BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich with Dill Pickle Slaw

This post may contain affiliate links. Read disclosure policy

Our BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches are made with a simple homemade dry rub, cooked in the crockpot until tender, and then topped off with barbecue sauce and a dill pickle slaw! These feed a crowd and are so easy to make with minimal prep work!

Pulled pork sandwich topped with dill slaw and pickles.

Pin this Recipe for Later

Not me having a love affair with a pulled pork sandwich!

It’s the combo of tender pulled pork, tangy sauce, and crunchy dill slaw for me!

You know on HGTV when everyone is all, “We want a house where can entertain!” “We love to entertain.” “I need a house built for entertaining.”

Everyone and their entertaining, my goodness.

Well…we are those people and we do a lot of entertaining and when we moved into our house that we looked at through the lens of entertaining, we ended up making a lot of these pulled pork sandwiches.

People were over just about every weekend in the beginning and I quickly fell into a pulled pork sandwich rut. <— Not that anyone complained.

The homemade rub on our pulled pork sandwiches is so simple to stir together and you honestly probably have what you need already.

The pork cooks in the slow cooker so it’s super moist, super tender, and perfectly shreddable.

We top these off with our Carolina bbq sauce and dill pickle slaw that adds the perfect sweet, tangy, and fresh crunch to the sandwiches.

It’s been about 10 years since our entertaining days really began, but we still make this crockpot pulled pork on the regular. I’ll never get sick of it.

Table of Contents

♥ What We Love About This Recipe:

Leftovers: One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it makes a ton of pork! I almost always have a big ol’ bag of this in my freezer. I just grab it out and let it thaw in the fridge all day before heating it up for dinner. It’s really been a life saver for me on busy days.
Flavors: We love the combination of tangy and savory flavors! The pulled pork, BBQ sauce, slaw and pickles all make a great combination that just works. Plus, you can switch these up with any other toppings you like.
Easy: The barbecue dry rub is simple to keep on hand in your spice cabinet and then you just rub it on, pop it in the slow cooker, and let the magic happen. These are easy!

Ingredient Notes:

Ingredients for pulled pork sandwich recipe.

For the pork:

Pork Shoulder – This recipe starts with a bone-in pork shoulder, about 6 pounds. You can easily make a smaller pork shoulder or larger, so long as it fits in the slow cooker.

Dry Rub Seasoning – We’re seasoning the pork shoulder with a simple homemade BBQ dry rub mix. You’ll need brown sugar, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, parsley, paprika, and chipotle chili powder.

Sandwich Buns – You can use any kind of sandwich buns that you like here. Hamburger buns, brioche buns, potato rolls, slider buns…all good options!

Dill Pickle Slaw – I’m topping these BBQ pulled pork sandwiches with my homemade dill pickle slaw! It’s tangy, creamy, and crunchy which makes it a great topping to go with the pulled pork.

BBQ Sauce – You can certainly use a store bought sauce, but we love our Carolina barbecue sauce here for the tangy factor. If you prefer a sweeter sauce, our bourbon BBQ sauce is great.

Dill Pickles – We also top the sandwiches with sliced pickles! This along with the slaw and sauce are pretty much optional though if you like different toppings with your pulled pork sandwiches.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Crockpot Recommendation!

In the market for a new slow cooker? We love this 7 quart Crockpot. It’s simple to use, cooks evenly, and is very budget friendly. Plus, it has a 4 1/2 star rating with over 5,000 reviews on Amazon!

Get on amazon

Step by Step:

Add all of the ingredients for the dry rub to a bowl and stir them to combine.

Pork shoulder coated in dry rub in crockpot.

Liberally coat the pork shoulder in the dry rub (you won’t use all of it), and cook on low heat in the slow cooker for 8 hours.

Shred the pork (I use a couple of forks, but meat claws work nicely too!) and season with the reserved dry rub.

Pulled pork sandwiches topped with barbecue, pickles, and slaw.

Build your sandwiches by topping the buns with pork, sauce, pickles, and slaw.

Oven Pulled Pork:

It’s also possible to slow cook a pork shoulder in the oven! It actually takes even longer so be prepared to have your kitchen heated for half the day.

To bake pulled pork in the oven place it in a covered dish such as a Dutch oven and bake at 250 degrees for 10 – 12 hours or until the meat is tender enough to be pulled apart with a fork. We do this overnight while we’re sleeping more often than not.

There should be enough fat in the pulled pork that you don’t need to add any additional liquid but you can add a small amount of broth or water if you’re concerned about it drying out.

My Favorite Dutch Oven!

This gorgeous Dutch oven is perfect for making soup, pot roast, and more. It goes from stove to oven as needed and looks pretty enough to leave out on your stovetop as decoration.

Get on amazon

A close up of a pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich on a wooden cutting board.

Helpful Tip!

Freezing & Storage Instructions:

If you’ve got leftover pulled pork, you can keep it stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about 4-5 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove until warmed through.

Leftover pulled pork can also be frozen. Let it cool completely before transferring to a freezer safe bag or container and freezing for up to 3 months. Allow it to thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.

Leftover Hack!

If you’ve got leftovers then I’ve got lots of good options to use them! Try out these pulled pork mac and cheese sliders! Or this pulled pork mac and cheese pizza, because we love the combination.

You’ll also want to check out these Cuban sliders. The pork is cooked a bit differently in that recipe but it would be no problem to use the leftover pork in this recipe as a substitute.

And you definitely can’t go wrong with this pulled pork enchilada skillet recipe! It’s another great way to use up that leftover pulled pork for weeknight dinners.

Recipe FAQs:

What type of pork is best for pulled pork sandwiches?

We prefer a bone-in pork shoulder for this recipe. You could use a boneless if you need to. A pork butt will also work here. They’re both cuts from the shoulder but have different amounts of fat.

What to put on a barbecue pulled pork sandwich?

Pulled pork is a rich, fatty meat, so we like to cut some of that richness by topping our sandwiches with something a little tangy, such as coleslaw or dill pickles.