Southern Style Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- A whole pork shoulder or pork butt 8# is typical
- Oil or Mustard
- Pork Rub of your choice I like to use Meathead’s Memphis Dust
Pork Injection & Mop
- 1 cup apple juice or cider
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/2 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
Instructions
- Trim most of the fat from the exterior of the meat, leaving no more than 1/8". We want the seasonings on the meat so that it gets a crunchy seasoned bark.
- Rinse and thoroughly dry the meat.
- Use butchers twine to tie the shoulder up so it doesn't fall apart in the smoker.
- Inject the meat, using about half of the mop sauce. Insert the needle and inject, but don't pull it all the way back out - pull it part way out and then re-inject at another angle from the same hole.
- Place the meat in a pan to refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours.
- Remove the meat and rub the entire shoulder with a neutral vegetable oil, mayo or mustard to act as a binder to "stick" the rub to the meat.
- Rub generously with the Pork Rub and work it in with your fingers - figure a tablespoon of rub per pound, which is a 1/2 cup of rub per 8# of pork shoulder. Let that sit on the pork for an hour or two to let the rub work its way in to the surface.
- Insert a digital temp probe and position the tip right in the center. Make sure it is not touching the bone or within 1/2" of the bone.
- Preheat your smoker - shoot for 250 degrees in the smoking chamber; if using a Pit Barrel Cooker just light the coals and wait until they are covered in white ash.
- Place the shoulder in the smoker. Spritz lightly with the mop once every 60-90 minutes as it cooks. This will build flavor and cool the surface to keep if from getting overdone.
- Once the shoulder hits 160-170 degrees, remove the pork shoulder from the smoker. After 3-4 hours the shoulder will absorb all of the smoke it’s going to get, so I prefer to place the shoulder in a roaster pan, add a cup of apple juice, and cover the pan tightly with foil and place in a 250 degree oven. Keep the thermometer in place.
- Take the shoulder to 200-205 degrees. If you have the time, shut off the oven and let the shoulder cool naturally to ~150 degrees. Otherwise remove from the oven, keeping it in the pan and foil, and let it rest for 30 to 60 minutes. If you would like to hold it up to 4 hours, you can wrap the shoulder in foil and then in towels and then place it in a cooler that has been pre-warmed with hot water.
- About 30 minutes before dinner, put the meat into a large pan to catch the drippings and pull the meat apart with fingers, forks, or bear claws into bite size pieces. Discard any big chunks of fat. Make sure you save any flavorful drippings and pour them back over the meat. If you have any of the Pork Mop left over, add it to the pulled pork.
- Serve Pulled Pork on plain white buns with BBQ sauce on the side.
Notes
The traditional sides with pulled pork are cole slaw, baked beans, and/or macaroni and cheese.