Pulled Pork Risotto

Savory Pulled Pork Risotto has a rich, flavorful taste from the pork combined with hearty risotto and finished with some good cheese. This recipe is an excellent way to use leftover pulled pork! 

As we ate dinner last night, we were chatting about how often I would typically go to the grocery before we got into this stay at home mode.

I figure I averaged about 3 trips, with a range anywhere from 2 to 5. Under normal circumstances, when cooking up a new recipe, I would simply head to the store to track down all the ingredients I needed to fulfill my culinary vision.

Needless to say, we are in different times.

This new pulled pork risotto recipe started with Jodi venturing into the grocery store for us. We figured prepackaged meats would be better to get in this phase, meaning one less interaction. (I typically enjoy chatting with the folks at the meat and fish counter about what I’m buying; hopefully will be doing that again before too long).

Jodi reported there wasn’t too much in the case. “Just a few packages of pork shoulder”.

Might not look or sound great to the non-cook, but I immediately text back, “Yes, get that! Pulled pork!”

So I made a batch of pulled pork, actually using our new Instant Pot for the first time to do so (Amazon affiliate link provided). After enjoying pulled pork sandwiches the first night, we had a lot of leftover pulled pork, along with some extra liquid from the Instant Pot cooking process. Hello, Pulled Pork Risotto! 

What makes this risotto work

Well, if you’re anything like, just having risotto in the name of a recipe makes me hungry!

But what makes this pulled pork risotto stands out is you get the creamy, hearty risotto thing going on, combined with the savory flavors of pulled pork. Oh yes, and you get a touch of BBQ flavor if you make your pulled pork like I do. And for good measure and depth of flavor, we add some mushrooms to the recipe.

Tips for making this recipe

Our recipe starts once you have some leftover pulled pork on hand. Our Slow Cooker Pulled Pork recipe is a good place to start if you are looking to make a batch of pulled pork, with this risotto in mind. 

We referenced this recipe from Recipe Teacher for making a batch of pulled pork in our Instant Pot,combining some of the flavors I used in my slow cooker pulled pork recipe with some new ideas from the Recipe Teacher version.

Here are some tips for making the pulled pork risotto once you have your leftover pork ready to go. The recipe card below has all the details you need:

• Broth: Bottom line is you need 7 cups of liquid to gradually ladle into the risotto. If you have any liquid remaining from making pulled pork, use what you have of that liquid to start. Then supplement pork juice that with chicken or beef broth to get up to 7 cups total liquid. You could also use reserved liquid from soaking dried mushrooms as part of the 7 cups liquid.
• Starting the risotto: The pot of risotto gets started by sautéing the onion in some olive, then adding the mushrooms. After the mushrooms get soft you are ready to add the arborio rice.
• Stirring the risotto: The key to the risotto making process is gradually ladling the liquid into the risotto pot, and stirring the broth in with the rice. Some people have the idea that you need to constantly stand over the risotto pot to stir; this isn’t quite the case. You can ladle in some broth, stir it up, then attend to some other things for a few minutes. Don’t go too far from the pot though! It does need to be stirred every few minutes.
• Adding the pork: I added the pork about halfway through the process of cooking the risotto. This gives it enough time to heat up and spread some of the good pork flavor throughout the dish.
• Finish with cheese: Once the rice is cooked and you’ve used all or most of the liquid, you are ready to finish the dish by stirring in the cheese. We use a bit less cheese for this recipe compared to some other risotto, because the pork already brings such a rich flavor you don’t need as much cheese.

Wine Pairing

Quick Picks: We have had the best pairing results going with New World, fruit-forward red wines, as well as a good Chardonnay. Read on for details!

Red Wine Pairings

Typically I would go for an Italian wine with risotto. However, the BBQ flavors coming from the pulled pork made me think in terms of a fruit forward, new world wine.

I initially chose the OVR Old Vine Red ($14,13.5% ABV) from Marietta Cellars to pair with this recipe. Inky purple in the glass, violets on the nose. Cherry fruit and strawberry jam on the palate, with a touch of chocolate.

The OVR is a red blend, predominantly Zinfandel sourced from Sonoma and Mendocino County. More about the wine on the Marietta Cellars website. 

As anticipated, the OVR was a great wine pairing for the pulled pork risotto.

For a recent remake of this recipe, I opened the 2018 Dracaena Cabernet Franc ($34, 14.4% ABV) from Paso Robles to go with the risotto. Black pepper on the nose, raspberry fruit and a touch of vanilla on the palate. Soft mouthfeel. Another excellent choice for this risotto dish! And if you’ve got an extra bottle of this Cab Franc, we also enjoyed it with our Portuguese Kale Soup! 

Another time I did try a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo the leftover pulled pork risotto. This reinforced my inclination that this is one risotto dish that is better with a new world style wine.

If you can’t find the OVR or the Cab Franc, I would suggest grabbing another California red blend.

White Wine Pairing

Ok, so we’ve run through some red wine pairing options. What about white wine pairings for this risotto?

You might think leftovers of a dish made with leftovers (i.e. leftover leftover pork risotto) might not sound to exciting. But paired with an excellent wine, these are not leftovers to pass up!

We opened a bottle of the 2014 Maison Noir Oregogne Chardonnay and really enjoyed its nuanced flavor profile. Would have to say this was the favorite of the three bottles that we opened from Maison Noir Wines, which was also talked about in our Black-Eyed Peas with Collard Greens article.

I had a chance to catch up with Maison Noir owner André Hueston Mack. In this clip, you can hear him talk about the evolution of their Chardonnay.

More Risotto Recipes

We love a good, hearty risotto! A versatile way to use various ingredients you might have available. Here are some of our favorite risotto recipes:

• Mushroom Truffle Risotto
• Red Cabbage Risotto
• Chicken and Mushroom Risotto
• Hoppin’ John Risotto
• Risotto with Roasted Butternut Squash, Chicken and Sage
• Tuscan Kale Pesto Risotto

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