Modern Family: Jay’s Barbecued Pork Shoulder & Rice Pilaf

Jay’s Barbecued Pork Shoulder

I have made pork shoulder in the slow cooker and in the oven, but never on the barbecue before. It’s not all that different in the end, but definitely make sure you have enough gas before starting. It would be unfortunate to run out of gas before the roast is done!

The barbecue sauce is made first by sauteeing onion and garlic in butter, and then mixing in the rest of the barbecue sauce ingredients and cooking until hot.

For the pork shoulder, it’s cooked for several hours indirectly over low heat on the grill, turning occasionally. For the last hour it’s basted with the barbecue sauce multiple times.

The recipe does not specify if it’s bone-in or boneless, but I would assume it’s bone-in.

Finally, shred the pork, mix with more barbecue sauce, and serve! The recipe suggests either serving on buns or with potluck-style sides, but I chose to serve with Jay’s Rice Pilaf.

Taste: 7/10

I was disappointed with this pork shoulder overall. Maybe it was the cut of pork shoulder I used, but it didn’t fall apart as well as it should have. Compared to other pork shoulders I’ve made, this one fell flat. My favorite is still this one from the Necronomnomnom Cookbook.

Difficulty: Easy

The sauce is fairly simple and cooked over the stove. As long as you can saute onions and garlic you’ll be fine! And the pork shoulder is pretty much left on its own, and you check on it every so often to flip it or baste in sauce.

Cost: Average

You’ll need onion, garlic, butter, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, lemon, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, chili powder, and a pork shoulder. The pork shoulder is the most expensive part of this dish, but it makes a lot of meat!

Jay’s Rice Pilaf

This rice pilaf was pretty simple to make as well!

Once again, we start with sauteeing onion in butter before adding the rest of the ingredients – in this case a handful of spices. Then the rice and currants are added, along with water, and the rice is cooked until all water is absorbed.

I actually did not add the currants. I wasn’t able to find them in time, and frankly I wasn’t thrilled about adding them in the first place.

The last step is removing the cinnamon stick, and then serve!

Taste: 8/10

I really liked this as a side dish! The spices were really good, and I honestly don’t think the currants would have made me like this more than I did. They weren’t missed.

Difficulty: Easy

Another easy dish from Jay Pritchett!

Cost: Cheap / Average

I had all of the spices and rice already, so this was a very cheap dish for me. But if you need to purchase the spices it can get get fairly pricey (at least for rice) depending on how many you’re buying.

You’ll need basmati rice, butter, onion, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, cinnamon stick, and dried currants.