Eating pulled pork, chicken, lamb, goat, and beef is one of life&#;s great food pleasures, whether in a sandwich, on a taco, or served over pasta. But getting carnitas or braised beef to that shredded texture isn&#;t easy, especially if the meat has only just finished cooking. Too often, you find yourself standing over a pot of braised meat with two forks or tongs, pulling the meat by hand and treating yourself to a meat steam facial at the same time.
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It&#;s a lot faster and so much easier to let your stand mixer do the work for you. Cut or pull off medium-sized chunks of meat and place them in the bowl of the mixer, filling the bowl halfway (do this in batches rather than overfilling the bowl). I like to add a ladle or two of broth to help everything move along, but don&#;t add so much liquid that it splashes out when the mixer runs. Attach the paddle to the mixer and turn it on the lowest speed. Keep an eye on the meat until it reaches the texture you want &#; it&#;s that easy.
I learned this trick from chef Cory Morris, the night he competed on Beat Bobby Flay. Morris made his Ropa Vieja, a dish of long-simmered goat or lamb, and used a stand mixer to shred the meat.
&#;I like to let the meat cook down in its braising juices long enough that you are able to handle it with gloves,&#; he explains, adding that even slightly under-braised meat responds well to this technique. &#;This method works well if the meat isn&#;t as tender as you would like it, because it will break down all of the connective tissue and tenderize the meat. Take the meat off the bone and add it to the bowl of a standing mixer with enough braising liquid to coat it. With a paddle mixer on low, mix the meat until it&#;s shredded to your desired consistency.&#;
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I&#;ve always preferred shredded meats to the sliced or cubed variety. I choose shredded chicken for my tacos and shredded pork for my bánh mì, and shredded chicken salad is by far the superior preparation method&#;this despite the fact that shredding meat is undoubtedly more work that cutting it, but it doesn't have to be if you use a stand mixer for the job.
The first time I shredded chicken with forks, I remember thinking, &#;oh, this isn&#;t so bad,&#; until a few minutes later, as my palms developed reddened fork handle-dents. It&#;s not that the act of shredding is complicated or particularly hard to figure out, but if you need to do it for more than maybe two hunks of meat, it can be a pain. Tossing it in a stand mixer instead is entirely worth it.
I first learned of this method in a video similar to this one a couple weeks ago, focused on making a shredded chicken salad. The person fitted the stand mixer with a whisk attachment, switched on the machine, added their ingredients, and scooped out the finished salad. My initial reaction was that the completed chicken salad looked a bit too smooth, like it had lost its texture. The video maker essentially admitted as much, but was otherwise pleased with the results.
I was intrigued enough to try shredding in a stand mixer myself&#;with a few modifications.
I think that the whisk attachment was the primary culprit for the over-mixing in that video. A stand mixer is incredibly powerful, and you have to be careful about timing and how fast the machine is going to avoid going too hard, whatever you're making.
I decided to try stand-shredding for pulled pork, which is much fattier than chicken, and thus even easier to accidentally over-shred. (You might note that slow cooker pulled pork falls apart readily, which is true; I'll reiterate that it&#;s not that pulling apart the meat is hard, it&#;s just a lot to do if you have a large quantity.)
I tossed the meat into the mixing bowl and used a paddle attachment to start shredding it. With no exaggeration, my pork was nearly ready in fewer than 10 seconds on the lowest possible setting. I added my favorite barbecue sauce and switched on the machine for another 5 seconds. Done: The pulled pork was perfect.
What does this mean for us shredded meat lovers? Well, it means you may want to get yourself a stand mixer if you don&#;t already have one. I think this method is an absolute game changer for tougher, drier meats like chicken, and a very reasonable option for tender meats when you have three or more pounds of it to shred.
I&#;ve had my Kitchen Aid Professional 6-quart for more than a decade, and while newer models are quieter, this ol&#; girl is as effective as ever. Though I can&#;t find the 6-quart model in stock anymore, the 5-quart is a alternative.
I always include clean-up when I&#;m deciding if a gadget or appliance helps with speedy cooking, and the amount of time saved here cannot be argued. Consider the cutting board, the dripping juice, the knives, and the forks, compared to just the bowl and the paddle using the mixer method. The bowl prevents juices lost to the cutting board, and the paddle attachment is easy to clean. Between shredding and cleaning time, I'd estimate I saved 10 to 20 minutes.
Beyond that, the mixer does the stirring for you, so you can drop in chopped ingredients and sauces for a simple, effective multitask. Essentially, using a stand mixer takes all the tough work out of preparing a pulled meat dish, and makes cooking big batches more accessible too. I would absolutely suggest it to older cooks or anyone with reduced shoulder mobility or arm strength.
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