What's on the Grill #208 Beer Braised Pork Shoulder

It's a crazy weeknight and time is short.  My stomach is growling and my sugar levels are dropping.  Do I order pizza?  Make a PB&J?  Of course not, I'm a man, I do things the hard way.

Well, at least I'm sure that's what Zoe was thinking, as for some reason, my brain connects "short on time" and "very hungry" with braise 3 pounds of pork shoulder for almost 4 hours and hope to not die of starvation in the interim...starting at 5 PM.

I'm not as dumb as the plan makes it sound, which I know is saying something.  Problem was, there was 3 pounds of pork shoulder in the fridge left over from the meatloaf a few nights ago.  I had to use it and didn't want to freeze it.  The whole dutch oven braising thing was sort of an afterthought.  I've never tried it before and certainly didn't think it would be really tasty, let alone blog worthy.   In hindsight, this was one of those unexpected meals, which was poorly planned, served way to late and turned out better than I could have ever imagined.

Beer Braised Pork Shoulder

3-5 lb pork shoulder
4 Tbls Rub
2 slices of bacon
2 cloves garlic, minced.
4 carrots, cut in half
1 onion, sliced
24 ounces/2 bottles of beer (in my case, an ESB homebrew)

1. Rub the pork shoulder with a rub of your choice. I used a combination of paprika, salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, brown sugar & cinnamon.

2.  Prep the grill.  As this was poorly thought out, I used the Summit, which is gas.  I would have preferred to use charcoal, but I was short on time and as I mentioned before, my blood sugar was dropping.  I used indirect heat, but opted to leave the center burner, which was below my dutch oven, on low.

3.  The initial step of braising is to brown the meat.  To carry this out, first place the dutch oven directly over the active flame.  With the dutch oven heated up, drop in the bacon.  Once the bacon begins to render fat, use some tongs to rub the fat all over the bottom and sides of the dutch oven.  Then, drop in the pork and brown all of the sides...about 10 minutes total.

4.  With the pork browned, drop in the carrots, onion, garlic and beer.  Move the dutch oven off of the direct flame and into the middle of the grill where I had the center flame set to low. Cover the dutch oven and close the grill lid.  Grab some nice cheese, a beer, read up on Charlie Sheen and wait.

5.  I popped the lid, once, at the 2 hour mark to stir and make sure the castaway cats in the backyard (Ginger & Mary Ann) hadn't grown opposable thumbs, manipulated the lids and carried away my dinner.  Thankfully, they hadn't.  Good thing too, as I would have unplugged their heated water bowl and cat igloo blanket.  Revenge is a dish best served cold...but, I digress.

6.  By the four hour mark, the internal temp of the pork should register near 190 degrees.  If so, shut everything down, get the food inside and stuff your face, as that's exactly what I did.

Braised pork tastes a lot different than the traditional smoked pork I make all the time.  In this case, different is good.  Zoe, who is not normally a huge pork eater, loved it.  I believe the beer has a lot to do with it.  With the shoulder still in the dutch oven, I tore off some pork, dropped in the beer and jammed it in my mouth...wow.  It's almost a meal by itself.  Who needs sides?

Braised pork wrapped in a tortilla with some lettuce, freshly grated cheese and sour cream, is a meal which keeps on giving.  Hot/cold, now/later, braised pork is now on my radar.  Even if I need to eat in 30 minutes, I'll find 4 hours to make this happen...with a chair nearby too, just in case my blood sugar drops too much.  I have no time for a trip to the Urgent Care, I have pork to eat.