Chicago Hot BBQ

Dear Potbelly Sandwich Works test kitchen,

I recently binge read Samin Nosrat‘s cookbook “Salt Fat Acid Heat” and it explained cooking the way my brain works, by starting with “why.” When I was a kid, I didn’t ask why five times to get to root cause; I asked thirty-seven times until my curiosity was completely exhausted — my poor mother!

A couple weeks ago I stopped into Potbelly and ordered my usual skinny roast beef on white with “hot peppers” AKA giardiniera. While waiting, I noticed the Sweet Heat Pork BBQ on the menu, and something clicked.

Salt, fat, acid, heat. Got it. But what about spice?

Capsaicin, the compound that makes hot peppers hot, is fat-soluble. So I started wondering: would adding giardiniera during the cooking process, infuse that signature spicy pepper flavor into the protein itself? So I bought a jar of your Hot Peppers and ran the experiment by making “Chicago Hot” BBQ pulled pork in my Instant Pot.

The result surprised even me. After 60 minutes under high pressure, the pork was fall-apart tender and the giardiniera spice infused directly into the meat, creating a heat that builds and lingers, balanced by sweet BBQ sauce and wet slaw.

Please give my recipe (https://chicagohotbbq.com/) a try and consider adding a “Chicago Hot” BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich to your menu.

P.s. my photography skills lag my curiosity. Who is Skeeter? Well that is a good conversation over a beer :P