Crock Pot Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Pulled pork is one of my go-to recipes when I do not want to go overboard, but I still want to make something flavorful and delicious. If you search through this blog, you will find some of my other pulled pork recipes that are similar to the one below. With this particular recipe, I used Dr. Pepper instead of Coca-Cola and incorporated a different liquid smoke flavor. Those flavors combined created a great dish that was a bit on the smoky side.

Ingredients:
4-5 lbs. pork ribs, bone-in or boneless (either way works)
1 medium size onion, sliced
salt
black pepper
garlic powder
16 oz. Dr. Pepper (do not use Diet)
1-2 tbsp. mesquite liquid smoke
1 28 oz. bottle BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray’s sweet & spicy sauce)

The night before you cook everything inside the Crock Pot, rub the salt, pepper, and garlic powder over the ribs. Cover and place ribs in the fridge overnight.
The day you’re cooking, place the onion in the bottom of the Crock Pot.
Place pre-seasoned ribs inside the Crock Pot, lying over the onion, and pour Dr. Pepper over the pork. Cook on LOW for for 7-8 hours (if you’re using bone-in ribs, I suggest going with the full 8 so they fall right off the bone).
At the 7 or 8 hour mark (whichever you prefer) drain the excess juice and remove the bones (if you used bone-in) then shred. If you went with boneless ribs, still drain the excess juice but simply shred the ribs using 2 forks.
Add full bottle of BBQ sauce and stir. Cook for 1 additional hour.
Serve and enjoy.

This is what the ribs should look like when you remove them from the fridge after sitting with the s&p and garlic powder on them overnight.

This is the finished product, kept in a restaurant-style holder for easy transport (if you’re not eating these at home).

I really like how the flavor came out on these. The Dr. Pepper definitely shows up as an aftertaste. There are 2 types of liquid smoke I use when making pork, one is hickory the other is mesquite. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the mesquite worked much better with the Dr. Pepper and helped to balance out the rest of the flavors.