Honey Mustard Pulled Pork Pretzel Sliders

Tender Pulled Pork covered in a homemade raspberry honey mustard sauce with whole mustard seeds served in a toasted pretzel roll. Perfect for your tailgate or gameday party. It’s my favorite season of the year, football is in full swing, baseball is in the playoffs (even though my team was just eliminated 🙁 ) and the basketball season is almost here. Nevermind the fact it is also almost Halloween which means the holidays are about to officially be underway! Oh and caramel apples are in the stores which is my favorite pre-made sweet treat of the Fall.  It’s the perfect season to be cooking with pork (in this case, pork provided by Smithfield, which has sponsored this post.)

Speaking of which Smithfield is currently doing a “Most Valuable Pork” Sweepstakes with some pretty awesome prizes including a smoker and all the accessories you need to make your own amazing pulled pork dishes! You just have to Instagram your favorite pulled pork recipes using #porkify and #contest for your chance to win! If you have a great pulled pork recipe and you’d like to enter to win the Smithfield’s Most Valuable Pork sweepstakes, you can find more information here.

The weather has finally turned and as I sit here writing this the news is reporting “RAIN!” (this is something to report on television since we are in California and it rains about 12 days a year here). The temperatures are falling, sweaters are coming out and I am pulling out all the large stockpots for stews, soups and pulled meats.

In our house pulled meats are almost always about pork. Sure I’ll sub in some chicken every now and again but pulled meats really benefit from marbled cuts of meat and we tend to try and porkify our recipes. If I could, I’d probably add it to every meal, in fact when we were living in DC we used to eat in a restaurant who made a pulled pork cupcake. Best porkification ever!

This recipe benefits from a boneless hand-trimmed Smithfield fresh pork and it really just takes a few minutes of prep and a small handful of ingredients. The raspberry honey mustard is tangy and sweet with just a tiny hint of spice from the mustard seeds that pop when you bite into them. Plus since it is only going to take you a few minutes to prep you can get ready for your favorite game-day parties and put together a great spread of food.

This pulled pork doesn’t only have to be used in sliders, you can even top nachos with it, which I LOVE. I pull the pork into shreds *note you won’t be using the honey mustard sauce for this application* and top it over some tortilla chips with some baked beans that I drained the excess liquids from, melted sharp cheddar cheese, a generous amount of bbq sauce, and candied pickled jalapenos. BEST BBQ PULLED PORK NACHOS EVER!

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cut the pork out of the netting. Put into a heavy bottomed pot, and brown on all sides. Put in the oven for 4 hours.
Add the honey, raspberry jam, mustard seeds and apple cider vinegar to a bowl and mix to combine. Remove from oven, pour half of the honey mustard over the pork and put back in the oven uncovered for 5 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and pull apart with forks.

Serve in pretzel rolls and top with more honey mustard sauce.

Happy tailgating! This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Smithfield.