Smoky Slow Cooked Pork

How was your Monday? I can't complain. I was a little grumpy this morning because I slept like a rotisserie chicken last night. You know what I mean? Let me explain. Sleeping like a rotisserie chicken is when you sort of fall asleep, but never a restful sleep. You start out sleeping on one of your sides. Then, turn to your back for a bit. Next, you roll to your other side for a bit. Then, to your belly until finally you roll back to the original side and continue the whole process again. See, you rotate like those chickens cooking at the deli of a grocery store. Thinking about it makes me laugh. When I thought about it last night I fell back to sleep with a vision of those juicy chickens rotating and rotating in my head. Fortunately I did not wake the Bear, but he said he didn't sleep well either. Good thing we had a nice dinner and I had leftovers to power me through the day.

I call this my Southern Style Cuban Sandwich. Then, I got to thinking and the pork is really so much more versatile than just a Cuban sandwich. A Cuban is usually pork or ham served with Swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles. To make mine a little more Southern, I used a gluten-free baguette, BBQ'ed pork, and pickled okra in place of the pickles. The meal was a great success! Justin, a.k.a. the Bear, discovered he likes pickled okra. Today, I will share my favorite go-to BBQ'ed pork recipe with you all since it was a little too cold to use our smoker this weekend. You would think this pork had sat on a smoker all day. It gives you all of the flavors without the hassle of worrying about the weather or tending to a smoker. The secret- smoked paprika. I think you too will use this as your next "go-to" pulled pork recipe. Feel free to even double it for a crowd. You will just need to adjust cooking times a little.

Smoky Slow Cooked Pork
3 points per 3 oz. of pork

Nonstick cooking spray
1/4 cup gluten-free BBQ sauce
1/4 cup water
1-2 lbs. pork tenderloin
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Spray the inside of your slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Mix together the BBQ sauce and water in the bottom of your slow cooker. In a small dish, mix together the brown sugar, paprika, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper until combine. Rub over all sides of the pork. Place pork in the BBQ sauce mixture. Cover your slow cooker and set on low. Cook for 4-6 hours. Uncover and shred the pork using two forks. Give it all a good stir to coat all of the pork in the sauce. Serve over sandwich buns, tortillas, or on its own with any of your favorite sides.