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
½ -1 teaspoon ground coriander
Juice from 1 lemon
salt
water, about 4 cups
Cut the pork into 1 ½ 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 ½ - 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 ¼ cup of pulled pork (with or without the BBQ sauce) on top of the other slices of bread.
Assemble the sandwich.
Macaroni Navy Style - Macaroni Po Flotski
Savory Crepes With Meat Filling
Pulled Pork and Three Ways To Use It
Ingredients
- 5 lbs boneless pork shoulder also called Boston Butt
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3-5 peppercorns
- 1-2 dry bay leaves
- ½ -1 teaspoon ground coriander
- Juice from 1 lemon
- salt
- water about 4 cups
Instructions
- Cut the pork into 1 ½ 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 ½ - 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.
First up - 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 ¼ cup of pulled pork on top of the other slices of bread. Assemble the sandwich.
- You can also use the meat in many other recipes, such as Savory Meat Crepes or Navy Style Macaroni.
Between this recipe and your Instant Pot pulled pork, which do you think it the best?
I prefer the Instant Pot, because it's much faster.
Hi Olga, great website! Can I substitute chuck beef for shoulder pork?
Thanks, Vera! You can certainly use chuck beef in this recipe. Of course, the flavor will be different, but it will still work out.
when its simmering is the lid on or off during the process? I dont see it stated anywhere, but just want to make sure.
Thanx- cant wait to try it out:)
Keep the lid on when simmering and the lid off when reducing the liquid, Lana.
Hi Olya!
Does this pulled pork recipe freeze well?
If i made a huge batch at one time?
Yep, Nastya.
I've frozen Pulled Pork numerous times. It's great to make Makaroni po Flotski with it. Makes for a really quick dinner option.
Making this second time already!! Love it! Especially the crepes! Thank you very much Olga. God bless you and your family!
Thank you, Olya! We really like this too. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
do u think this would work with turkey? or only pork?
Hi Sveta,
It will work only if you use dark meat, not white meat. Turkey breast will be too dry.
Is there anything I can substitute for the peppercorns?
Use any spices that you like, or omit the peppercorns altogether.
Oh this looks wonderful! thank you so much.....I know how hard you work to share your recipes with us...I check your website everyday couple times a day. lol
This comes at such good time for me, I still have some pulled pork left and was wondering what to do with it. Today it was English muffins with fried egg, mozzarella cheese and topped with pulled pork. Definitely making the meat crepes for breakfast tomorrow.