Barbecue-Style Pork Shoulder Steaks
Mix together:
3Tbl chili powder
1Tbl ground black pepper
1Tbl sugar
1Tbl salt
1/2Tbl paprika
Rub the spice mixture on 2-4 pork shoulder steaks. (You might have leftover spice mix.)
Cover, and let sit in the refrigerator for up to 24hours.
Cook shoulder steaks in the crockpot on low for 6 ½ hours (add ½ C water or broth before cooking)
–-or-–
Bake shoulder steaks in a covered dish or roast pan in the oven at 200° for 2 ½ hr., until meat easily falls apart.
Half hour before steaks are finished cooking, add ½ – 1C barbecue sauce, either your favorite from the store, or homemade (recipe below).
Add more barbecue sauce after cooking, if needed, and serve.
Shoulder Steaks with Rice: Before cooking, simply put 1-2C uncooked rice in the bottom of the crockpot or covered dish, and add the same amount of water as you did rice. Put shoulder steaks on top of the rice, and continue with recipe.
Homemade Barbecue Sauce
Makes 1 to 2 cups
Combine in a saucepan over high heat; whisk and blend until smooth.
1C ketchup
1/2-1C red wine or tarragon vinegar (amount depending on your taste preference)
1/2C molasses
2tsp sugar
1/2tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2tsp finely chopped onion (or 1/4tsp onion powder)
1/4tsp Tabasco sauce
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, then simmer uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes.
For a thicker sauce, cook longer. If sauce is too thick, thin by adding extra vinegar.
Based on the recipe “Barbecue-Style Pork Ribs” in The Grassfed Gourmet by Shannon Hayes
I have this problem; At least it’s a problem if I’m trying to blog about recipes. When food comes out of the oven or crockpot, or off the stove or grill, I start cutting into it, pulling it apart, and often, eating it. “Is it done?” “How does it taste?” “What’s the texture?” And either I or my husband is hungry!
About half way through the meal, I realize that I never took a picture of the finished product. Oh my poor blog followers! So this time, the cover image is the bowl of spice mix. It’s kinda pretty, right?
Shoulder steaks come from, well, the shoulder of course! It’s the same place that roasts come from. So shoulder steaks are basically sliced roasts. This helped me in figuring out how to cook them. Even though they have the word ‘steak’ in their name, they shouldn’t be grilled (or pan-grilled) like beef steaks, ham steaks, or pork chops.
This is a ‘low and slow’ meat, like roasts or ribs.
So why not just a pork roast? The benefit is that they’re pre-sliced for you, into serving sizes. But you could use this same spice rub and barbecue sauce recipe, and cook a pork roast the same way. Probably needs to be cooked a bit longer, till it would begin to fall apart.