Smoked Pulled Pork Recipe
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 10–12 hours
Rest time: 1 hour
Serves: 8–10
Cooking temperature: 107–120°C
Internal temperature: Approx. 93–95°C
Low, slow and worth every minute. Pork shoulder is one of my favourite cuts for BBQ because it's incredibly forgiving and absolutely packed with flavour. Coated generously with our Backyard Pork Ribs Rub, smoked until tender and then pulled apart into juicy strands of smoky pork. Perfect piled high into a soft roll with homemade slaw.
Ingredients
1 pork shoulder, approximately 3–4kg
80–100g Backyard Pork Ribs Rub
2 tbsp American yellow mustard
150ml apple juice
50g salted butter
For the spritz:
150ml apple juice
150ml water
Method
1. Prepare the pork
Remove the pork shoulder from the fridge and pat it dry with kitchen paper. Trim away any loose pieces of meat or excessive hard fat, but don't remove all the fat. A good amount of fat will render during the long cook and help keep the pork beautifully moist.
2. Season
Lightly coat the pork shoulder with yellow mustard to help the seasoning stick. Generously cover the entire shoulder with Backyard Pork Ribs Rub, working it into all the sides and edges.
Leave the pork to stand for around 20–30 minutes while you prepare the BBQ.
3. Prepare the smoker
Set your BBQ or smoker for indirect cooking at approximately 107–120°C. Once the temperature has settled, add your smoking wood.
Hickory is brilliant with pork if you want that deeper traditional BBQ smoke, while cherry gives you a slightly sweeter, more subtle flavour.
4. Start smoking
Place the pork shoulder onto the BBQ over indirect heat. Insert a temperature probe into the thickest part of the meat, making sure it isn't touching the bone.
Close the lid and let the smoke start working its magic.
5. Spritz
After around 3 hours, once the outside has started developing a good bark, lightly spritz the pork with the apple juice and water mixture.
Continue to spritz every 45–60 minutes if the surface begins to look dry. Don't soak the meat – you're just looking to keep the surface slightly moist.
6. Wrap the pork
Once the pork reaches approximately 70–75°C internally and you're happy with the colour and bark, remove it from the BBQ.
Place the pork onto a large sheet of heavy-duty foil or butcher's paper. Add the butter and a good splash of apple juice around the pork before wrapping it tightly.
Return it to the BBQ and continue cooking.
7. Continue cooking
Keep the BBQ at around 107–120°C and allow the pork to slowly cook until it reaches approximately 93–95°C internally.
As with brisket, don't rely entirely on temperature. The pork is ready when a temperature probe slides easily into the meat with very little resistance.
If you're using a bone-in shoulder, another great test is the bone. When it's ready, the bone should pull out cleanly with very little effort.
8. Rest
Remove the pork from the BBQ and leave it wrapped. Allow it to rest for at least 1 hour.
Don't skip this part. The rest allows the juices to settle back through the meat and makes a big difference to the finished pulled pork.
9. Pull the pork
Carefully unwrap the pork, keeping all those beautiful cooking juices.
Remove the bone and any large pieces of unrendered fat, then pull the pork apart using your hands, forks or meat claws.
Pour some of the reserved cooking juices back over the pulled pork and mix everything together. This adds loads of flavour and keeps the meat beautifully juicy.
10. Serve
Pile the pulled pork high into soft rolls with homemade slaw and your favourite BBQ sauce, or serve it alongside smokey beans, mac and cheese or loaded fries.
Backyard Tip
Don't throw away those juices from the wrap. Once you've pulled the pork, mix some of them back through the meat. They're absolutely packed with smoky pork flavour and will take your pulled pork to another level.
Low, slow, pull it apart and get stuck in.