RECIPE: Peanut Butter Chocolate Pulled Pork Waffle

This recipe originally appeared in the August 26, 2022 edition of The Action Cookbook Newsletter.

I share a recipe here every week, and I’ve done so for more than three years running. Most of the time, these are recipes that I think you might actually want to make—and I take great pleasure when I find out that you have. (No fewer than a hundred people have sent me pictures of their attempts at the Kentuckiana Hot Loin over the years, and I have delighted in every single one.)

Sometimes recipes are mildly outlandish—like the KHL—but other times they’re simple weeknight dinners or side dishes.

Every once in a while, though, I just have to do something stupid.

Once or twice a year, I find myself gripped by a ludicrous food idea that I cannot free myself of without 1) making it and 2) sharing it with you, the adoring public. This is how we’ve ended up with monstrosities like the Loaded Cheeseburger Picnic Pie, the Deep-Fried Skyline Chili Footballs, and American Pizza.

(For the record: all three of those were in fact legitimately delicious, and my kids still speak with reverence about the pizza. Ridiculous or not, I’m not out here to make food that tastes bad.)

ANYWAY,

A couple weeks ago, a sandwich made some waves on social media.

The Kansas City Royals baseball team announced this abomination, a pulled pork sandwich with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups on it. Now, it’s not new for ballparks to announce stunt foods, and it achieved its intended reaction: it got people talking.

It got me thinking, though.

Yes—that sandwich above both looks and sounds disgusting. I love both pulled pork and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but the combination of the two just feels wrong.

Although.

Is there a chance that this unusual combination of flavors could be made to work?

Could… could I make a good version of this?

I retired to my laboratory1 for hours of study. I sketched ideas and scrapped them. I tested ideas and abandoned them. I nearly went mad in the process.

But I think I just might’ve pulled it off, and made something actually worth eating.

First things first.

I opted right off the bat to, in the parlance of Taco Bell, think outside the bun. I don’t like messy, overflowing sandwiches that squirt out one side of the bun as soon as you bite the other, so I’d abandon the “sandwich” conceit. I’d serve my version open-faced over a waffle because, well, why not? Waffles are delicious.

Next, I’d nix the Reese’s Cups. I love you, guys, but this ain’t your game. Instead, I’d make two sauces—a Thai-inspired peanut sauce, and a chipotle pepper/dark chocolate sauce that would hint at a mole negro (without the exceedingly-long ingredient list of an authentic mole negro, that is.) These sauces would be drizzled over crispy pork, with some added crunch coming from potato chips and crushed peanuts.

It’d be a monstrosity worthy of any state fair’s midway.

Action Cookbook’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Pulled Pork Waffle, or “The Royal”

• 1 Belgian waffle
• 6 ounces pulled pork
• Salt-and-vinegar potato chips
• Honey-roasted peanuts
• Peanut Sauce (recipe below)
• Chocolate Chipotle Sauce (recipe below)

Peanut Sauce

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• juice of two limes
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sriracha
• hot water, as needed

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar and sriracha. Add in the peanut butter, and whisk to combine, adding hot water if needed to achieve a smooth and drizzle-able consistency.

Chocolate/Chipotle Sauce

• 1 can (7 oz) chipotle peppers in adobo
• 1 small can (7-8 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 ounce 100% cacao dark chocolate, chopped
• olive oil

Is it cheating to use this little chocolate? That’s up to you. I tried a version that used an entire 4-ounce chocolate bar and, well—it tasted like chocolate sauce, and not in an especially good way. It was too strong. A hint of bitter chocolate coming through the back of the smoky chipotles is what we want here, and less is more.2

Puree the chipotles and tomato sauce together in a food processor. Heat a small amount of oil in a saucepan, then add the cumin and cinnamon and stir to bloom the spices a bit. Pour in the pepper/tomato puree, and whisk in the sugar. Turn the heat down to low, and add the chocolate in, stirring continuously until it fully melts and incorporates into the sauce. Set aside to cool.

Now, assembly.

I’m not going to give you a fresh recipe for waffles or pulled pork today, because while those are both wonderful foods worthy of careful attention, the specifics don’t really matter in this preparation. I used a packaged pancake mix and leftover pork I pulled out of the freezer.

I also prepped this at breakfast time, because that way I could make waffles for my family and the eventual mess in my kitchen would at least feel somewhat virtuous.

Crisp the pork in a skillet until it achieves some nicely browned edges. Make a waffle. Place the pork on the waffle, followed by a handful of crushed chips. Drizzle with the two sauces, then sprinkle with a handful of crushed peanuts.

Serve in a cardboard boat, and eat out of doors with a plastic fork. It’s only appropriate.

Friends, you will have to trust me that this was actually quite tasty.

Would I make it a second time? No, probably not. But I’m glad that I made it this time, and I hope you are too. Sometimes the recipe is just about going on a journey, and this was a fun walk down the midway.

In terms of lessons learned, though, I will absolutely explore the combination of pulled pork and peanut sauce more in the future; that part was excellent.

—Scott Hines (@actioncookbook)