What a taste sensation is this pulled pork! The smoky taste of the barbecue along with the sweet, salty and nutty bulgogi sauce. It’ll take some time, but it’s worth the wait. This dish is super tasty!
Bulgogi is a Korean dish and it means marinated and grilled beef. It’s often used for marinating rib eye and short ribs, but for this recipe we’re using pork shoulder. Although it’s actually used as a marinade, we use it as a sauce. To do this, we heat the sauce in a pan until it thickens slightly.
Although it takes some time, it’s not a difficult recipe. We rub the meat with gochujang. That’s a paste of red chili pepper and fermented soybeans, which we previously used for the grilled green asparagus. It gives the meat a spicy flavor. Then we let the meat marinate for 24 hours.
It depends on the size of the meat how long you have to cook it. We had a piece of 2.5 kg and it took us 12-14 hours. If you have a piece of 1 kg, it will take about 6-7 hours.
We serve pulled pork with coleslaw. We deliberately did not use any sauce, because the meat is already covered with the bulgogi sauce and the coleslaw already contains mayonnaise.
We also use small Turkish sandwiches, because they are just super tasty. They’re available in any supermarket. But you can also just use brioche buns.
Pulled Pork Bulgogi (Korean Style)
Ingredients
- 2.5 kg pork shoulder
- 4 tbsp gochujang
Lettuce
- small turkish sandwiches
- hickory wood chips
- Bulgogi sauce
- 250 ml soy sauce
- 150 ml sesame oil
- 125 grams of sugar
- 150 ml sake or dry sherry
- 10 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 10 spring onions the white and green parts
- 3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 3 tbsp ginger grated
- 3 tsp gochugaru or spicy paprika powder
- 1.5 tbsp black pepper
- 3 Asian pears peeled, cored and chopped
Coleslaw
- 160 gr mayonaise
- 160 g apple cider vinegar
- 200 gr red cabbage julienne cut into thin long strips
- 200 gr white cabbage julienne cut
- 2 apple julienne cut
- 2 red onion finely chopped
Instructions
- Pat the pork dry with kitchen paper. Then put it in a casserole dish and smear all sides of the meat with gochujang. Cover it with aluminum foil and let it marinate in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
- Prepare the barbecue for indirect grilling. Maintain a temperature of about 100 °C. Meanwhile, place a handful of wood chips in a bowl of water and let them soak for 10 minutes. Then drain it.
- When the barbecue is up to temperature, throw the wood chips on the coals. Place the meat on the grid and cook slowly to a temperature of 70 °C. This will take a while and you will probably have to refill the coals at some point.
- When the meat has reached a core temperature of 70 °C, wrap it with aluminum foil. Make a cross for this. Lay a strip of aluminum foil horizontally and place another strip vertically on top of it. Place the meat in the center and wrap it. Then put the pork back on the barbecue. Cook the meat to a core temperature of about 92 °C.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce. To do this, put all the ingredients in a food processor and grind everything finely. Then put it in a saucepan over medium heat. Turn to medium heat when it starts to boil. Let it simmer for about fifteen minutes. You want the sauce to thicken a bit. Turn off the heat and let it cool.
- Remove the meat from the barbecue when it has reached a core temperature of 92°C and the meat feels tender. If not, let it cook for a few more minutes. Unfold the aluminum foil at the top and let the meat rest for 10 minutes. This allows some air to escape, if you don’t do this, the meat will continue to cook.
- Then fold the aluminum foil again and let the meat rest for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the coleslaw. Mix the mayonnaise and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl and stir to a sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then add the red cabbage, white cabbage, apple and red onion and mix everything well.
- Meanwhile, bake the buns in the oven according to the instructions on the package.
- Pull the meat apart with meat claws or two large forks. Then spoon the sauce over it and mix everything well together.
- Cut the buns in half and cover the bottom with butter lettuce. Then scoop the meat, the coleslaw and add the top of the bun on top. Enjoy your meal!
