Tasty Tuesday

Chipotle Pulled-Pork BBQ Sandwiches


I made these sandwiches on Saturday and they were so yummy. If you like BBQ then you should definitely give these a try. I ended up doubling the meat because the smallest pork loin I could find was 2.5 lbs. It worked out good because we had leftovers for Sunday after church. I'm not a big onion person so I omitted those and they were still flavorful. I used my panini press to make them and it worked great. Serve with potato chips and you got yourself one tasty meal.


Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups thinly sliced onion
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon sugar
6 (1/2-ounce) slices provolone cheese
12 sandwich-cut bread-and-butter pickles
6 (2 1/2-ounce) Kaiser rolls
Preparation
Remove 1 chile from can; reserve remaining chiles and sauce for another use. Finely chop chile.

Place chopped chile, barbecue sauce, and the next 4 ingredients (barbecue sauce through tomatoes) in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook 10 minutes or until sauce thickens and pork is very tender. Remove from heat. Remove pork from sauce; shred pork. Return pork to sauce.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, thyme, and sugar; cook 10 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place 1 cheese slice, 1/2 cup pork mixture, about 2 tablespoons onions, and 2 pickle slices on bottom half of each roll. Cover with top halves of rolls. Add 3 sandwiches to pan. Place a cast-iron or heavy skillet on top of sandwiches, and press gently to flatten. Cook 2 minutes on each side or until cheese melts and bread is toasted (leave cast-iron skillet on sandwiches while they cook). Repeat procedure with remaining sandwiches.

Nutritional Information
Calories:
431 (26% from fat)
Fat:
12.4g (sat 3.9g,mono 3.7g,poly 1.8g)
Protein:
28.3g
Carbohydrate:
51.4g
Fiber:
4.7g
Cholesterol:
59mg
Iron:
4.1mg
Sodium:
910mg
Calcium:
207mg
David Bonom, Cooking Light, JUNE 2004