By April in Memphis, and the heat has settled over the city like a blanket nobody asked for but everybody accepts, because Memphis in summer is not a choice, it is a condition, and the condition is sweating. I am 60 years old and still walking my mail route through Midtown Memphis, and the week brought its own kind of weather — the personal kind, the family kind, the kind that no meteorologist can forecast.
The week\'s main current was father's day. Walter Jr. came by the house this week, bringing the energy he always brings — steady, organized, the FedEx man\'s approach to family visits: arrive on time, deliver what\'s needed, check that everything\'s in order. Rosetta orchestrated the visit the way she orchestrates everything: with the invisible precision of a woman who has been managing a household, a hospital floor, and a husband for three and a half decades, and who considers all three jobs equally challenging and equally rewarding.
I smoked a pork shoulder this week — the king, the classic, the dish that defines my cooking and my life. Fourteen to sixteen hours over hickory, mopped with the vinegar sauce every ninety minutes, pulled by hand when the internal temperature hits 203 and the meat jiggles with the telltale wobble that means the collagen has surrendered. I pulled it in the backyard, standing over the cutting board, and the meat came apart in my fingers the way it has come apart a thousand times before, and the thousandth time felt exactly like the first time: miraculous. Served it on white bread with coleslaw and the vinegar sauce, the Memphis way, the Clyde way, the only way.
I went to bed thinking about the people I love and the food I\'ve made and the fire that doesn\'t go out. The fire is the constant. The fire is the inheritance that Uncle Clyde gave me and that I am passing forward, spark by spark, cook by cook, to whoever has the patience to stand next to me and learn. The fire doesn\'t care about my knee or my blood pressure or the fact that the world is changing in ways I don\'t always understand. The fire just burns. And I tend it. And the tending is the living.
Now, a pork shoulder is a fourteen-hour commitment, and not every weeknight will give you that kind of time — but the vinegar sauce, the tang, the pull-apart tenderness that made Walter Jr. go quiet at the table: all of that lives in this pressure cooker Carolina chicken too. When I want to carry that same smoky, acidic spirit into a Tuesday evening without firing up the smoker at five in the morning, this is the recipe I reach for, because the sauce is kin to what I mop on the shoulder, and the chicken shreds with the same kind of generosity that makes barbecue feel like a gift rather than just a meal.
Pressure Cooker Carolina Style Vinegar BBQ Chicken
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 3 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Make the vinegar sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together the apple cider vinegar, water, brown sugar, ketchup, red pepper flakes, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, salt, and cayenne until the sugar dissolves.
- Load the pressure cooker. Place the chicken pieces in the pressure cooker insert in a single layer as best you can. Pour the vinegar sauce over the top, making sure the chicken is well coated.
- Pressure cook. Seal the lid and cook on HIGH pressure for 25 minutes. Allow a natural pressure release for 10 minutes, then carefully quick-release any remaining pressure.
- Shred the chicken. Transfer the cooked chicken to a cutting board. Remove and discard the skin and bones. Using two forks, shred the meat into generous pulls — it should come apart easily.
- Reduce the sauce. Set the pressure cooker to the sauté function and simmer the remaining cooking liquid for 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it reduces by about a third into a thin, tangy glaze.
- Combine and serve. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and toss to coat in the reduced sauce. Serve on white bread or buns with coleslaw on top, the Carolina way.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 7g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 420mg