Ingredients:
1 large onion, sliced into half-moons
1 1/2 lb honeycrisp apples, sliced
2 1/2 lb boneless pork butt
12 oz bottle chili sauce (like Heinz)
1 teaspoon ground mustard (powder)
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Place the onions and apples in the bottom of a 4-quart slow cooker. Place the pork roast on top of the onion. Add the remaining ingredients over the pork. Cover and cook on high 4 hours then on low for 4 hours. OR cook 9-10 hours on low. Remove the roast and shred with forks or “meat claws”.  Discard any unwanted chunks of fat.

Mash the onions and apple mixture in the slow cooker until nearly completely smooth.

Return the shredded meat to the slow cooker and toss with sauce. Serve on rolls or bread.

My thoughts:

It’s apple season again! I am not a huge fan of fall as you may remember from nearly every post this time of year from 2004 to today. I like somethings about fall–when it is still hammock weather, apples, generally less humidity, baking again after avoiding the oven in my non-centrally air-conditioned home, deciding if I am brave enough to wear a poncho–but I don’t like knowing that my least favorite season is coming, it getting dark early, no fresh tomatoes worth eating, no nectarines, colder temperatures. Blah! But I do love apples and my fruit consumption goes way up in fall because they are so easy and neat to eat.

My all-time favorite apple is the Stayman-Winesap but for a sweet apple, you can’t beat the Honeycrisp. It is in fact, crisp and sweet like honey. They also can be huge! I literally only used one apple for this recipe! It was that big! This recipe is super simple, you don’t have to do a lot of prep and it basically makes its own apple-y barbecue sauce as the meat cooks. The end result is melt in your mouth tender pork that is redolent of spices and apples. The perfect fall weeknight dinner.