Make Pulled Pork BBQ Like a Boss!
What are the secrets of making pulled pork BBQ? We will show you in this recipe how to season and how to cook a badass pulled pork from a pork shoulder/boston butt/pork butt (Note: pork shoulder/boston butt/pork butt are all the same thing). For pulled pork you do not need super special cookers. A charcoal grill will do just fine. Make sure you buy the following for your pulled pork cook.
1. Regular charcoal. Do not buy lighter fluid pre-soaked charcoal!
2. Wood chips. I used Jack Daniels barrel chips here but I love Applewood or Oak: http://amzn.to/2skuV0x 3. Disposable pan: http://amzn.to/2skux25 4. Bottle of Apple Juice 5. Apple Cider Vinegar: http://amzn.to/2ra6j6F 6. Squirt or Spray Bottle
7. Dexter Boning Knife: http://amzn.to/2rarRzY
Take out your pork shoulder/boston butt/pork butt from the fridge. If you need to do any trimming this is the time. Make sure not to trim it and leave sharp edges. They will burn. Trim to nice rounded edges. After you trim let it sit for like 15 minutes. You do not want to put a screaming cold slab of meat on the grill. To make your dry rub, take the ingredients below and mix them up in a bowl or a shaker bottle. My pork shoulder here is 7.5 pounds and I had a little rub left over.
Dry Rub Recipe Ingredients: 1/4 Cup Pink Himalayan Salt (http://amzn.to/2skIQDM) 1/4 Cup Pepper 1/8 Cup Paprika 1 tsp Chili Powder 1 tsp Garlic Power 1 tsp Onion Powder
Before starting soak in water your wood chips. Soak for at least half and hour. Now slather all that rub goodness onto the pork shoulder/boston butt/pork butt. Do not leave any area not touched by the rub. Let this sit while you prepare the charcoal grill. If you have any old charcoal in your grill just put it on the side where the coals will go. We are going to setup the charcoal grill for smoking. So take that disposable pan and place it on one side of the charcoal grill. Take your apple juice and pour about half the bottle into the disposable pan. This is going to create steam and keep that pulled pork nice and moist through the smoking process. Place old charcoal next to the pan along with a few handfuls of new charcoal. These will light as the burning hot ones are introduced on top of them. Then with your charcoal chimney get a full thing of coals hot. Place the hot coals on top of the new/old ones next to the disposable pan. You can now put your cooking grate back over top of the coals. Where you want to be is around 275 degrees.
Make sure your vents on the top lid are half shut and nudge the bottom vents to 1/2 closed. Now let it heat up for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes bring out your pork and the wood chips. Place the meat fat side up over the disposable pan side of the grill. I put mine as close to the side of the grill as possible away from the charcoal. Then put two handfuls of wood chips right into the charcoal. Throw them in there. Close up the lid. Now grab a beer and prepare to babysit your soon to be pulled pork goodness. After one hour on the grill throw the apple cider vinegar in your squirt bottle of spray bottle. You could also use apple juice if you want, but the sugar in apple juice could make it burn. Be aware. Go out, open up the grill and spray down your pork butt. This is another added measure to keep it moist. Do this once every hour.
After like 3-4 hours you should have a nice mahogany colored pork butt. It will have nice bark on it. This is why you do not use sugar(s) in your dry rub. If you did it would burn up and be hard like a rock. So at this point it is time to wrap the pork butt in foil for the homestretch. We are going to double wrap it, so get that ready. Take the pork butt off the grill and onto the aluminum foil. We are not going to give it a good spray of the apple cider vinegar. This is the last time you will see if until it is done. So spray it twice as much as you were at the hour interval sprays. Wrap that bad boy up tightly in the upward direction (you don't want the juices to fall out!). It is at this time I will get another set of coals ready and place them in before I put the aluminum foil wrapped pork butt back on the grill. Then place the pork butt back on the grill in the same spot for another 3-4 hours.
After 3-4 hours take the pork butt out, unwrap it and see if the bone is moving freely. If it is then your good to go. If not then wrap it and put it back in for another 30 minutes. When done wrap it back up, doesn't have to be super tight, place it on like your kitchen counter and let it sit for 30-45 minutes. After that shred up that lovely pulled pork. Always making sure to get some sample tastes in to confirm your badass smoking skills and to savor the divine pulled pork in front of you. To keep all the juices try and use a pan when shredding. If you want, add your favorite BBQ sauce and enjoy as you see fit!
