Oven "Pulled Pork" Fajita's

Tonight I knew I wasn't going to have any time to cook dinner because I had band practice for 2 hours. When trying to decide what to cook the night before, I realized I had 1/4 of an onion, 1/4 green & red bell pepper, and 1/4 of a jalapeno. I didn't have any meat in the freezer other than a small amount of pork shoulder that I had cubed left over from when I was making sausage. I decided to defrost it and think of what to make the next day.

Since I knew I didn't have a lot of prep time or over the stove time, but I knew I was going to be physically home, I knew I had to utilize my oven some how. We all know how much of a bbq/smoking enthusiast I am, I decided to go with those roots. I marinated the pork chunks in mustard and my dry rub that I use on meats I smoke. If you've had my bbq, you've had my dry rub. It took me a few years tog et down and am still tweeking it to this day. I then filled a pyrex pan 1/4 the way with water, added a few dashes of liquid smoke, and then chopped onions and garlic. I placed a small metal rack in the dish cover in foil with holes poked into it. I placed the meat on the rack and then covered the whole thing with foil. What I am trying to achieve is a mock smoker utilizing steam that as flavored with the liquid smoke, onions, & garlic. I put it in the oven @ 300F for about 2 hours while we were practicing.

Before practice, I also cut up the remaining peppers, onions and jalapeno into small strips. Once practice was over, I let the meat stand for 30 minutes until it was cook to the touch. I was able to "pull" apart the chunks. While the meat was cooling, I sautéed the vegi's for ~10 minutes. I then added in the meat and the onions and garlic form the water/smoke pan. I then sauteed the entire mixture to get the pork a bit crispy. Then, I added in my home made Carolina style bbq sauce and then continued to sauté the mixture for a few more minutes and then I was done.

I just spooned it into a bowl and ate it like that. I guess you could try some sort of food vehicle like tortillas, buns, or tortilla chips, but I just ate it as is. It came out great! You get the sweetness from the peppers and onion that remind you of fajita's, but then you get the smokey and vinegar edge from the sauce and the pork. I was surprised with myself!

I guess the key is, you can make good food out of random things in your fridge that you didn't think pair together. Get creative, think outside the box and you could make some new great recipes like I just did. Now get out there and cook.