Spicy Bourbon Pork Recipe

Unless you’re a skinny teenager or a bulking Dave Tate, you don’t need to (and shouldn’t) eat like shit all of the time. Sure, it’s pretty cool to slam “dirty” food like a binging bulemic, but chronically doing so will have negative effects on your body composition, your health, and (ironically) more important, your training.

You’d think health would be most important, but clearly the majority of western society isn’t concerned with health when they put things into their mouth. Food quality is more important than the “lifting culture” admits. Choosing low-inflammatory foods that are dense with nutrients will curb systemic inflammation and therefore allow the body to devote all of its resources into training recovery and healing. Shitty food creates more work than the recovery work force can handle. Anyone who pretends to take their training seriously and doesn’t focus on food quality isn’t taking their life seriously.

Yes, there’s a place for lower quality meals for the sake of consuming calories (or enjoyment). No, it should not be the norm. It’s possible to hit appropriate caloric and macro-nutrient demands with higher quality food, and anyone who claims otherwise is a poon and probably cries about how uncreative they are. Don’t be a dumbass; start eating better food.



I made this recipe up after finding a “Spicy Bourbon Pork” seasoning packet at the store. The package called for ribs in the oven. Instead, I used a slow cooker. You’ll need:

– boneless rib meat (at least 2 pounds)
– several sweet potatoes (at least 2)
– 2 gala apples
– seasoning (I used “spicy bourbon pork” seasoning)
– .5 to 1 cup of orange juice
– water

Slice the rib meat up if you want, but it will end up being so tender it’ll fall apart. Cut up the apples and sweet potatoes; they can be large pieces because they too will fall apart. Throw all that stuff in the cooker. Mix the seasoning with a bit of orange juice and water and then pour it over the meat/potato/apple combo. Cover and cook. Typically a slow cooker on ‘HIGH’ will be done in 4 to 6 hours while ‘LOW’ is kinda like 6 to 8. If you’re going to work and training all day, you probably want it on low.

Voilà. A non shitty meal that is “paleo”, has plenty of protein with quality carbohydrate sources. If you’re worried about insulin sensitivity or fructose density in your diet, just use less orange juice (or none at all). If you need more fat (extra calories for recovery), then just consume it with or after the meal. It’s not hard to eat good quality food, and you need to pay attention to what goes in your mouth if you want to look “jacked” instead of just “like some fat guy who puffs his chest out when he walks”. It’ll also make you tan.

24 thoughts on “Spicy Bourbon Pork Recipe

  1. The crock-pot is really the ultimate lazy-douche cooking tool. I’ve been doing a lot of chili recently. You can get up to 4-5 pounds of ground beef with all the veggies and shit and it’s mad tasty.

  2. Looks good! I’m pumped for fishing/crabbing this time of year and grilling outside. You can’t get more primal (bro) than catching it wild.

    I’ve gotten really tired of eating the same old chicken all the time so in addition to eating more pork shoulders etc I’ve started brining my whole chickens ($.89/pound at costco) for a half day before freezing them for later use. It makes a huge difference and when you get the whole chicken the necks/organs/bones are great for broth or fishing bait.

  3. How did you like the sweet potato skins? I don’t usually slow cook sweet potatoes with the skins on, the texture isn’t quite right like (e.g.) Yukon golds.

    I don’t mind them. Feel free to skin them.

    –Justin

  4. Made a delicious brisket in the oven on Saturday. Just sat around in my underpants watched sports and cooked/ate meat all day. Made a killer hash the next morning with what little leftovers I had.

  5. Great recommendation, I’m happy to see I’m not the only one who uses the slow cooker. You can do so much stuff with it! It’s great economically because it softens up tougher (ie cheaper) cuts of meat and breaks down the collagen. You can get real creative with flavors too. A personal favorite is to put beef tongues in the slow cooker for about 8-10 hours on low with some stock, bay leaf, cumin, and whole dried chile pods.

  6. Grill all summer, slow-cooker all winter. That is a rule of life.

    Also, I generally cook everything with one of the following spices – Tony Cachere’s Cajun Seasoning, Montreal Steak Seasoning, or a Cinnamon/Nutmeg combo.

    Don’t know if you guys have had a chance to try Stubb’s newest BBQ Sauce (Sweet Heat), but it’s top notch. All their shit is gluten-free too. It’s been my “Frank’s Red Hot” lately…I put that shit on everything.

  7. I’ve come to appreciate pork so much after reading this site. I freakin love it. Stubbs has a great pork marinade that I love to use with country style ribs and grill them up. I also just had beef short ribs that I boiled for about an hour and then soaked them in sweet burbon bbq sauce and tossed them on the grill for a few minutes to darken them up on the outside. The boiling, like the slow cooker, made the short ribs nice and tender.

  8. the slow cooker is the ultimate cooking tool, it’s super lazy and you can make tons of meat in it, it’s easy to clean and you can have tons of leftovers (my favorite thing about a good meal).

    i look forward to trying this recipe out. thanks man.

  9. i put one of Klokov’s songs in Pandora and am working out to some legit dancy techno house dub crabcore mothergoose type of shit right now.

    Will report any super human strength that comes from this strategy.

  10. Cooked a brisket overnight in my slow cooker at the weekend, with beer and a fuck load of spices. Served in rolls (dunked in the sauce) with smoked cheese and BBQ sauce. Shit was so cash.

  11. I made some chipotle ribs in the crockpot last last night. I seasoned ribs with chipotle chilli powder, chilli powder, cinnamon and a little bit of garlic and onion powder. Then in a sauce pan I put a little bit of hOney with a spoonfull or two of tomato paste and a shitload of Chipotle tobasco. I let that come to a boil and poured it all over the ribs and went to bed. Woke up to some tender deliciousness

  12. @Alphanitis that sounds fucking delicious, definitely trying that out.

    One of my favorite things to do with the crockpot is to buy about 6 pounds of chuck or rump roast from Costco and throw it in with a couple cans of coconut milk and a a jar of curry paste. Do it differently with a couple other spices thrown in very time, but after 12 hours on low it becomes like a pudding made of meat. It is delightful.

  13. This looks tasty. One technique I like to use when cooking meat in a slow cooker is to first brown the meat either on the grill, frying pan or oven broiler. I like a little crispy texture on the outside of the meat.

    I’ll give this one a try. Ribs are a big hit in our house.

  14. @sdanleyjr

    Stubbs’ sauces are legit, and I have yet to buy one that doesn’t deliver.
    Cooked a metric shit ton of steak for a mother’s day cookout using the Beef Marinade, and it was a hit. My mom now loves me even more.

  15. Speaking of spices, I’ve been experimenting with a bunch of Penzeys Spice mixes that I recieved as a gift. I like them because they’re not the typical 80% salt “spice mixes” you find in the grocery store.

    http://www.penzeys.com/

    Every single one of them has been awesome so far, expecially the BBQ 3000 rub.

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