Smoked Pulled Pork

Juicy smoked pulled pork butt spiced up with a knockout homemade BBQ sauce.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 4

Resting Time 2

Total Time 6 15

Servings

Calories 642kcal

Author Dean "Schuey" Schumann

Ingredients

6 lbs Boston Butt or Pork Collar

Pork Rub:

8 tbsp smoked paprika
6 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp salt flakes
2 tbsp black pepper finely ground
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp mustard powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
½ tsp cayenne powder

BBQ Sauce:

1 cup ketchup
1 ½ cup apple juice
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup brown sugar
4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black ground pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

Pulled pork:

Remove any silver skin and hard solid pieces of fat, these will not render down during the cooking process.
Trim off most of the soft fat, you can leave some as this will render down.
Trim off any loose bits of meat as these will just dry up during the long cook.
Using a rub shaker, give the pork a generous coating of dry rub from approximately 12” above the meat. This just allows the rub to fall and coat evenly, as opposed to clumping and giving an uneven coverage.
Leave this to sit for around an hour while get the smoker ready, the dry rub will turn to what looks like a wet glaze this time.
Set up your smoker for high indirect heat using lump charcoal and some apple wood chunks for smoking.
Once the temps have stabilized at 300°F, put the meat in the smoker and insert an internal meat thermometer to track the temps.
After 2 hours into the smoke check the meat for any dry patches. If there are any, give the dry parts a spritz with apple juice. Keep checking every half hour after this and spritz if needed.
Once the internal temp reaches 160°F, wrap in foil and put back on the heat.
When the internal temp reaches 195°F, start probing the pork for tenderness. When you feel no resistance from sticking a metal skewer in, you know it will be time to rest.
Put this into a cooler wrapped in towels to keep hot for 2 hours.
After 2 hours has gone by, remove from the cooler and transfer to a tray, including all of the juices.
Pull the meat apart, removing and gristle of hard fat. Once all pulled apart, add a sprinkle of the dry rub and squirt of the BBQ sauce.
Serve.

To Serve:

In burgers with a fresh crunchy slaw to help cut through the smoky-sweet pork.
In tacos with some finely sliced lettuce, a drizzle of the BBQ sauce and some spicy mayonnaise.
On some loaded nachos, crunchy and filling but just the perfect comfort food.

Video

Nutrition