Spicy Shredded Pork

If you haven't yet discovered The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, you should, and soon. She is a city girl, turned ranch-wife who comes up with amazing comfort food recipes, and outlines how to make them so that anyone can follow the steps.

This particular week, I decided to make her Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork, but with some slightly healthier twists.

You'll need:

1 onion chopped into wedges

1 Pork Shoulder (it's called "Boston Butt" at the store... very appetizing, but I promise it's worth it) - I used a 3.5 lb one

S&P/Garlic Salt

1 Can of Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce

1 bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper

Splenda Brown Sugar

Minced Garlic

Literally, this dish took me 5 minutes to prepare before I could let it sit in the oven all day. It also made my house smell amazing.

I started by preheating the oven to a low 300 degrees, then rubbed S&P and some garlic salt on the pork, and sliced some slots in the meat to stuff some of the minced garlic.

Next, I cut the onion into wedges and placed it at the bottom of my Dutch Oven.

I put the seasoned pork on top, and poured about 3/4 of the Diet Dr. Pepper over it, and added the entire can (with sauce) of the Chipotle pepppers. They are VERY spicy, so be cautious if that's not your preference. You could probably substitute Green Chiles instead.

Next, I placed my covered Dutch Oven in the oven at 300 and let it go for about 2 hours. I flipped it, let it cook another 2 hours, flipped, and another 2 hours (that's 6 hours total for you Math whizzes).

You know it's done when you can pull out the bone with no resistance. Unfortunately, Marley is allergic to meat protein, so she couldn't enjoy the actual rawhide that came out of this cooking venture :(

I took the meat out of the sauce, and used 2 forks to "pull the pork", also able at this time to separate out the fatty pieces.

Inspired by Vizard's Pork and Beans dish, I added a can of rinsed/drained Pinto beans to the sauce only; then I refrigerated both separately until the next day. When I took out the sauce in the morning, I was able to scrape the fat off the top since it had hardened.

When I was ready to serve it that night, I put the meat and sauce into a casserole dish, covered it, and baked at 350 for about 25 minutes.

I served this with some leftover sweet potatoes, and had a very happy husband!