Typically, I’m a baseball park food traditionalist and was initially resistant to the idea of anything other than a knish or a hot dog at a ballgame. Once I had that sandwich I thought, “This should have been here much sooner.” It was a life changing moment.

Up until then, I had been using only store bought sauces and “doctored” them either by blending the different brands together or adding other pantry ingredients to sort of make them my own. At the time, I hadn’t yet considered cooking professionally. I was a “legend in my own mind” and self-proclaimed “king of the grill.”

After I ate that sandwich on a cool September evening in Flushing, my true obsession with all things barbecue was born. As a Bronx born native New Yorker, my initial perception of barbecue was pork ribs or chicken parts slathered in a half inch thick coating of inexpensive and sugary supermarket grade glaze. Not that there is anything wrong with that type of cooking, except for the fact that I would later learn that it’s not real barbecue. I had never even heard of pulled pork or brisket, let alone beer can or spatchcock smoked chicken.

Let’s get back to that sandwich and those tender strands of smoky pork that just seemed to dissolve between my molars and the sides of my tongue. The brioche bun, which I foolishly thought was reserved only for overpriced breakfast sandwiches near Herald Square, changed the way I looked at almost all sandwiches. The real star of the show, however, was the sauce. It was tangy, sweet, and slightly smoky, had a little bit of back heat, and was relatively loose; unlike those thick, commercially produced sauces. This one, I became obsessed with reproducing and I mean really obsessed.

As you might imagine, living in an apartment in a big city with no access to private outdoor space, cooking any real barbecue came with its challenges here at home. That did not stop this chef from allowing his intuitive and resourceful wit from achieving indoor barbecue triumph. I figured a slow cooker or Dutch oven could achieve similar results for tenderness. The internet became my friend as I scanned recipes and was also introduced to liquid smoke. Shameful to use if you have an outdoor pit or grill, but absolutely acceptable for the urban barbecue cowboy!

Use some of the liquid mixture to deglaze the pan. You can also use a Dutch oven for the whole process. Keep in mind that the cook time will not be an hour if you don’t use a pressure cooking feature. Dutch oven cook time will be about 2-3 hours covered in a standard home oven at 275˚ F. Cook time in a slow cooker will be roughly the same on high setting depending on your model.