These days, if you ask someone how they’re doing, most of them will answer “I’m SO busy!” Yep, we live in a very fast paced world, packed to the brim with responsibilities, to-do lists, etc. In the midst of our active day to day life, we still have to feed our families and sometimes the thought of a home-cooked meal is a little daunting.

You have to be smart with your time. As a full time working wife, I know what it’s like to come home from work and not be in the mood to roll up my sleeves and transform into a Martha Stewart clone. On those days, I try to pick REALLY easy meals that I can make within half an hour or so, or better yet, cook up ahead of time and simply reheat or tweak a bit.

This is one of those dishes that is really, really easy to make in the first place and the best part is that you can create 3 different meals out of it with just as little effort. Cook up the meat ahead of time and you’ll have 3 different dinner options that you can whip up in no time. Instead of being overwhelmed and frazzled, you can sit down to dinner with the family with a smile. Next time someone asks you how you’re doing, instead of the typical reply of “BUSY”, you can respond with “Pleasantly productive, thank you.”

Yields: 6-8 cups of cooked meat

Ingredients:

5 lbs boneless pork shoulder also called Boston Butt

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

3-5 peppercorns

1-2 dry bay leaves

1/2 -1 teaspoon ground coriander

Juice from 1 lemon

salt

water, about 4 cups

Cut the pork into 1 1/2 inch chunks. Quarter the onion, crush the garlic cloves and place the pork, onion, garlic cloves, lemon juice, bay leaf, pepper corns, coriander into a large pot.

Pour in the water. It should barely cover the meat.

Cover the pot with a lid. Bring to a boil. Season with salt.

Cook for 1 1/2 – 2 hours on low heat, keeping the water simmering until the pork is fork tender. Stain out all the liquid and save. Discard the bay leaves, peppercorns, cooked onion and garlic. (Although the onion and garlic will be really disintegrated, but if you find any big chunks, just toss them.)

Return the liquid to the pot. Bring to a boil. Keep it boiling on high heat, with the lid off,  until it reduces by half and becomes thick and almost syrupy. 

Toss the meat in the reduced liquid. Preheat the oven to a broil. Line a rimmed baking sheet with  aluminum foil. Place the meat on the baking sheet. Broil the meat for 3-5 minutes, just until the edges are browned. 

Why reduce the cooking liquid and then broil the meat? Simple. Flavor. As the cooking liquid reduces, it becomes really concentrated and coats the tender meat in this syrupy, flavorful sauce. When you broil the meat, the tips of the meat are slightly browned but the still really juicy and moist.

Pulled Pork Sandwich

You can make a whole bunch of these sandwiches all week for lunch like I do, or serve them for dinner. You can even add some barbecue sauce to the meat if you’d like.

For the pulled pork sandwich, spread mayo on the bread. Top one of the sides of the bread with a slice of cheese (whatever suits your fancy) and pickles. Place about 1/4 cup of pulled pork (with or without the BBQ sauce) on top of the other slices of bread.
Assemble the sandwich.

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