Pulled Pork Sliders

Sup y'all, it's me Anders, and I am taking over the airwaves of Queens of Bay for a hot minute on this Quarantine Sunday Funday.  Ellen and I had a marathon day of cooking, and we started out with this recipe right here.  We picked this up from Serious Eats - I riffed on a few things, took some creative liberties, but it turned out just right.  This goes perfectly with Modelos, shelter-in-place and hot tubs.

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon kosher salt
5 tablespoons brown sugar
Large pinch cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bone-in or boneless pork butt (4 to 7 pounds)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely minced
1 cup Bourbon or rye whiskey
2 12 oz. cans Modelo Especial (it's Modelo Time, foo)
1 small lime wedge
1 1/4 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce, preferably something with a nice vinegary twang

Directions:

1. Preheat oven rack to lower position and preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine salt, sugar, cayenne pepper, coriander, paprika, cumin and black pepper in a small bowl and mix until combined. Season pork with the spice mixture, making sure to rub it on all sides.

2. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add pork and cook, turning occasionally, until well browned on all sides, about 5 minutes total (pork will brown fast because of the sugar. Do not let it burn!) Add onion and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan, until softened, about 2 minutes.

3.  Turn off burner and add whiskey. Relight burner. Carefully ignite the whiskey with a long match or lighter. We didn't have either of these, so we used some paper bag in a twist as a long match. (Stand back and make sure there is nothing flammable above it; it will produce tall flames). Let cook until flames die out, about 2 minutes.

4. Add the BBQ sauce and 1 can of Modelo to the pot.  Crack the second can of Modelo, squeeze that lime in there, drink deeply and CHILL for a minute.  The majority of the work is over, you deserve it, foo. Cover Dutch oven, transfer to oven, and cook until pork is just starting to turn tender, about 4 hours. Remove lid and continue cooking until a knife or fork shows little resistance when twisted inside the meat and a dark bark has formed, about 1 hour longer. - We skipped this last hour, as we only had 3.7 lbs of pork and it had already formed a nice bark. 

5. Using 2 forks, shred pork. The liquid in the Dutch oven provided a great sauce to incorporate into the pork.  Mix it up, turn your oven down to 200 degrees, drink a few more Modelos and prepare any desired accoutrements and serving vehicles (we opted for quick-pickled red onions and the King of Rolls, King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls).