How to Smoke Pulled Pork - Awesome & Simple Pulled Pork Recipe!

How to Smoke Pulled Pork - Awesome & Simple Pulled Pork Recipe!

As you know there can be a variety of websites that don’t even have any idea about food but they are publishing their quick and easy recipe for pulled pork.

There are many recipes of them which tells you to cook the Puller pork in a crockpot, or an instapot, or any other slow cooker that can consume excessive time.

I know that the final result may look similar to normal Pulled Pork but take it from me that there is not an alternative to smoked pulled pork.

Why?

Because A the so-called Pulled pork is made in a slow cooker, B it won’t taste like a proper and professional Pulled Pork.

So, you can’t enjoy the delights of Smoked Pulled Pork with any alternative of any substitute. 

Either you can use a large pork shoulder or a piece of its butt. But the secret for this is when you slow cook it then there is not a chance for you to ruin it at all.

And this can be the perfect way for all those beginners for learning how to smoke meat.

Smoke Pulled Pork

Here is the best combination that you definitely should know, take the smoke of woven through tender threads of moist meat. And potent bits of strongly seasoned crust can explore the taste.

To add a perfect flavor you can add the hindrance of BBQ sauce, pulled pork will be the best thing that you ever tasted. 

Now: let me spill the beans if you want to make a pulled pork then you need to be sure that what you want. Either you can make it from shoulder or you can make it from the pork butt.

Because these are the parts that you want to make it from to get the true flavor and taste of this smoked pulled pork.

The weight for the ideal cooking process is 5 to 8 pounds because that is the correct weight to get both taste flavor and quantity. Now: the question is that what temperature is ideal for making a Smoked Pulled Pork.

Well, to answer that the temperature should be 225 degrees of Fahrenheit. Why? Well, take it for 1 hour and 15 mins per pound.

Here is the thing when you are smoking a pulled pork then that process can be lazy and slow.

That means you can set up a lawn chair and get some coffee and enjoy that beautiful evening because your pulled pork is going to take a while.

Or what you can do is you can easily make sure that you have placed the meat in the morning and chill put till the meat is completed.

So, by chilling out what I mean is that you should never leave the site of cooking but what you can do it you can as I said take a lawn chair get some either coffee, beer, beverage or anything that can make your day and sit monitoring the process of cooking.

And as soon as it cooks you should take it out immediately. 

Best Smoked Pulled Pork Recipe:

Smoke Pulled Pork

Here is a recipe that can fill your dreams for eating that pulled pork.

This recipe is versatile and slow cooker recipe that is also a foolproof recipe to show of your smoking skills or smoking a pulled pork easily for yourself.

This recipe that I will share right now is easy and simple yo cook. But if you want to have fun while cooking then you can try a trick called Texas Crutch.

This trick can pp up this recipe cooking process and make sure that you have fun and enjoyment while making it.

Main things To Notice:

  • Course. Lunch. Dinner. Entree. Sandwich.
  • Cuisine. American.
  • Makes. About 8 heaping sandwiches. Leftovers freeze nicely.
  • Preparation time. In minimum numbers, it can take up to 25 minutes to trim and rub the Pulled pork. And then if you have applied then leave it for 12 or 24 hours for the salt to penetrate. 
  • Cooking time. About 8 to 12 hours depending on several variables. See "Cooking time" below.
  • Serve with. A cold beer or refreshing bourbon cocktail.
  • Special tools. Claws for pulling are helpful.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pork butt, about 5 pounds
  • 1/3 cup Meathead's Memphis Dust
  • 1/2 teaspoon of Morton’s Kosher salt, and add it for per pound of meat each.
  • 10 kaiser rolls or hamburger buns
  • 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce

How to Cook it? (Step by Step Guide)

Smoke Pulled Pork

Wood chips when starting you can add up to 4 ounces of wood chips but when it takes time or to increase the rate of this process then add more later.

Then you can either add or subtract the ounces according to your preference. When cooking it the first time you should start easily on the wood.

Because at the start if the wood produces enough smoke your Smoked Pulled Pork will be destroyed. 

Method for Cooking this Pulled Pork Recipe:

1) Prep:

Be sure to cut or I shall say trim the extra fat from the exterior of the meat but make sure you don't get it all.

With odd specification, you should never leave the pork butt exterior fat more than 1/8". The stupidity is that some people think that the fat can melt and penetrate through the meat.

The thing is that the fat cannot penetrate the meat upped layer that's why it sticks on to the exterior and destroys the taste.

What you are trying to achieve is that you are trying to season the meat with fat, this will help you give the meat a crunchy and delicious flavor.  

Hear it put if you can make time then make sure that you season the pork butt with salt.

And then put it in a refrigerator for 12 to even 24 hours right before you take it out for cooking. This process is called dey bringing and this method or I shall say trick gives the meat a flavor of a lifetime.

Smoke Pulled Pork

And if also makes sure that the salt is penetrated properly to the inner cores of meat.

Now: it is time for cooking this delicious dish.

What you want to do here is sprinkle the surface of the Pulled pork with water or you can use Meathead Memphis Dust.

The first talk about water, it helps the surface to rub and adhere to the taste better.

Did you know?

That water is a better solvent of a rub than any oil, so using it might help to dissolve the rub on the surface.

To add additional taste some people and some professional smokers like to slather the top of the pulled pork with mustard. 

And to be oddly specific they use bottle mustard for starters. But in fact, I don’t think or consider choosing between water and mustard because either way, it will give you similar taste.

No difference in that. Because some people love and live in mustard and if you want such flavor then you can use mustard powder it has an impact on adding flavor.

But when you compare mustard with other flavors that you have added then the taste of mustard is lost in there, though you can feel a hindrance to it.

2) Fire up: 

Now: comes the time to prepare the smoker, you should make sure that the smoker has gained up the heat to 225 degrees of Fahrenheit.

And be sure to set up a grill that is 2-zone or indirect smoke cooking. And to bring such high temperature you can adjust the vent to make sure that the oven is 225°F. Then add 4 ounces of wood chips in that either pellets of chunks to the fire. 

3) Cook:

Smoke Pulled Pork

When done that means if you have adjusted the required temperature on the smoker or either grill then you need to insert a digital probe meter inside of the butt of Pulled Pork that you are just about to smoke.

Make sure that the positioning of the probe is accurate and the tip should be pointing to its center.

Make sure it is not within 1/2" of the bone. What it will do is that it will help you monitor the temperature of the pork itself and you don’t have to open the grill or smoker every time. 

Put the meat on the smoker (or on the indirect heat side of a grill), right on the grate, and not in a pan so that a flavorful bark can begin to form on the entire exterior.

Allow the pork butt to smoke uninterrupted, but be sure to check your cooker every hour or so to make sure the fuel is sufficient and that you are holding at 225 to 250°F. 

4) The stall: 

If you are cooking at 225°F to 250°F when the meat hits about 150°F internal temp, it will probably stall.

The internal temperature may not go up for hours. That's because the moisture evaporating from the surface is cooling the meat at the same rate as the hot air is warming it, and the internal temperature stalls. 

You can just ride it out, or you can bust through the stall by cranking the heat to about 300°F or by wrapping the meat tightly in foil.

This is called the Texas Crutch. To learn more about the stall click here. But the beauty of the stall is that it forms the bark, the dry, flavorful,jerky-likee crust.

5) Continue cooking: 

When the pork butt hits an internal temperature of about 170°F, collagens, which are part of the connective tissues, begin to melt and turn to gelatin.

You can also allow Pork Butt to continue cooking even if it has crossed 170°F. 

6) Finishing:

Smoke Pulled Pork

Be sure if the internal temperature is around 203°F after 8 to 12 hours it is time to check on that pork that you just smoked.

The exterior should be dark brown. Some rubs and cookers will make the meat look black like a meteorite, but it is not burnt and it doesn't taste burnt. There may be glistening bits of melted fat. 

If it turns with very little pressure, you're ready. Keep in mind, these are animals not widgets and there can be variations depending on breed, diet, weight, your cooker design, and even ambient air temp.

The meat is ready when it is ready. So it is really good advice to start 10 to 12 hours before dinner, and if it finishes early, wrap it and put it in a faux cambro or your indoor oven at about 150°F.

Now: even if the pork is not ready or you feel like it then close the lid and continue cooking it until its ready.

After, say, an hour, it is still not soft, you've just got a tough butt. Wrap tough butts in aluminum foil and let them go for another hour at 225°F.

7) Taste. 

And when it is time to serve before serving make sure you taste a small bite to check all the flavors and all the materials are on point.

You should notice a thick flavorful crust, and right below it is the telltale "smoke ring", the bright pink color caused by smoke mixing with combustion gases and moisture.

8) Holding the meat (optional). 

If you are more than an hour from mealtime, you can leave the meat on the cooker with the heat off or put it in the indoor oven and hold it there by dialing the temp down to about 170°F.

If you are more than 2 hours from mealtime, wrap it in foil to keep it from drying out and hold it at 170°F.

Now: if you are taking that smoked Pulled Pork to a party then you need to use a beer cooler to hold the meat. There are several but our pick is Faux cambro. 

You can leave the probe sticking out of the pork butt and then wrap the pork in a foil and then wrap that foil into more towels and then insert the whole thing inside the cooler.

Remember the probe that you just left inside the pork’s butt well, you need to maintain temperately and to check the temperature you have left the probe.

Plug the probe reader and check the temperature and make sure that you never let the temperature drop below 145°F.

Serve it before it does. Just know that this wrapping technique will soften the bark and change the texture of the meat very slightly.

9) Pull it. 

Smoke Pulled Pork

Right before you eat and to be exact 30 minutes before you eat make sure you pull the meat above a dripping pan to collect all the drippings.

If your butt came bone-in, the blade should slide right out and have virtually no meat attached if it was cooked properly.

Now: it’s time to eat and to open the pork you need to pull the butt apart with proper equipment, your hands should be gloved, use claws or you can also use a fork. Discard big chunks of fat.

If you wish, you can slice it or chop it as they do in North Carolina, but I think you lose less moisture by pulling it apart by hand since the meat separates into bundles of muscle fibers. 

Hence the name pulled pork. Distribute them evenly throughout the meat instead. Make sure you save any flavorful drippings and pour them over the meat.

10) Serve. 

Then you can serve the pulled pork with anything that can be used as a sideline such as with buns with BBQ sauce and coleslaw, on baked potatoes, on nachos, there are hundreds of combinations ready for you and if not satisfied then make your combination.

FAQ For Smoked Pulled Pork:

What is a Pork Butt?

Just ignore what it sounds like it does not even resemble the butt. Pork Butt is extracted from the shoulders of the pork wich as a blade-like bone and that piece of meat is laced with flavored fat and connective tissues.

There is a whole back origin story to this and which you can read on various pages. 

Would you do me and other professionals a favor please don’t try to cook lean, tender, pork loin by the process of Pulled Pork both are different.

If you have a loin, use this approach. No ifs and or butts, butts make the best sandwich meat on the hog.

What is Berkshire Pork?

What is Berkshire Pork

Berkshire pork is a breed of porks that was abandoned when the pork promoters moved their direction of cooking towards leaner pork.

This was because they wanted it to promote it like other white meat. But Berkshire is darker and has a fattier type of meat than leaner. Thus adding more natural flavor to it.

Cooking Time: How Long Do I Cook a Pork Butt?

This is flesh, not widgets, and one hog is different than another, your cooker has its peculiarities that can significantly impact cooking time, and even weather and humidity come into play.

A 5 pounder should take 10 to 12 hours. After you do one or two you will learn how your cooker handles this cut.

Allow plenty of time and have handy a beer cooler to use as a faux Cambro to hold the meat if it finishes early. 

The meat is at its maximum tenderness and juiciness when it hits 203°F (203°F is my target, but actual time and temp varies on the individual animal).

You can crank up the heat if you are running behind. Butt can handle it. Butts are very forgiving so temp control is not crucial. 

The bark might get a bit dry, there might be a little more shrinkage than usual, it might be slightly chewier, but it will still be delicious. If you kick the temp up to about 275°F, you can cut cooking time by 2 to 4 hours.

If you use the Texas Crutch at about 150°F you can cut another 2 hours or so off the cooking time. 

Again, your time may vary depending on several variables such as humidity in the cooker. Don't forget to allow 30 minutes to pull the meat if you do it with your fingers (ouch!), 15 minutes with Claws.

If it is time to serve and it is still not at the ideal temp, just slice the meat. Don't pull it because it won't shred easily. Slices of smoked pork butt are wonderful. 

You positively cannot rely on bi-metal dial thermometers.

If you are not monitoring your cooker with a good digital oven thermometer, and if you are not monitoring the meat with a good digital leave-in thermometer you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

All the pros use digital thermometers and this is far more important than injecting or foiling. Click here to read my buyer's guide to thermometers.

How Do I Cook More Than One Pork Butt?

I frequently get asked how to handle cooking two shoulders (or more) or a shoulder and a brisket, or a shoulder, brisket, ribs, and a muskrat.

The answer is here, in my article on Cooking More Than One Large Hunk O' Meat. If you are attending a big party like in a community hall or community party in town then cook 3 pork butts and put them in a huge pan to serve.

Either it can be 3 or more than that but making it less might not be enough for all of the people around. 

I add about 1/2 cup of water per 5 pounds, and about 1 tablespoon of butter per pound. I carry it for the party in a cold cooler. When I get to the party I heat it in a slow cooker.

Occasionally I will add the sauce before I leave to make sure it is moist and easy to serve. Just don't use so much sauce that you can't taste the meat and the smoke.

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