Chinese Pulled Pork

One of my goals in doing another round of Whole30, was to find new recipes to pull into our normal cycle of meals. Food boredom is by far one of our biggest deterrents from continuing a Whole30 kind of lifestyle. We just get tired of the same old stuff and start craving the overstimulating processed foods that are just not good for us! I have found that following the Whole30 Recipes on Instagram has helped me tremendously in finding new and easy meals to make, as they post a new meal idea every day. This Chinese Pulled Pork by @primalpalate is one of the many recipes that they have listed recently!

Ingredients:

4 lb. Pork Shoulder
16 oz. Chicken Stock
1 tbsp. Chinese 5 Spice Blend
2 tsp. Himalayan Pink Salt
2 tbsp. Lard/Cooking fat
1/2 cup Coconut Aminos
1 tbsp. Toasted Sesame Oil
1 tsp. ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
Variety of veggies and potatoes for a quick stir fry

What to Do! (This is primarily from @primalpalate, with a few suggestions from me in-between!)

Rub the pork shoulder down with the Chinese five spice bend and pink salt. Make sure to cover all sides. (The next time I do this, I may use more seasoning than it called for. We felt like the meat was just a tad bland… or I may season the meat more once it has been shredded.)
Heat the lard in the large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Sear the pork shoulder on all sides for 2 minutes per side.
Add the chicken stock to your crock pot (they have instructions on their post for insta pots if you are interested!), along with the coconut aminos, sesame oil, ginger, red pepper flakes and black pepper.
After the pork shoulder is seared on all sides, add it to the crock pot and cook for 8 hours on low. Once it has finished cooking, pull it out and shred it. (I poured a little bit of the juices on top too. The meat was so tender!)
I threw together a quick veggie stir fry to serve the pulled pork over… Add olive oil to your skillet and then whatever veggies you want! I started with just some white potatoes and let them cook a few minutes, and then added carrots, peas and broccoli. I added some coconut aminos, salt and pepper, a little ginger and then let them cook until they were tender.