netted fresh pork shoulder roast from Smithfield. This pork is the star of the show and it couldn’t be easier to prep. Literally go buy it at the store, take it home, cut it out of its net, and drop it in the crockpot. Done. No trimming, no chopping, no nothing. Love it!
Then you need some flavor to make your pork great. This is where the aforementioned fruit comes in. The pork shoulder is drenched in crushed pineapple and pineapple juice, plus a bunch of bright, island-y flair: ginger, soy, agave, sriracha, and curry paste come together to make a sweet-spicy-tangy sauce that is so perfect with this juicy, tender pulled pork. Oh, and you’re adding in some coconut milk at the very end for a little bit of creamy sweetness that takes this tropical pulled pork to the next level.
Even if springtime means “no time,” I promise this meal will come together in a snap and everyone will love it. Make sure to have plenty of sweet Hawaiian rolls and white rice on hand for serving!
Red Curry Coconut Pulled Pork
1 Smithfield Boneless Netted Fresh Pork Shoulder Roast
1 cup juice-packed crushed pineapple
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sriracha
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 cup canned coconut milk
This tasty, tropical pulled pork recipe couldn’t be easier to make! Place the pork shoulder into your slow cooker and add all the ingredients besides the coconut milk.
Set the slow cooker to low and let it cook for 7-8 hours. When you get home from work, the gym, wherever… your house will be smelling amazing!
After 7-8 hours, the pork should be cooked through, super tender, and effortless to shred. Grab a pair of tongs or two forks and gently shred it into chunks. Drain any excess liquid from the slow cooker (don’t stress about getting absolutely all of it out, you just don’t want to pulled pork swimming in the juices or it will be too messy). Then mix in the cup of coconut milk and turn the slow cooker to warm.
Feel free to let it sit if you’re not ready to serve yet, or if you’re ready to eat, you’re set to go! Serve up the pulled pork and enjoy.
I served this curry coconut pulled pork on Hawaiian rolls topped with avocado and peanut sauce slaw, plus a side of coconut rice* sprinkled with furikake, and it was a perfect plate of tropical paradise. Do whatever you’d like, though – this pork would work well on a bun, tortilla, or just nestled on top of some white rice.
*It’s really easy to make coconut rice. Just cook white rice the way you always would, but sub coconut milk for half of the water. So if you’re cooking one cup of dry white rice, cook it in one cup water, one cup coconut milk. Done and done!
This sponsored post is part of Endless Simmer’s 2016 series as a Blogger Ambassador for Smithfield Marinated Fresh Pork.
