Are you ready to eat like royalty? Of course you are... because you are what you eat. This Barbecue Pork Crown Roast will have you shining your diamond-studded scepter any day now. All jokes aside, with all it's smoky goodness with sweet undertones, you'll be eating like royalty with this dish.
Barbecued Pork Crown Roast
Ingredients for Pork Crown:
- 1 Bone-In Pork Crown Roast Pork Loin
- Kansas City’s Cowtown All-Purpose Rub
- Kansas City’s Cowtown The Squeal Rub
- Smoke on Wheels BBQ Marinade
Ingredients for Stuffing:
- 1 lb. French Bread Cubed
- 4 Tbsp. Butter
- 1 lb. Ground Sausage
- 1 Cup Finely Diced Sweet Onion
- ½ Cup Celery Finely Diced
- 2 Tbsp. Kansas City’s Cowtown All-Purpose Rub
- ¼ Cup Dried Cranberries
- 2 Tbsp. Garlic minced
- ½ Tbsp. Fresh Sage minced
- ¼ Cup White Wine
- 450ml Chicken Broth
- 1 Egg (Beaten)
- 1 Cup Sweet Apple (Peeled and Diced)
- 2 Tbsp. Parsley
Ingredients for Finishing Glaze:
- 1 Cup Apricot Jam
- 1 Cup Blues Hog Tennessee Red BBQ Sauce
- 2 Tbsp. Butter
Directions to Crown the Pork:
STEP 1: First things first, you want to trim any excess fat and silver skin that is left on the loin.
STEP 2: If the bones aren't fully exposed, carefully trim the meat so that they are. If you're buying this meat from your butcher, you can ask for your pork crown to be "frenched." Don't worry, your butcher won't be tongue-kissing your pork, to "french" is the method of cutting the meat away from the end of a rib or chop, to expose the bone!
STEP 3: Next, make shallow vertical slices in between the bones on the loin. Make sure they go down the bone side of the rack to allow the rack to be easily shaped later on (with the bone side of the rack facing outward).
STEP 4: Now you want to line a baking dish in plastic/saran wrap, then place the pork crown on top. For the fun part: it's messy, but that's what makes it fun, right? Pour one bottle of Smoke on Wheels BBQ Marinade over the pork. Be sure to fully coat the whole hog in the marinade!
STEP 5: Wrap the pork in the plastic/saran wrap you laid down before and place the rack in the fridge for at least 90 minutes. At this point, you can move onto making the stuffing and finishing glaze (directions shown below). You can also just relax and have a snack while you wait.
STEP 6: Now that you've waited the full 90 minutes and weren't defeated by the temptation to get cooking right away, pat yourself on the back. Okay, that's enough patting. Take the loin out of the fridge and remove the plastic/saran wrap and any excess marinade.
STEP 7: Season the front and back of the rack very generously with a first layer of Cowtown All-Purpose Rub and then give it a second layer with the Cowtown The Squeal Rub.
STEP 8: Next, bring the ends of the rack together to form the beautiful crown shape. Skewer the ends together so that it will stay in place as you tie them with some food-safe string. Tie the rack around the top bones, as well as the bottom of the loin to make sure it holds it's crown form.
STEP 9: Transfer the hog to a sheet pan with a wire rack. Please refrain from crowning yourself the King or Queen of barbecue by placing the rack on your head. We know it's fun, but food hygiene comes first...okay fine, you can do it just once, we won't tell.
Directions for Stuffing:
STEP 1: Time to make your home smell fantastic. Take the butter and melt it in your skillet.
STEP 2: Add the sausage to the skillet and brown it by stirring occasionally when needed.
STEP 3: Add the onion and celery.
STEP 4: Season with Cowtown All-Purpose Rub.
STEP 5: Keep stirring and mix everything up until the onions become translucent (that's how you know they're cooked).
STEP 6: Add the cranberries, garlic, and sage, and cook it all up for another minute or two. Make sure you start to stir more frequently so that the cranberries don't burn.
STEP 7: Next, add wine to deglaze. Cook until the wine is almost completely reduced down.
STEP 8: Remove the skillet from the grill.
STEP 9: Now, combine the dried bread, diced apples, and sausage mixture all into a large mixing bow or foil pan. Mix up everything nice and evenly.
STEP 10: Add half of your chicken stock to the stuffing.
STEP 11: Whisk the eggs into the other half of the chicken stock, then add it into the stuffing as well.
STEP 12: Keep mixing everything up until the bread is completely moistened. Now, let that beautiful concoction sit for about 10 minutes.
Directions for Finishing Glaze:
STEP 1: In a small saucepan, combine the peach preserves and the Blues Hog Tennessee Red BBQ Sauce over medium-high heat until it's all melted.
STEP 2: Next, remove the heat and whisk in the butter. Yum.
Main Directions:
STEP 1: Preheat your smoker for 425°F. We're going to be using our ol' reliable Yoder Smoker YS640 with some sweet BBQ's Delight Apple Pellets.
STEP 2: Cover the exposed bones with tin foil to prevent them from getting too dark.
STEP 3: Time for the fun part, again - who are we kidding, all of this is fun! Take your stuffing and place it in the center of your pork crown roast. Make sure you press down a little to make sure it really gets in there - it is called "stuffing" for a reason.
STEP 4: Cover stuffing with foil to prevent getting too dark. It's like making a crown on the crown... crown-ception!
STEP 5: Place rack and sheet pan on the main cooking surface of the grill.
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STEP 6: Cook for approximately 1 hour while staying conscious of the internal temperature of the meat.
STEP 7: After it's been about an hour, remove the foil from top of roast (covering the stuffing) and continue cooking it until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the meat reaches 145°F. Start being cautious of the temperatures when the meat hits 120°F because pork tends to rise in temperature quicker than you think.
Note: We used our trusty MEATER Wireless Remote Thermometer. We love this little guy because it allows us to sit back and relax while we wait for our food to get up to temperature. All we really have to do is keep our phones near us and wait for the app to tell us everything we need to know! Click here to learn more about the MEATER Wireless Remote Thermometer. You can also click here to see our selection of other remote thermometers.
STEP 8: Brush the finishing glaze on the pork about 30 minutes before taking the pork off, and then again about 10 minutes prior to taking it off.
STEP 9: Remove that beautiful crown from your smoker and let it rest for about 20 minutes.
STEP 10: Last but definitely not least, slice the crown rack of pork in-between the bones to serve as individual pork chops, and eat like royalty! Add a little bit of stuffing onto your plate as well, and you've got the best dinner you could have asked for... well, until the next Recipe of the Month!
Recipe written by barbecue enthusiast Andrew Plaza. Follow him on Instagram for more barbecue goodness by clicking here.