Tag Archives: skinny taste

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Pulled pork is one of those dishes you can serve all year round. It’s perfect for pot lucks or large gatherings because you can feed a crowd without slaving in the kitchen. I came up with this leaner version using boneless pork tenderloin and homemade BBQ sauce which gave me complete control of what was added.

I’m not a fan of pulled pork that is swimming in sauce, so I use just enough to flavor the pork along with the reserved juices of the pork and serve the extra sauce on the side. I found these delicious whole wheat potato rolls, only 100 calories/2 points plus by Martin’s. and made a simple slaw with a little vinegar, salt and a touch of olive oil and it was a perfect meal.

I used the smallest loin I could find since I was making this for my family. Depending on the size of your pork loin, you will have to alter how much BBQ sauce to add. Keep in mind the pork shrinks after it is cooked, so you will want to weigh it cooked. I basically added 2 tablespoons of BBQ sauce for every 3 ounces of cooked pork along with some of the reserved juices from the pork. (If your kids don’t like BBQ sauce, set some of the pork on the side for them before adding it back to the crock pot)

Zuzu’s Notes: We made this recipe numerous times, and the one thing that we really found lacking was the Homemade BBQ Sauce. We adjusted the sauce every time we made it but the flavor just didn’t work. So we did some research and found out that Stubb’s Spicy BBQ Sauce (you should be able to find it at your favorite grocery store) had the exact same Weight Watchers points value (old points) as the homemade sauce…. but tasted 1000 times better. So you decide which works best for you! For us… Stubb’s makes a HUGE difference!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 8 • Size: 3 oz pork + 2 tbsp sauce • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 5 pt*
Calories: 206 • Fat: 5.5 g • Carb: 12.3 g • Fiber: 0.6 g • Protein: 26.4 g • Sugar: 10.2 g
Sodium: 554.1 mg

Ingredients:

2.5 lb boneless pork loin roast (center cut, trimmed of all fat)
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp Hickory liquid smoke
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup Homemade Kansas City BBQ Sauce (or Stubb’s Spicy BBQ Sauce)

Directions:

Place pork in the slow cooker and season with salt, vinegar, garlic powder and liquid smoke. Cover and set to high 6 hours. Remove pork and transfer onto a large dish; reserve all the liquid into a cup and set aside.
Shred the pork with two forks and put it back into the slow cooker along with about 3/4 cup of the reserved liquid and the BBQ sauce (for every 3 oz cooked pork, I used 2 tbsp BBQ sauce). Cook on high one more hour.

*Nutritional info is for pork only, bread is extra.

Sofrito Chicken Stew

Skinless chicken legs and thighs, slowly stewed in light beer (it cooks out) with scallions, tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, garlic and spices.

As the colder weather slowly approaches in the coming months, this dish will warm your kitchen and hopefully give you the same comfort it gives me.

My favorite way to eat this is served over rice with a slice of avocado. I make so many variations of this dish depending on what I have on hand; sometimes I add baby potatoes, yucca, or I’ll make it without the beer. If you are really opposed to cooking with alcohol, perhaps a non-alcoholic beer or simply adding water would work instead.

For those of you who already make this, and perhaps have this printed out, I made some slight modifications to this and previously listed the servings for two pieces of chicken, but realistically one piece over rice with sauce fills me up perfectly. I based the points off of 1 drumstick should be the same. The rice is not calculated here, that would be extra.

Sofrito Chicken Stew
Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 1 thigh • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 3 pts
Calories: 129.1 • Fat: 4.7 g • Protein: 14.6 g • Carb: 5.9 g • Fiber: 1.2 g • Sugar: 0.7 g Sodium: 675.4 mg

Ingredients:

For Sofrito:

1 tbsp olive oil
6 scallions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup diced red bell pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp salt
1 packet sazón or 1 tsp annatto seed powder

For Stew:

8 pieces chicken legs. on the bone, skin removed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
6 oz light beer
1 cup water
salt to taste
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped (or to taste)

Directions:

Heat oil in a deep saute pan. Add scallions and garlic, sauté 2 minutes, add tomatoes and peppers. Season with salt, cumin, and sazón or annatto. Set aside.

Season chicken with salt and garlic powder; add to center of the pan allowing chicken to brown slightly on both sides. Combine chicken with sofrito, and add beer, water and cilantro, adjust salt if needed. Cover pan and simmer on low until chicken is cooked through, about 20-30 minutes. Serve over rice.