Last week, hankering for some fall-off-the-bone tender pulled and chopped pork shoulder, but unwilling to tend a smoker for 8 hours in the heat, I slow roasted one of these Rib Rub Pork Shoulders in the oven overnight. It was a tad over 10 lb. so we had a heap of pulled and chopped pork when done.
It was stunningly good (stunningly good as in how can something this tasty be so frickin’ easy) as always, and we’ve enjoyed pulled and chopped pork tacos, tostadas, enchiladas, and even a oversized pulled pork topped wedge salad over the past week.
We’ve had something on the list to make with a pulled and chopped pork batch that we hadn’t tried until now – a Pulled Pork and Cornbread Benedict. I can’t even remember where we first saw a mention of this, it must have been something out of Garden and Gun. Now that we’ve tried it, it has climbed onto my top three all time best breakfasts (even though we ate it for dinner) ever list.
The premise is damned simple: you take a cornbread base, top it with delicious, tender pulled or chopped pork spiced however you want it (try the hoisin BBQ sauce combo at least once), and top it with a soft poach egg that’s guaranteed to yield a golden flowing yolk to bind and flavor the entire stack to perfection.
A classic benedict of course has hollandaise topping the stack, though we did without last week and the yolk covered the sauce angle wonderfully. You make the call.
More details and some suggestions below.
1 lb or so chopped pork shoulder (for 4)
1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 recipe Hot Damn New Year Corn Muffins (sub a mix in if you want)
6-8 eggs (2 per person), poached soft
Hollandaise sauce, optional
The cornbread base. Two options here, one being using one of our all-time favorite cornbread muffins – the Hot Damn New Year Corn Muffin – split, buttered and toasted cut side down in a hot skillet or just making a simple plain cornbread recipe (even a mix in a pinch) and cutting out squares (or rounds with a 3 inch biscuit cutter).
The Pulled and Chopped Pork layer. Reheat roughly a pound of your pulled or chopped pork shoulder in a hot skillet; we like to get it crispy and then sprinkle with a bit of a sweet rub or the combined BBQ and hoisin sauces. The sauce version holds together better on the cornbread for you keep it all neat and tidy perfectionists.
The Eggs. You need a pretty soft poach for these, of course cooked enough to hold together but with a runny yolk that flows down over the pork and onto the cornbread with every bite. Oh my.
The Optional Hollandaise. Granted, a classic Benedict is topped with hollandaise, and here’s a danged easy one, though when I ran a batch of these last week we did without and the soft-poach on the eggs took care of the sauce angle with the gorgeous runny yolk.
Enjoy.
