Jerk Pulled Pork with Rice and Beans

So I guess I have been on this rice kick lately. We can call this recipe another fridge and pantry raid. I had these bone in pork chops that were a little too thin for my liking but I still wanted to find a way to use them. So I thought to spice them up with a nice carribean jerk style rub and slow cook them so I could serve them “pulled pork” style over some rice and beans. Well if you are like me, you don’t have 2 hours to slow cook pork chops in the oven. That is where a pressure cooker comes in. I cooked with one of these things about a year ago, nifty kitchen gadget I must say. It does a great job cooking tougher cuts of meats in a jiffy, keeping them nice and tender. Take these pork chops, I cooked them “fall apart tender” in 10 minutes. You could do the real thing for this recipe and use pork shoulder or pork butt and cook it in a pressure cooker in about 45 minutes to an hour. This would normally take about 3 hours if you cooked it low ‘n slow
in the oven.

This will serve about 4.  Here goes…

– Pork Chops, 4 1″ thick bone in chops

– vegetable oil, 1/4 cup

– yellow onion, chopped

– garlic, 4 cloves chopped

– peppers, 3 dried chilles or 1 fresh jalapeno, sliced

– 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chicken stock (or water)

– thyme, about a handful of leaves

– brown sugar, about 3 table spoons

– cinnamon, about 3 pinches

– ground nutmeg, about 3 pinches

– ground cloves, 1 pinch

– allspice, 2 teaspoons

– kosher salt, about 2 table spoons

– limes, 5

For the rice and beans:

– 2 cups of medium grain rice

– 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

– 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro

– reserved cooking stock from the pork

In a pressure cooker over medium heat add your oil.   When oil is heated begin sweating the onions, garlic, and peppers.   Once the onions are translucent stir in your chicken stock, thyme, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and all spice.  Now juice 4 of your 5 limes, and toss in your juiced lime halves (the pressure cooker will draw out some of the oils and citrus flavors from the lime’s peel).  Now add your pork chops to the cooker.  Follow the directions on your pressure cooker.  You will probably need to lower the heat.  Once your pressure cooker gets up to heat cook your pork chops for about 8 to 10 minutes.  Then immediately depressurize your cooker and set aside your pork chops, tented in foil to stay warm.  Put the pressure cooker back on the range, lid off, on high heat.  Bring to a boil then reduce to medium low, we want to reduce down the remaining cooking stock by about half.

Cook your rice in a rice cooker or on the range per the package directions.  While cooking you can pull your pork.  You do this by taking two forks and literally pull apart the pork into pieces.  Once the rice is cooked fluff, and stir in the drained beans and chopped cilantro in a large serving bowl.  Mound the pulled pork on top of the rice and then spill the reduced jerk stock all over the top (minus the cooked lime halves).  Garnish with some sliced fresh lime and season with salt to taste. Enjoy!