Simple Smoked Pulled Pork Butt

What better way to spend a relaxing summer Sunday than making smoked pulled pork? It is slow, it's simple, and this recipe creates the most tender and flavorful pulled pork that will melt in your mouth. It's so good!

A good pulled pork is a fundamental necessity to your BBQ arsenal. Simply season and smoke over a blend of applewood and you have yourself an instant hit. This recipe will be great for beginners. The result will be a big hunk of juicy, fall apart, amazing, delicious goodness.

Drop a pile of this pulled pork onto a toasted bun, drizzle on some BBQ Sauce and enjoy. While you're at it, this pulled pork recipe pairs well with my Spicy Coleslaw or if you're not into mayonnaise, we have a Healthy Coleslaw.

What Cut of Meat Should I Use?

For smoked pulled pork, you're asking for the butt. Is it actually the pork's butt? No, it's not, it's the pork shoulder, which we will be using in this recipe. But it's fun to say at least.

The whole pork shoulder can be divided into two sections, the top, which is the Boston butt, labeled as pork butt at the grocery store. The lower part will be called the picnic roast.

When searching for the perfect butt (couldn't help it) try to find it with the bone in. Leaving the bone in while cooking allows more flavor to be absorbed into the meat and leads to a more even cooking.

How to Smoke a Pork Butt

Whenever I smoke a pork butt, I follow the age-old acronym TSARSPSWC, which doesn't make any sense, and is hard to remember. So simply bookmark this page and you will have the steps forever without having to memorize anything. It's that easy.

• Trim: Some cuts will come with an excessive fat cap. You will want to trim this down to approximately 1/8" which will remove any of the harder pieces of fat.
• Score: In the remaining fat cap, cut slices in a grid formation deep enough to reach the meat, but not cut it.
• Apply: This is where the Honey Mustard comes in, rub that bad boy with it and slather that butt. This is what we call a binder. You may use other types of binders such as water, oil, vinegar, or other mustards.
• Rub: It's called rub, but we are going to sprinkle our seasoning onto all sides of the pork butt. I typically use a dry rub shaker.
• Preheat: In this pork shoulder recipe, we will preheat the smoker to 250°F.
• Smoke: Place that beautiful piece of BBQ into the smoker, fat side up.
• Spritz: After 2 hours, using a spray bottle, spray the smoked meat with a 50/50 mixture of apple cider vinegar and water.
• Wrap: Once the pork has reached an internal temperature of 160°F Carefully remove the smoked pork and wrap it in foil.
• Continue: Continue smoking until the internal temperature reaches 195-205°F.

Smoked Pulled Pork Butt Instructions

Step 1

Get your preferred smoker at a steady 250°F using your favorite wood. When I'm smoking pork I recommend applewood for this recipe.

Step 2

While the smoker is preheating, remove the pork butt from the packaging and wipe it down with paper towel. Clean off any small bone fragments or extra liquid from all sides. Trim the fat cap to approximately 1/8". In the remaining fat cap, cut slices in a grid formation deep enough to reach the meat, but not cut it.

Step 3

Cover every inch of that pork butt in honey mustard. 

Step 4

Take the Dark Brown Sugar, Kosher Salt, Smoked Paprika, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Cayenne Pepper, and Ground Mustard and mix it together. I like to put my rubs in a Dry Rub Shaker, as it makes the next step much easier.

Step 5

Take your seasoning mix and be sure to put a liberal amount onto the Pork Butt. Be sure to get every nook and cranny and make sure it's completely coated evenly. There's no need to rub it in. If you have any rub left over, save it for the last step or make more.

Step 6

Place the seasoned Pork Butt fat side up, preferably in the middle to avoid hot spots within the smoker.

Step 7

After 2 hours, using a spray bottle, spray the smoked meat with a 50/50 mixture of apple cider vinegar and water.

Step 8

Once the pork has reached an internal temperature of 160°F, remove the pork butt from the smoker and wrap tightly in foil. Then place back into the smoker.

Step 9

Continue smoking until the internal temperature reaches 195-205°F. Then remove and let rest for 1 hour.

Step 10

Now for the fun part. Pull apart the Pork butt, discarding any chunks of fat or gristle. Sprinkle in a little more seasoning to add some additional flavor to the pulled pork and add some BBQ Sauce or pair with one of our Coleslaw recipes. BBQ sauce and enjoy!

Conclusion

To finish off this amazing meal, I love to serve it in sandwich form. So what I like to do is toast the buns, then top it with some BBQ sauce, coleslaw, and some homemade pickles.

This recipe has been a recipe I've been working on for some time. The catch is that it makes so much food that you could either eat it for a whole week or share it with friends and neighbors. I must confess that they may ask you where you bought it from and when you mention that you made it, it blows their mind. It may even create a situation where every time you bring out the smoker, you might end up with the unintentional neighborhood BBQ.