Easy Pulled Pork Sliders: Pillowy rolls filled with delicious, mouth-watering, tender pulled pork, bbq sauce, and cheese are brushed with melted butter, garlic, and herbs, then baked to toasty, melty perfection. They’re like the little black dress of the sandwich world and perfect for every occasion.
Whether you serve these pork sandwiches for busy weeknight family dinners, a game day spread, as appetizers, or a on party buffet, you’ll get smiles all around. They’re so easy to make and only take 30 minutes from start to finish, so there’s no reason you can’t have them whenever the craving strikes.
I like to serve our bbq pork sliders with a little extra drizzle of barbecue sauce and some pickled onions, but that’s strictly optional! Go for what dings your chimes!
Pulled Pork Slider
For the most delightful sliders, you want to start with wonderfully soft, fluffy, pillowy slider rolls. I prefer Martin’s Potato Dinner Rolls, but King’s Hawaiian Buns are also great.
Brioche buns or other soft Hawaiian rolls are both also a great option. Basically, you’re looking for a one pound package of 12 soft dinner rolls, your favorite slider buns are.
And when it comes to the pulled pork portion of the program, I highly recommend using our succulent slow cooker recipe Jack Daniels Pulled Pork. It’s perfectly (WARNING: I’m gonna use the ‘M’ word) moist, tender, and ever so savoury. This tender pork is good to go just as it is without having to add any juices to it.
You can, of course, opt to use any pulled pork you’d like. If the one you have is on the drier side, you may want to augment it with a little splash of chicken broth tossed through it before you load up the rolls.
I’ve also made a heckuva tasty slider using our Mojo Pork, Apple Cider Pulled Pork or Honey Mustard Pulled Pork. This is entirely up to you.
Heck, you can sub in shredded chicken or beef or just about any saucy meat if you want. Go wild!
You can top the pulled pork with pickled onions if you’re so inclined (and I usually am, but my two of my kids aren’t, and it’s just as easy to add them to each individual slider when serving them. Not optional is the drizzle of barbecue sauce, though.
I reach for homemade bbq sauce or Dinosaur Barbecue’s Sensuous Slathering. It’s a silly name, but a great sauce! If you have a favorite bbq sauce you adore, use it here!
A little sprinkling of fresh parsley or cilantro (or both!) really livens up the sliders, so I always add it, but it isn’t strictly necessary. You’ll be adding some to the top of the sliders, too.
If fresh herbs aren’t in the budget, you can swap in a little sprinkle of dried Italian seasonings. They’re divine on the sliders, as well.
If you’re feeling extra, you can add the fresh and the dried seasonings both. You won’t regret that!
Want to make these into Hawaiian pulled pork sliders? Easy peasy! Add a ½ cup of drained pineapple tidbits to the top of the pork before drizzling on the bbq sauce. Sweet, savoury, and spectacular!
Say cheese!
I’m going to give a resounding vote for super thinly sliced mild cheddar cheese here. This is a little out of the ordinary for me, because usually I’m a sharp or extra sharp cheddar gal.
But mild cheddar is a great melting cheese and gives just enough of that cheddar punch to our sliders. If you’re more of a pepper jack or Monterey jack cheese fan, you can certainly use it here.
You could use provolone if you dig it, but I think it’s missing the oomph that mild cheddar or pepper jack would bring to the pulled pork sliders. Is Swiss cheese more your jam? Okay. You can use it. But it doesn’t melt quite as creamy as the mild cheddar or pepper jack! The real key here is to use the thinnest slices you can get.
I buy “extra thin sliced mild cheddar cheese” from Wegman’s. If you’re nowhere near a Wegman’s just ask your deli to slice cheddar or pepper jack extra thin for you.
If you smile sweetly and say please many times over, they may even accommodate a request to put a slice of deli paper between each slice of cheese to keep it from sticking. Regular thinly sliced deli cheese will work, though!
Can you freeze sliders?
Probably… but folks, I’m going to advise against it. Freeze the leftover pulled pork, for sure! Heck. Freeze the rolls! They’ll be even easier to slice.
This pork slider recipe is so good when fresh and takes so little time to make! It’s such an easy meal! And the time you save slicing the slab of rolls will be lost in the extra baking time to cook them from frozen.
Are you looking for more delicious recipes using pork? From Easy Garlic Ginger Glazed Sticky Pork to Pork Fries, Bo Ssäm to Mapo Dofu to Tequila Lime Pork Tenderloin to Slow Cooker Pork Roast and beyond. I have the pork recipe for you!
Pulled Pork Sliders
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 9-inch by 13-inch pan with parchment paper or foil. Set it aside.
Lay the rolls on a cutting board and use a bread knife or other long, serrated knife to slice the rolls in half along their equator, splitting the tops from the bottoms. Do not pull the rolls apart. If possible, keep the top half and bottom half intact.
Lay the bottom buns in the prepared pan. Spread the pulled pork evenly over the bottom half of the rolls. If using pickled onions, scatter them over the pork.
Drizzle the barbecue sauce evenly over the pork. Sprinkle the parsley or cilantro over the barbecue sauce.
Lay the cheese slices in an overlapping pattern over the sauce. You can use as few as 9 slices of cheese or as many as 12.
Tightly cover the pan with foil and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted, the tops of the buns are golden brown, and the bread smells toasty. Remove the rolls from the pan by lifting the foil or parchment you used to line it.
Arrange the top buns -cut side down- over the cheese. Brush with the melted butter (see notes) over the top of the rolls and sprinkle with the granulated garlic, herbs, and salt.
Serve with additional barbecue sauce for dipping, pickled onions, dill pickles, potato chips or french fries, and creamy coleslaw, if desired.
If using garlic powder, whisk it into the butter before brushing over the tops of the rolls.
Pulled Pork Sliders
Rate RecipeEquipment
- 1 9×13 inch baking pan
- Aluminum foil or parchment paper + foil
- Bread knife or long serrated knife
- basting brush
Ingredients
- 12 soft dinner rolls 1 pound
- 3 cups leftover pulled pork
- ½ cup bbq sauce
- 4 tablespoons minced fresh parsley or cilantro leaves divided (see notes) or dried parsley flakes
- 9 to 12 thin slices mild cheddar cheese pepper jack cheese, or Monterey jack cheese
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- ½ teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder see notes
- ½ teaspoon Diamond kosher salt or fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 9-inch by 13-inch pan with parchment paper or foil. Set it aside.
- Lay the rolls on a cutting board and use a bread knife or other long, serrated knife to slice the rolls in half along their equator, splitting the tops from the bottoms. Do not pull the rolls apart. If possible, keep the top half and bottom half intact.
- Lay the bottom buns in the prepared pan. Spread the pulled pork evenly over the bottom half of the rolls. If using pickled onions, scatter them over the pork.
- Drizzle the barbecue sauce evenly over the pork. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the parsley or cilantro over the barbecue sauce.
- Lay the cheese slices in an overlapping pattern over the sauce. You can use as few as 9 slices of cheese or as many as 12.
- Arrange the top buns -cut side down- over the cheese. Brush with the melted butter (see notes) over the top of the rolls and sprinkle with the granulated garlic, herbs, and salt.
- Tightly cover the pan with foil and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted, the tops of the buns are golden brown, and the bread smells toasty. Remove the rolls from the pan by lifting the foil or parchment you used to line it.
- Serve with additional barbecue sauce for dipping, pickled onions, dill pickles, potato chips or french fries, and creamy coleslaw, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
did you make this recipe?
Make sure to tag @foodiewithfam on Instagram and #hashtag it #foodiewithfamily so I can check it out!
Comments + Reviews