Hearty BBQ Pork Cobb Salad (Slow Cooker!)
Make a vibrant and satisfying BBQ Pork Cobb Salad! This easy recipe features tender slow-cooked BBQ pork tenderloin, crisp romaine, avocado, egg, cheese, and your favorite dressing.
Ingredients
(Original recipe yields 6 servings)
Slow Cooker BBQ Pork:
- ▢ 1 ½ pounds pork tenderloin
- ▢ 1 ¼ cups barbecue sauce (your favorite brand), divided (most for cooking, 1 cup for tossing)
- ▢ ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ▢ ¼ teaspoon paprika
- â–¢ (Implied from directions: Salt and pepper to taste for pork)
Salad Assembly:
- â–¢ 12 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- â–¢ 3 plum tomatoes, chopped
- â–¢ 2 medium ripe avocados, peeled and chopped
- â–¢ 2 small carrots, thinly sliced
- â–¢ 1 medium sweet red or green pepper, chopped
- â–¢ 3 hard-boiled large eggs, cooled and chopped
- ▢ 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
- â–¢ Salad dressing of your choice (e.g., Ranch, Blue Cheese, or a Vinaigrette)
Garnish (Optional):
- â–¢ Fresh chopped parsley or green onions
Instructions
1. Prepare and Cook BBQ Pork in Slow Cooker:
- Grease the insert of your 3-quart slow cooker.
- Pat the pork tenderloin dry with paper towels. (Optional but recommended: Season lightly with salt and pepper).
- In the slow cooker, combine most of the barbecue sauce (reserve about 1 cup for later), the garlic powder, and the paprika. Stir to mix.
- Add the pork tenderloin to the slow cooker and turn it several times to coat it well with the sauce mixture.
- Cover the slow cooker securely with its lid.
- Cook on LOW for 4-5 hours, or until the pork is very tender and easily shreds with a fork. (Pork tenderloin cooks faster than pork shoulder).
2. Shred Pork and Combine with Sauce:
- Once the pork is fall-apart tender, carefully remove it from the slow cooker using tongs or large forks. Place it on a clean cutting board or in a large bowl. Leave the cooking liquid in the slow cooker for now.
- Using two forks, shred the cooked pork tenderloin into bite-sized pieces. Discard any visible fat if desired (tenderloin is quite lean).
- In a separate bowl (or directly back in the slow cooker if you’ve poured out and skimmed the juices), toss the shredded pork with the reserved 1 cup of barbecue sauce mixture (or enough of the skimmed cooking juices mixed with fresh BBQ sauce to make it nicely saucy). If using cooking juices, skim any excess fat from them first.
3. Prepare Remaining Salad Ingredients:
- While the pork cooks or rests, prepare the other salad components.
- Hard-boil the eggs, cool, peel, and chop them.
- Wash and chop the romaine lettuce. Wash and chop the plum tomatoes. Peel and chop the avocados (do this closer to serving time and toss with a tiny bit of lemon/lime juice to prevent browning if desired). Peel and thinly slice the carrots. Chop the sweet red or green pepper. Shred the cheddar cheese if not using pre-shredded.
4. Assemble the BBQ Pork Cobb Salad:
- On a very large serving platter or in large individual salad bowls, arrange the chopped romaine lettuce as a generous base.
- Artfully arrange the prepared toppings in distinct sections or rows over the romaine lettuce: the shredded BBQ pork, chopped plum tomatoes, chopped avocado, thinly sliced carrots, chopped sweet pepper, chopped hard-boiled eggs, and shredded cheddar cheese.
5. Dress and Serve:
- Drizzle the salad generously with your salad dressing of choice just before serving. Alternatively, serve the dressing on the side for individuals to add as they please.
- Garnish with optional fresh chopped parsley or green onions, if desired.
- Serve the Barbecue Pork Cobb Salad immediately. Enjoy!