Combi Steam Oven Pulled Pork

Seasonings for pulled pork

I do not claim to be any kind of expert or purist when it comes to traditional American style barbecue, but I have been on a pilgrimage of sorts through some of North Carolina’s finest barbecue joints (and one in Dallas, which was memorable only for the breathtaking cab fare we paid getting to the place from a miles-away hotel).

My husband is a barbecue fiend, you see. I’m pretty happy to go along with him for the ride, and if there’s one thing I’ve realised, it’s that the ‘right’ way to cook barbecue is as subjective as the right way to make a pizza. People have very strong opinions about seasoning (salt, spices, wet or dry rubs), smoke (what kind of wood to use?), whether meat should be dressed after cooking, and what with, and how to serve the finished product. It’s a delicious minefield.

Thankfully, at home, no one’s judging how we do it. I go with a punchy dry rub before cooking, for gorgeous flavour and a lovely burnished crust on the outside.

Sometimes we dress our pulled pork with a vinegar sauce. It’s easy to make and pretty great if you’re keen to give it a try. Only dress the meat you’re eating that day, though, because the vinegar will alter the texture of any leftovers, making the meat mushy.

How long should I cook pulled pork in my steam oven?

Remember I said steam oven pulled pork takes about half the time of slow cooker pulled pork? It’s true. In a slow cooker I cook the meat for anywhere up to eight hours, but in my steam oven it’s four, tops. I know that’s not actually fast, but it doesn’t require a whole day’s planning ahead like the slow cooker pulled pork would. You can throw this in after lunch and still have dinner on the table at a kid-friendly time (very important in my house!).

Exactly how long you should cook the meat for will depend on a couple of things. First, it’s about the meat itself. Some will naturally be quicker to tenderise and cook down into softly shredding submission – it just depends on the animal that meat came from.

The other thing which can affect cooking time is just how much humidity (steam) versus dry heat is in your oven when you’re using the combination steam setting. Steam vapour cooks food faster than dry heat, which is great for speedier cooking, but if you overdo the steam level or the time, slow cooked meats come out stringy and dry rather than soft and melting.

There’s a bit of a sweet spot – too little time and the meat won’t shred easily, too much and it will shred into fine, slightly chewy bits rather than chunky, soft ones. The good news is that the sweet spot lasts for a good half hour (maybe even longer), so you don’t have to catch it in a perfect five-minute window to achieve pulled pork success! Basically, if you poke a fork into the meat and it easily comes away in soft, moist-looking pieces, you’re good to go. In my steam oven, for the quantity of meat below, this takes anywhere from three to four hours. Yours may be different, but it probably won’t be more than half an hour or so either side of that.

What to serve with steam oven pulled pork

To be very honest, I’m happy serving my pulled pork just piled onto a plate next to a heaping mound of lightly-dressed coleslaw. Everyone else in my house prefers it in soft bread rolls, though, so that’s usually what we offer. If we aren’t using a vinegar dressing as mentioned above, we often put a bottle or jar of barbecue sauce on the table with the meat. Generally this one, because it’s not too hard to find in Australia, but I’ve heard great things about this and this if you’re in the States.

The coleslaw I make is nothing fancy, so I’m not going to give you a proper recipe. If you want to replicate it though, roughly equal quantities of white and red cabbage, carrot and fine matchsticks of apple will be about right. Feel free to add scallions, onions or whatever else takes your fancy, and dress it with a little mayonnaise loosened with a spoonful or two of cider vinegar.

Other sides I’ve seen and enjoyed with pulled pork over the years are biscuits (or scones, for us Antipodeans) and gravy, hush puppies, cornbread, pickles, collard greens or green beans, mac and cheese and good old French fries. So you take your pick, just remember that glorious pork is going to be the star of the show.

Over to you – if you try this recipe I’d love to know about it! Please share your pictures with me on Facebook or tag me @steamandbake and #whatsinthesteamoven on Instagram.

If you’re after more delicious combi steam slow cooked meat recipes, this index page has plenty. Try the combi steam roast dinner, the cheat’s combi steam chili con carne (another pulled meat delight), or Asian-style sticky beef ribs.

New here? If you’re just starting your journey into steam oven cooking, I recommend reading these two posts about what types of foods you can cook in a steam oven (part 1 about steam-only and part 2 about combination steam). There’s a printable cheat sheet to download, which you can keep next to the oven as you start to become more confident cooking in it!

Would you like more Steam and Bake recipes and steam oven inspiration? Join the mailing list – there’s no spam, just an email every now and then to tell you the latest. When you sign up, you’ll get an invite to the exclusive subscribers-only Combi Steam Cooking Facebook group, which is full of people at all stages of their combi steam journeys, and with many different brands of oven. It’s a friendly, helpful space to learn and share with one another, and I’m always in there answering questions and sharing tips.