These pulled pork bao buns are one of my most popular dinner recipes. The asian style pork is super easy to make in the slow cooker.
Once you try these delicious pulled pork bao buns the recipe will be sure to be one of your favourites. The pulled pork is made in the slow cooker so you can prep it in the morning and come home to delicious Asian style pulled pork.
Once the pork has been in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours it will be so tender and pull apart very easily. I like to use my new meat claws to pull it apart, it makes me feel like a wolverine, haha. I bought them from Countdown and they were only $5, such a bargain.
You can buy the bao buns from Asian supermarkets and specialty stores, they are kept in the freezer section. I like to serve my pulled pork with shredded carrot, sliced cucumber, Japanese kewpie mayo, hoisin sauce and fresh coriander.
This recipe will make enough pork to feed around 12 people, I like to freeze the leftover shredded pork in meal size portions. Then I can defrost the pork next time I want to make bao buns and the meal only takes around 20 minutes to prepare, I re-heat the pork in the oven but you could also use the microwave. If you're looking for tips, tricks and ideas on more freezer food, click through to my Freezer Meals Made Easy course page.
I also have a sticky beef version of these bao buns on my website.
Other serving ideas:
This delicious pulled pork also goes so well in a Hawker Roll (that's a rolled, flakey, roti stuffed with yummy Asian style fillings!). I added some store-bought coleslaw, kewpie mayo, fresh herbs and a squeeze of lime. So good.
Did you know this recipe was voted as one of the top 8 VJ Cooks dinner recipes of all time by our social media followers? To celebrate these popular recipes, I compiled a FREE ebook of the crowd favourites. Click here to download my Favourite Dinners ebook.
More delicious slow cooker recipes from VJ cooks:
Moroccan lamb
Lamb shanks
Sticky Asian style beef
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Pulled pork bao buns
This pulled pork is made in the slow cooker so you can prep it in the morning and come home to delicious Asian style pulled pork.
Ingredients
- 2kg pork leg or shoulder
- 1 onion, sliced
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 1 tsp 5 spice powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 3 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- 1 oxo stock cube
- 2 cups boiling water
- 4 star anise (optional)
- 2 Tbsp cornflour
To serve
- 12 bao buns
- ½ cup Hoisin sauce
- 3 Tbsp Japanese Kewpie mayo
- 2 carrots, grated/julienne
- ½ cucumber, thinly sliced
- Handful of coriander
Instructions
- Add onion and pork to slow cooker, stir together soy sauce, five spice, garlic powder, ginger and sweet chilli sauce then pour over the pork.
- Dissolve the oxo cube in the boiling water and pour into the slow cooker then add the star anise.
- Cook on high for 4+ hours or on low for 6+ hours.
- Once the pork is falling apart easily, remove from the sauce and set aside, mix the cornflour with about a ¼ cup of the meat juices and add to the sauce.
- Shred the pork (discard the skin and any bones) then add it back to the slow cooker and stir, turn it onto low until ready to serve.
- Serve the pulled pork on steamed bao buns with Hoisin sauce, Kewpie mayo, shredded carrot, sliced cucumber and coriander.
Notes
- This sauce is great with chicken too just adjust cooking time until chicken is cooked through.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 650Total Fat: 76gSaturated Fat: 26gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 44gCholesterol: 344mgSodium: 2507mgCarbohydrates: 100gFiber: 8gSugar: 20gProtein: 113g
Nutritional values are approximate. Please use your own calculations if you require a special diet.
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Jess
Loved this! I had some leftover pulled pork in the freezer so added some hoisin sauce and assembled - too easy.
Sherree Drysdale
Umm, so I hope I did something wrong. But this was bad. Dry, tasteless, tough. I have used many other pulled pork recipes in the crockpot that are really good. So I don't know what happened here. I'm so disappointed - such a waste of meat.
VJ cooks
Sorry to hear that Sheree. I have only had overwhelmingly positive feedback for this recipe. This recipe is deigned for a ratio of 2kg of meat to 2 cups of boiling water, I wonder if you had a bigger cut of meat? In which case you might have needed more liquid?
Lyn Vesey
Which OXO stock cube is used in this recipe please. Not showing in picture of ingredients.
Thank you
VJ cooks
Hi Lyn, I used beef stock but you could also use vegetable or chicken stock if that's what you have to hand.
Lyn
Thats awesome thank you. Appreciate the response
Caroline
Hello, Do you cut the rind off the pork prior to placing in the slow cooker please?
VJ cooks
Hi Caroline, I don't cut it off first. Mainly because it easily comes away once the pork is cooked and I can discard it then. But if you have the time, you can absolutely cut it off before cooking.
Kate
Hi, where do you purchase your 5 spice from? I cant seem to find it
VJ cooks
Are you in New Zealand? Greggs and Masterfoods both sell it in major supermarkets. The spices are often alphabetical and this might be under 'C' for Chinese 5 Spice.
Kym
If I haven’t got any sweet chilli sauce, is there a substitute you can recommend?
VJ cooks
You could use a combination of honey or hoisin sauce with some red chilli flakes.