Pass the BBQ sauce, Pappy's!

Drop by Chez Django on a Sunday afternoon and you'll likely find two happenin' things: Django pickin' his Martin with or without invited guests, and a pork butt slowly simmering in the Crock-Pot®.

I hate to toot my own horn, but I've become an expert on cookin' a pork roast in a slow-cooker. Toot and toot. Here's what I do:

I get me a pork butt and season it - liberally - on all sides with mild and hot paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I rub in the spices real good and let the butt sit (!) for about 30 minutes. Then I throw it into my slow-cooker, along with a large chopped onion and a couple o' chopped carrots, and I pour in enough water to fill the slow-cooker halfway. I put the dial on "low" and I let the whole shebang simmer, simmer, simmer (apologies to the late Justin Wilson) for 8-9 hours.

Now, when my pork butt is cooked and all tender, I take out a goodly amount and shred it:

Usually I pour in a cup or two of my homemade BBQ sauce to make a fine, fine batch of my patented Crock-Pot® barbecue.

Yesterday, however, I kicked it up a notch (no apologies to the individual who was once called an "Ewok" by Chef Anthony Bourdain) by using Pappy's XXX White Lightin' sauce:


I promised you a review of Pappy's XXX BBQ sauce, and here 'tis:

I do not like sweet BBQ sauces ... this regular AMGE readers know. Pappy's sauce is sweet, but the sweetness is tempered by an almost perfect balance of vinegar, black pepper and Kentucky bourbon. Thus, it ain't too sweet, and it don't burn your tongue with too much bourbon flavor -- despite its label boasting that it has as much alcohol as the Feds "will allow."

Sauer's will always be my favorite store-bought BBQ sauce, followed very, very closely by Stubb's. Pappy's XXX White Lightin' is a "show" on my Best BBQ Sauce list right now; but that might change given that all Pappy's products are on sale at Kroger as we speak.

Stay tuned ...