Crockpot Bourbon Bacon Pulled Pork – An easy recipe for the BEST ever crockpot pulled pork! Â This pork is slow cooked to perfection with BBQ sauce, spices, bourbon, and the addition of bacon for even meatier barbecue flavor. We love this BBQ pulled pork recipe that makes slow cooker pulled pork tenderloin the most tender and flavorful!
Ok, can I please make myself sound a little “official” here and just say if there is one thing that I know well, it’s good BBQ.
A lot of people attribute BBQ with Kansas City – which is the right thing to do because it’s amazing there.
It’s also amazing everywhere in Kansas!
I’m 99.9% certain that everyone here grows up eating BBQ on a weekly basis. Â It’s a mouthwatering staple around here.
Pulled pork is one of the first things I ever started making – It’s really simple and honestly our fave dinner in my house.
Since it was one of the first things I attempted to cook, you can imagine by now that I’ve made it about a trillion and a half different ways over the years.
I’m telling you, I’ll never switch up my recipe again. Â This one is just right. Â And I’ll tell ya why!
I want my pulled pork to have MAX flavor!
For that to happen, I do a simple spice rub and massage it right into the meat first.
Then, a simple sauce – brown sugar, bourbon, apple cider vinegar, and your favorite BBQ sauce.
The apple cider vinegar helps to make the meat extra tender!
This sauce turns out so rich – not too sweet, just right on the tang. Â It’s perfection.
After the pork has cooked and shredded, we add in about 1 cup of cooked crumbled bacon.
More if you want – never enough bacon.
It’s a meaty sandwich, tender, tons of flavor, rich and tasty!
Enjoy this pulled pork! Â It couldn’t be easier to make or more melt in your mouth to eat!
Note: Don’t be intimidated by the ingredient list – it’s mostly all seasoning!
~Nichole
Crockpot Bourbon Bacon Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- 2 Pounds Boneless Pork Loin
- 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Paprika
- 1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
- 1/2 Teaspoon Cumin
- 1/4 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- 1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
- 1 Cup BBQ Sauce
- 1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/2 Cup Bourbon
- 8 Slices Bacon, Cooked and Crumbled
Instructions
- Place the pork loin in the bottom of the slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the garlic powder, onion powder, salt, paprika, pepper, cumin, and cayenne. Sprinkle the seasoning mixture over the meat and massage into all sides for 1 minute.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar, bbq sauce, apple cider vinegar and bourbon. Pour over the pork loin. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
- Shred the pork using two forks. Mix in the cooked and crumbled bacon. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I shared this recipe over at The Weekend Potluck!
Can you cook on high for 4 hours instead of low for 8?
You can, it might not be as tender though. It’s really best cooked on low.
Found this recipe and decided to try it. Tasted amazing, definitely gonna keep this one! I made it with 4lbs of pork butt and seasoned the pork with the spices and let it set in the fridge over night. The next morning I did an additional rub mix before putting it in the crock pot. I added 2T of Liquid Smoke to the liquid ingredients to give it a smokey flavor. Just smelling it cooking all day had my mouth watering.
Good morning I’m making this today.i didn’t have Bourbon..so I used 1/2 cup of beef broth.i hope that’s was okay
That should be just fine! I hope you enjoy it 🙂
Very Easy and delicious.
Hi Nicole, I tried your recipe and doubled everything with s four and a half pound pork tenderloin. I did notice it was very wet and had a lot of liquid however still delicious. Would you recommend not doubling the liquid and keeping it the same as if it was a two pound loin? Thanks much, Steve
This may be a dumb question, but after you shred the pork, do you put the meat back in the sauce left in the crock pot, or leave it out and just drizzle, or not at all? Just curious what you typically do. Making this today and my kitchen smells awesome!
Hope you put it back in the Crock-Pot. You can pull it in the Crock-Pot you really don’t have to remove it
This is a delicious recipe! I have a larger crockpot, and my piece of pork shoulder was about 6 1/2 pounds. I tripled the spices and doubled the liquid portion of the recipe. I did not triple the liquid portion of the recipe, because it would not all fit into the crockpot, even though I have a larger crockpot. It cooked in about nine hours, and the meat just fell apart – delicious! Also, I used the whole foods 365 brand of barbecue sauce – it is so good and does not contain high fructose corn syrup. I used Irish whiskey for a bourbon – again, delicious! Another tip: Trader Joe’s carries a spice mixture that contains all of the needed spices in the correct proportion, except Cayanne pepper. It does contain a little bit of nutmeg which was not noticeable and probably added to the dish.
Can this be made ahead to freeze in portions? I’m single and mostly cook for myself so one or two portions frozen works best for me. Thank you in advance! PS I work at a liquor store so the Bourbon isn’t a problem, I don’t drink it but we do have Jim Beam White Label in mickey size so that totally works. I love the idea of cooking with liquor and I’m also a manager of our store’s Facebook page and can share recipes, in fact my boss encourages that… 😉
I just read somewhere that a woman used a muffin tin to freeze single portions and then transferred the frozen meat “muffins” to a zip lock bag. She heats on high for 55 seconds on high. I am going to try that tip. I just put a frozen 4# shoulder into this luscious sauce and am cooking on low overnight for tomorrow nights dinner.
Can you use Brandy in place of the bourbon ?
Hi Nichole,
Thank you for this AMAZING recipe! I made a double batch for work a couple of weeks ago and I’m making 2 more double batches this wknd to share at both of my jobs. Served with Hawaiian and potato rolls (dinner roll size for sliders) and it was a big hit!