How are sweet potatoes viewed where you live? When you think of a sweet potato, do you imagine something savory or something sweet?
Here on the Virginia/North Carolina line they’re suppose to be sweet. Oh and I don’t mean that the sweet potatoes themselves are suppose to be sweet… I just mean that anything you make with them is suppose to be sweet. If you cook or bake with sweet potatoes here they should be topped with mountains of brown sugar and the marshmallows should be pilled so high that no trace of orange reminds as if you’re getting ready to dig into a fluffy marshmallow only casserole.
Oh and don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. It’s actually a really, really, good and delicious thing.
But it makes it hard to get people to try and enjoy savory sweet potato dishes! Everyone’s brain and taste buds are trained to expect “sweet” when they see those beautiful orange sweet potatoes.
So when you go to make these and when you go to take that first bite, please.. PLEASE I beg of you…throw out that idea that all sweet potatoes must be sweet!
Like I said before, I’m not against sweet potatoes covered in brown sugar and marshmallows, I just can’t shove these beautiful sweet potatoes into the “only for sweet potato casserole” folder and forget about them.
so, let’s talked about something else that came up in conversation while I was at the the grocery store with BigBear.
I always make my pulled pork with BBQ sauce and Soda. It’s just how I do it. It’s how we love it and it’s freaking easy. I LIKE EASY! haha.
But I was trying to figure out something that I could replace the soda with. “People, freak out over soda, because it’s going to kill you and it’s bad for you”. BigBear looked at me like I had grown 3 heads.
“I know it’s not good for you, but people really freak out?” He asked.
Yes…. oh yeah they do.
I know, I know. I don’t drink it. BigBear drinks it and I have literally a sip like once a month because I crave the carbonation. But I will use 1 small bottle of it when I make my pulled pork and I’m ok with that.
I also used bottled BBQ sauce. I’ll get at least one e-mail from someone telling me how I should make my own from scratch and how bottled anything “is the Devil”. The judgement is unavoidable.
Let me tell you something…if you use bottled BBQ sauce in your recipes I will not judge you! The statement of “I can’t believe you don’t make you’re own homemade BBQ sauce for everything”, will not even cross my mind.
Like I told my husband, from scratch is always going to be better for you, but I won’t ever judge anyone or “get on someone” for using bottles sauce, or having a soda or *gasp* using store bought bread.
I’m going to be 100% honest. I do make some things from scratch, but I also buy bottles of BBQ sauce, I buy store bought bread, I DON’T buy organic (unless it’s the same price as regular), I have soda in my fridge and it sits right next to my store bought butter, my store bought yogurt and store bought mayo.
I can count on 1 hand the amount of people I know in real life that insist on everything being “from scratch and organic” and still I have serious doubts that they never by processed anything and only buy organic. Mainly because I’ve seen these same people eat at Fast Food places and to me… well that’s pretty dang far away from “only from scratch and only organic”.
The rest of the people I know that make everything from scratch and buy everything are people online. Online is where EVERYONE makes everything from scratch and only buys organic. 😉
Whoa, sorry for that little out burst…I don’t know what came over me. I guess to make a long story short… make this…use bottled BBQ Sauce, use Homemade BBQ sauce, use soda, use something awesome in place of the soda, use organic sweet potatoes or just use the regular ones at your grocery store.. however you make it, you’ll love it! Eat this savory sweet potato with no judgement haha and just enjoy it.
BBQ Pulled Pork Stuffed Sweet Potato
Ingredients
- 3-5lb pork shoulder
- 2 bottles (28oz) of Hickory & Brown Sugar BBQ (I used Sweet Baby Rays)
- 1 (24 oz) dark soda (I used Diet Dr.Pepper)
- 6-8 sweet potatoes (you'll probably still have left over pulled pork)
- Butter (some for each potato)
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
Instructions
Put the pork shoulder into a Slow Cooker. Pour the soda over the pork. Poor 1 bottle of the BBQ sauce over the pork. Set the Slow Cooker for low and let the pork cook for 8-10 hours.
Once the pork has cooked, use two forks to shred the pork.
Put all of the pulled pork into a bowl and stir in the remaining bottle of BBQ sauce.
Set Aside. (You may need to warm it back up before adding it to the sweet potatoes)
Prick the outsides of the sweet potatoes with a fork.
Wrap the sweet potatoes in foil, add a teaspoon or tablespoon of butter to the inside of each packet.
Pre-heat oven to 500°F.
Bake the sweet potatoes for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Once they are done (test them with a fork to see if they are tender)
Carefully open the foil and fold it down around the sweet potato.
Slice the sweet potato horizontally on the top and push the ends towards the middle to open up the sweet potato.
Add in a little bit of butter and fluff the sweet potato.
Re-heat the pulled pork (if needed) and pile a generous portion of pulled pork inside and on top of the sweet potato.
Serve hot
plasterer bristol says
Yummy this recipe sounds delicious, Thanks for posting.
Simon