Cooking pork with Dr Pepper is bizarre, I know. It came to me in a vision. And it resulted in a flavorful, moist shredded pork for everything from carnitas to nachos.

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First of all: pork butt. It isn’t a pork butt at all, but a pork shoulder. Second, it’s just a wonderful cut of meat. It cooks up moist and tender and results in so much meat, you can either feed a crowd or stretch the meat into at least two or three different meals for your fam damily. Third, I loved Johnny Johnson in fifth grade and he didn’t love me back. And finally, this fun and sweet/spicy concoction of Dr Pepper and chipotle peppers really did turn out to be a lovely combination.

If you haven’t ever tried it, cook up a pork shoulder sometime soon. You’ll be amazed at how much you can do with the stuff.





Here’s the pork shoulder.





But as you can see, my local butcher calls it pork butt.

Huh huh. I said “pork butt.”

I’m mature.

Go ahead and unwrap it and I don’t care what they say—give it a rinse if you’re so inclined. I can’t not rinse pork. I can’t. I can’t not.

I expect the USDA to egg my house tonight.





Grab a big, fat onion. Cut it in half from root to tip.





Peel off the outer layer…





Then cut each half…in half.





Separate the onion wedges and lay them in the bottom of a big pot.





Generously salt and pepper the pork, then lay it on top of the onions, fat side up.





Crack open a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, then dump ’em right in.





These are spuh-ICY, so if you’re a little on the wimpy side in terms of spice, you can do half a can.

Chipotle peppers: smoky, spicy, flavorful. Such a distinctive flavor. Clears sinuses. Heals relationships.





Next, things get really weird.





Crack open two cans of Dr Pepper and pour ’em right into the pot.

I also threw in a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar, but you can leave that out if you’d like.





Weird! But I’m feeling strangely optimistic.

At this point, you’ll want to cover the pot with the lid and put it in a 300 degree oven for at least six hours. This is definitely a “low-and-slow” cut of meat that benefits from cooking for a long period of time over low heat. Our goal is for the meat to absolutely fall apart into a great big mess of wonderfulness.

Three or four times during the cooking process, take the lid off the pot and carefully flip the pork shoulder over to the other side, ending with the fat side up and allowing it to go at least an hour after that.

Oh, dear me. That looks good.

Now, after six hours, you should fork-test the meat. The meat should easily be pulled apart with a fork; if you meet with any resistance, just put the lid back on and return the pot to the oven for another hour. As is the case with pot roast, brisket, or any slow-cooked meat:

If the meat’s still tough, you ain’t cooked it long enough.

I just made that up. I’ll be selling t-shirts soon.





Remove the pork from the pan and set it on a work surface. I know this looks crazy and possibly a little frightening, but all of that color is going to result in such flavorful meat.





You’ll want to strain off as much of the gloopy fat from the top of the cooking liquid as possible. (And of course, you can refrigerate the meat and liquid separately, then remove the hardened fat from the liquid once it’s cold. But that will require your making this a day in advance, and I’m not always that on top of things.)

(Actually, I’m rarely that on top of things.)

(Okay, never.)





Here’s a peek at the fall-apart nature of the meat.





So what you want to do is work with a couple of forks and gradually remove and shred all the meat.





Keep going and going and going until all the meat is shredded.





A pork shoulder results in a lot of meat!

Note that you can chop it up with a sharp knife if you want the meat pieces to be smaller. But I’m gonna leave it as is.

I’m lazy.





Now, whether you do it now or the next day after the remove-the-hardened-fat process, return all the shredded meat to the cooking liquid.





Keep it warm until you’re ready to serve. Mmmm. This looks so delicious.

You can do absolutely anything with this meat: sandwiches on Texas toast, nachos, even pizza.





But I’m going to go the warm flour tortilla route. And when you put the meat on the tortilla, be sure to include the cooking juice; it’ll bring some spice and flavor to the mix.





Shredded lettuce, diced tomato…

(I’m counting the days until I can plant tomatoes this year. I’m dying.)





A few sprigs of cilantro…





And some grated pepper jack cheese, just to drive the whole spicy point home.





A good spoonful of salsa’s good, too.





Fold. Bring to mouth. Insert. Snarf.

Utter deliciousness. This was a late dinner last night, and I’m so excited to have the leftover pork for the rest of the week.

Enjoy this, guys!