Man Meal Of The Week: Asian Pulled Pork Burger

Slow cookers are literally THE best inventions. I can’t believe you can make something so delicious and tender and all you have to do is chuck a few great ingredients into a crock pot, go to sleep and in the morning…. BAM – the best thing you’ve ever tasted.

I was going to call this recipe “Pulled Burgers”, but it sounded a bit weird, if you don’t eat pork you can use beef, chuck preferably. The results are so similar. I put the pork in at 11pm and took it out at 8am.

INGREDIENTS

1.5 kg pork shoulder or beef chuck
2 bottles of hoisin
½ cup teriyaki sauce
6 garlic cloves crushed
1 large thumb of ginger, grated
2 brown onions, chopped
1-2 red chillies crushed
2 limes, juiced
1 cup light soya sauce
1 tbsp Schezuan pepper corns, crushed
1 heaped tsp coarse sea salt

6 sesame buns, toasted

For the spicy slaw:

½ a head red cabbage, shredded
½ a head white cabbage, shredded
125 ml good quality mayonnaise
125 ml greek plain yogurt
A few squeezes of Sriracha Hot Sauce (depending on how hot you like it) (you can find it in Woolworths or spar)
Zest of 1 lime
3 drops sesame oil
Pinch of salt and pepper
½  tbsp toasted sesame seeds

METHOD

Serves 5-6
Preparation 15 minutes
Cooking time 9 hours

Take the pork or beef out of the fridge. In a bowl mix together the chopped onions, garlic, ginger, chilli, hoisin (leave a bit of hoisin for the end), teriyaki, soya sauce and lime juice. Then in a mortar and pestle crush the  Schezuan pepper and sea salt. Cover the meat with the salt and pepper mix, then place in the slow cooker. Pour the Asian mixture over the meat, turn the pork a couple of times to make sure the marinade is evenly distributed around the meat, then set your temperature to “low” and cook, undisturbed, for 8-10 hours.

Once the meat is cooked, very carefully remove the pork from the slow cooker with tongs, and let the marinade drain back into the cooker for a few seconds.

Using the tongs get rid of any excess fat. Now it’s actually time to “pull the pork” using two forks, gently pull the pork apart. If you’re planning on serving it for lunch, place the shredded meat in a bowl and keep warm. Then place the sauce on high heat and cook.

Place a small pot on high heat, toast the sesame seeds for 1 minute, tossing regularly. Place the shredded cabbage in a large bowl, then in another bowl mix together the mayo, yogurt, lime zest, sriracha sauce, sesame oil and salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and pour over the toasted sesame seeds, mix.

Once you’re ready to serve, heat your buns and take the slaw to the table. Pour the sauce over the pork and the rest of the sticky hoisin sauce and take to the table. I served the burger with my oven baked chips, a green salad and chargrilled corn.

Check out more awesome recipes on Young & Hungry.