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Slow-Cooked Orange Pulled Pork

Slow-Cooked Orange Pulled Pork

Tender, sticky pulled pork slow-cooked with orange juice, warm spices and honey. Nothing like your traditional BBQ pulled pork - and all the better for it.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 6
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

For the pulled pork
  • 1.5-2 kg Boneless pork shoulder
  • 350 mls Orange juice
  • 4 Whole garlic cloves
  • 1 White onion
  • 1 Thumb of fresh ginger
  • 1.5 tbsp Cumin
  • 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp Sumac
  • 1 tbsp Mixed herbs
  • 1 tsp Chilli flakes
  • 2 tbsp Tomato paste
  • 2 tbsp Soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp Honey
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
For the sweet potato fries
  • Sweet potatoes (skin on)
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • Mixed herbs
  • Cumin
To serve
  • Fresh coriander
  • Spring onion
  • Pickled red onions

Method
 

  1. Sear the pork. Season the shoulder generously with salt, pepper and all the dried spices. Heat a generous glug of olive oil in your largest, heaviest pot over a high heat. Sear the pork on all sides until deeply golden - this takes a good ten minutes and it's worth every second. Remove and set aside.
  2. Build the base. In the same pot, soften the onion over a medium heat for a few minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add the tomato paste and stir through, letting it cook for a minute.
  3. Add the liquid. Pour in the orange juice, soy sauce and honey and stir everything together, scraping up all the caramelised bits from the bottom of the pot.
  4. Low and slow. Return the pork to the pot - it should sit about halfway in the liquid. Bring to a very gentle simmer, put the lid on and leave on the lowest heat possible for 7-8 hours. Turn it occasionally if you remember.
  5. Pull and finish. When the meat is completely falling apart, remove it and shred with two forks, discarding the string and any large pieces of fat. Return the shredded meat to the pot. If the sauce needs reducing, turn the heat to medium with the lid off for around 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it's sticky and coating everything beautifully.
  6. For the sweet potato fries. No need to peel - just chop into fries or wedges, coat generously with olive oil, salt, plenty of black pepper, mixed herbs and cumin. Into the air fryer until golden and cooked through. Every air fryer is different so keep an eye on them - roughly 30–40 minutes if you're doing a big batch, which you absolutely should.
  7. Serve. The pulled pork piled generously over the sweet potato fries with fresh coriander and pickled red onion

Notes

Just to reiterate - this is not BBQ pulled pork. If that's what you're after, this isn't it. But if you want something more nuanced, less sweet and genuinely surprising, you're in exactly the right place.
The sumac is the unexpected hero here - its citrusy, slightly tart quality amplifies the orange without tipping into sweet or sickly territory. Don't skip it.
Pickled red onion is worth the five minutes it takes - slice a red onion thinly, cover with red wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar and salt and leave for an hour. It cuts through the richness of the pork beautifully.
This reheats brilliantly and is arguably even better the next day.