Delicious BBQ Sandwiches

An-D

Hello, PA. Tonight, I want to try to make BBQ sandwiches. I have like six pork chops that I'm thawing, tons of sauces in the fridge and a dangerous child-like enthusiasm when it comes to shredding food-stuffs. What is the best way for me to make barbeque.

My idea:

1) Take knife, chop thawed pork chop into tiny bits.
2) Cover with delicious bbq sauce.
3) Cook in oven?
4) ???
5) Profit/Eat delicious BBQ


Is this about right? Or is there a better way?

noir_blood

I can't add anything to this thread other than I too have porkchops in the freezer, and bbq sauce, and never once thought of combining the two. I hope someone comes through.

Darkewolfe

Technically pork chops are not the same cut you'd use for pulled or chopped pork (which is typically pork butt.) As a result, you're not going to have the same fat ratio and you'll have more connective tissue. I'd recommend you either cube the chops, or just serve them as chops but smothered in BBQ sauce and put on sandwiches. You could also tenderize the crap out of them and cut them into medallions.

Barrakketh

I wouldn't be using pork chops for BBQ sandwiches. I would just take a basic pulled pork recipe (baked or smoked, I prefer the latter) and toss the shredded bits in the BBQ sauce of your choice. I like mine spicy so I add some minced jalapenos to the sauce.

I tried this recipe a couple of years ago and it came out really good. I used a smoker instead of a grill with a different kind of wood, though.

BrotherVoodoo

One thing I'd like to add, is while I don't enjoy the chops as sandwiches, they taste delicious barbequed and served with something else cooked on the grill, either asparagus or diced green peppers grilled on skewers with spices and a coating of lemon juice right before you take them off.

xa52

This is what you should really be doing with pork chops.

If you're want a bbq sandwich, you want to slow cook/braise a pork shoulder for a few hours. Then you should be able to just pull it apart. I don't think it's difficult, just takes time. (I've never done it, but it sounds like making a pot roast, which I have done.) If you're going to go through the trouble, you should really make your own bbq sauce too. As a former resident of NC I'm going to have to suggest a vinegar-based sauce.

Darkewolfe

xa52 wrote: »

As a former resident of NC I'm going to have to suggest a vinegar-based sauce.

As someone who grew up in Memphis I must inform you that this man is a filthy liar and vinegar-based sauce is a crime against pork.

You want a sweet, smoky tomato-based sauce.

AresProphet

Darkewolfe wrote: »

xa52 wrote: »

As a former resident of NC I'm going to have to suggest a vinegar-based sauce.

As someone who grew up in Memphis I must inform you that this man is a filthy liar and vinegar-based sauce is a crime against pork.

You want a sweet, smoky tomato-based sauce.

Fuck right the hell off. NC style is where it's at.

Tomato-based barbecue is an abomination spawned from the United States' unholy obsession with ketchup, the bastard condiment. It should be purged from culinary history, and its practitioners must be burned at the stake (eating said broiled practitioners smothered in a tasty vinegar/pepper-based BBQ sauce is entirely optional).


You can turn a pork loin (which is what chops are) into pulled pork. It won't be the same, but it's super-lean and tasty on its own. I recommend a slow-cooker: throw it in there with water, a little vinegar, and your choice of spices and let it cook on low for 8 hours. Trim the fat after and crumble it into a bowl with your favorite barbecue sauce (if it has so much as passed near a tomato in its existence god help you) and serve over toasted buns. If you're averse to large chunks of fat in your meat (like I am) this is a pretty awesome substitute for true pulled pork.

I did exactly this last week and it rocked. The only problem is that good pork loin is pricier than a decent pork butt and its almost not worth the substitution, unless you're just sick to death of pork chops.

Kivutar

xa52 wrote: »

As a former resident of NC I'm going to have to suggest a vinegar-based sauce.

Sweet, smokey & spicy barbecue sauces are the only answer. As hot as you can stand it.

Barrakketh

AresProphet wrote: »

Darkewolfe wrote: »

xa52 wrote: »

As a former resident of NC I'm going to have to suggest a vinegar-based sauce.

As someone who grew up in Memphis I must inform you that this man is a filthy liar and vinegar-based sauce is a crime against pork.

You want a sweet, smoky tomato-based sauce.

Fuck right the hell off. NC style is where it's at.

Tomato-based barbecue is an abomination spawned from the United States' unholy obsession with ketchup, the bastard condiment. It should be purged from culinary history, and its practitioners must be burned at the stake (eating said broiled practitioners smothered in a tasty vinegar/pepper-based BBQ sauce is entirely optional).

I hate ketchup and still use tomatoes in my BBQ sauce. About the only thing vinegar is good for (white vinegar in particular since people with defective taste buds seem to use it exclusively) is acid for making pickles :P

I definitely have to recommend making it spicy, though.

Trinis

Good god man, as has been mentioned before, do not waste your chops on barbecue sandwiches. Grill those babies, or pan fry them, or country fry them, or something!

If you really want to make BBQ meat then get something recommended above like pork shoulder or pork butt and slow cook it. A crock pot is an amazing invention, while not giving the full flavor of slow smoked pork, will get the job done fairly well.

Oh, and vinegar based sauce, make it yourself. And hot as hell. Appease both sides? nah not a chance, but it's delicious.

Edit > The meatloaf I made two nights ago is screaming from my belly against all this anti ketchup ranting. Ketchup is a wonderful thing, when it's used right.

Darkewolfe

Real barbecue sauce has very little to do with ketchup. This is a crusade against real sauce by the unrighteous vinegar-only-sauce insurgents. Real southern barbecue, real soul food, real deliciousness, is Memphis style, tomato-based barbecue sauce.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/bbqsaucemarinade/r/bl50522c.htm

Trinis

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Real barbecue sauce has very little to do with ketchup. This is a crusade against real sauce by the unrighteous vinegar-only-sauce insurgents. Real southern barbecue, real soul food, real deliciousness, is Memphis style, tomato-based barbecue sauce.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/bbqsaucemarinade/r/bl50522c.htm

Of course ketchup has nothing to do with barbecue sauce. I just put all the ingredients of ketchup in my sauce, minus most of the sugar.

Cannot tomatoes and vinegar exist in peace? I say they can sir, I say they have, and I say they will.

Edit > wait a minute here... the recipe you linked is more ketchup than anything. I'm not gonna add up the teaspoons but it looks like it's at least half ketchup you dirty turncoat.

I noticed liquid smoke on the list though. Since this is the H/A forum here's some advice: liquid smoke is a really good substitute for actually smoking the pork when using a crockpot or otherwise.

rfalias

Don't bash Vinegar. Where would collard/mustard greens be with out it!?

I like both, though I'm a bit partial to Vinegar style sauces for my pulled pork, and tomato based for other styles of the delicious BBQ's.

I live in florida too!

Eeveelution

I strongly suggest using a Crock Pot, setting it all up to cook, and just letting it cook for 12 hours in your sauce, stirring it up ocassionaly. It will make even the crappiest cuts of meat taste good, save you from having to chop it all up before hand, and will really absorb the flavor of any sauce you choose.

A Bear

Don't get caught up in the regional sauce debate--everyone's got their own opinion, but its only your mouth that you need to be listening to, as long as it knows that there is only one state for true barbecue. As a fellow North Carolinian, I enjoy both eastern vinegar, and Lexington style and find that when serving more than a half-dozen folks its good to have both on hand. That being said, those pork chops aren't what you need to be looking for to get real good barbecue--find a place to get a boston butt, rub it with a bit of coarse salt, and throw it on a grill at about 225 for a couple hours, turning occasionally. The skin should become crisp (but not too crisp) and brown, and will make for great eating on its own, but make sure to leave most of the outside for the main course. Once the shoulder is cooked--and the hardest part is making sure it is, you dont want to be poking your dinner with a meat thermometer too often--put it in a shallow pan or box and chop it up with a heavy knife. Make sure not to mince it too finely, and leave in some of the crisp and chewy outer bits to go with the tender meat. Get some (red) slaw and a wonderbread bun and you have yourself real delicious BBQ sandwiches.

If you don't have the time for all that, just drive to Lexington, or to Cooper's in Raleigh. Or if you are in a terrible pinch, there must be a Smithfield's nearby. I went to Woodlands' in Blowing Rock recently and it was pretty good. Get the apple sticks.

And as far as making a mess of those chops you have, if it sounds good to you, go for it. Sure its not the real thing, but as long as you aren't slathering KC Masterpiece on them and claiming to be eating NC BBQ, its your dinner. I'd chop them, and either pop them in a crock pot for a while, or in a pot on the stove in some sauce.

Barrakketh

A Bear wrote: »

Once the shoulder is cooked--and the hardest part is making sure it is, you dont want to be poking your dinner with a meat thermometer too often

If you're absolutely sure of the temperature you're grilling it at (I'm not and I don't really trust myself to maintain that temperature with a charcoal grill) you can use a probe thermometer instead.

Terrendos

As a good ol' southern Virginia boy who's had both tomato and vinegar barbeque sauces, I can firmly state without a hint of bias that, spiciness level and other such variable being held equal, vinegar is usually better than tomato. Good tomato will always be better than bad vinegar, but good vinegar is better than good tomato. Also, I think that Alton Brown concurs, which gives me celebrity endorsement.

EDIT: But this is beside the point. Pork Chops =/= barbeque. Cook them like pork chops and put barbeque on them if you must, but do not try and turn them into pulled pork.

An-D

These are awesome. I have a crockpot and within the next 24 hours, I will get a pork shoulder. And vinegar and by the weekend we will see what I create.