Love me some BBQ - Pulled Pork!

So a few weekends have passed since my last attempt at a pulled pork recipe. Last time It was so good I nearly cried. Being that it is a long weekend, albeit the end of the long weekend, I thought I should give it another go.

I truly enjoy cooking and have a real fascination with Barbecue. Even when I was little I loved Barbecue chicken smothered in sauce, mm-mm, still do. Yet I have grown bored with chicken and am lovin' Barbecue pulled pork. It is relatively inexpensive, it takes time and love, and best of all it tastes great and is easy to share. I know there are lots of more informative people out there, Bobby Flay or some other food network star, but I have tried to do my research and learn how to do pork well.

I hope you enjoy the read and get some smoking and bbq grilling tips. I know I will enjoy the process.

Mmmm, Pork Pulled Pork.......

I started with 9lbs of pork shoulder, bone in. I got it at Albertsons, it was the picnic pork and was about $16. I think it is a super deal considering how many meals you get out of it. Now, I keep all the fat on and I think that bone in tastes best. Fat is flavor is what my Pops always tells me, I am inclined to agree. The photos of my actual pork shoulder are to the right.

OK, so here is where it really gets interesting. I read that adding mustard to the pork and applying the rub is the way to make award winning pulled pork. (Let me know if you want the link and I will try to find it.)This is what I do and I love it. I believe it helps with moisture and really you don't taste mustard once it is done, it just adds "flavor". My wife is really picky and she doesn't notice any particular mustardyness.

This time 'round I used Beaver brand Honey Mustard. I figure if the rub has sugar then sweet mustard could only help, right? Anyways, that's what I did, smothered it on and then,"THE RUB".

Rub Recipe~ For about a 10lb Pork Shoulder, Bone in....

• 1Tbs ~Salt
• 1Tbs ~Season Salt
• 2Tbs ~White Sugar
• 4Tbs ~Brown Sugar
• 4Tbs ~Cumin
• 3Tbs ~Chili Powder
• 4Tbs ~Pepper (Ground)
• 2Tbs ~Cayenne pepper
• 1Tbs ~Paprika
• 1Tbs ~Smoked Paprika

That's it. I believe this is a Northern Carolina style Rub with a few of my own tweaks.

Slaw topping-

• Half a small head of Cabbage
• 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 1tsp of the (Sriracha)Red Rooster Chili sauce
• 2Tbls of Mayo
• 2Tbls of Jalapeno Ranch

Now once you've got your mustard and rub on then you just let it sit till it is about room temperature. During this period is when I start my smoker goin'. I used 1/2 charcoal and 1/2 Mesquite Hardwood Briquettes.I also usually get Apple wood chips as I think it is a lighter "smoke" flavor but I couldn't find any so went with Hickory instead. I'll let you know how it tastes towards the end of the article.You can see to the right that I also soak my chips in Apple Juice. It allows the chips to smoke longer and moistens the meat as well I believe.

So I have the BBQ goin' and just wait for it to hit about 300º then I put my meat in and let it go. I check every 45 minutes in the beginning until it hits 220º then I add some hardwood briquettes and let it go for about 2 hours checking only to see if I need to adjust the vents. Then I throw some of my apple soaked chips on and some briquettes if needed and keep on checking in on it, NOT OPENING THE LID UNLESS NECESSARY!!

Well, it took from about 3:30pm to 1:30am to get the meat to around 180º so about 10 hours with an average of lets say 245º to 285º in the smoker. I haven't perfected the cooking temperature in my smoker and I don't have a firebox so everytime I have to put on more wood I let out all the heat. The shoulder and the fact that it is a big piece of meat means it is more forgiving though.You can see in the images that I have the fire on one side and the meat as far away as I can on the chiminey side.

No I didn't stay up...

I just couldn't keep awake past midnight and fell asleep after the last small dose of Mesquite briquettes and some hickory chips went on. So when I woke up at 1:30 it took a minute but I rolled out of bed, grab my flip flops and snuck out so as to not wake the wife or dogs. Boy was I in for a treat. I lifted back the smoker lid where the temp. had actually just cooled down to about 220º and the meat was perfect, so much so that I tried to grab it with my hands and it started to fall apart on me. So tongs and a bowl in hand I got it into the kitchen and let it rest for a bit, 20 min or so while I prepped my work area. By 2am all the meat was pulled, which you can see to the right here, and I made myself a little sick from the testing, yum, and the late hour. So, Saran wrap and into the fridge it went and off to bed to dream of Pulled pork sandwiches for lunch.

Lunch time...

I had my wife get me a small cabbage and some rolls the night before, bailed from work with an order from coworkers for 2 pulled pork sandwiches. I was in a hurry to get home and back as I had a short lunch and do not know how this happened but here it is. I go home and grab some of the meat, slap it into a container and turn to the slaw.....Crap, I say, how do you make good slaw??? Here is what I did from memory and creativity. This was for 4 sandwiches, with smallish potato buns.

Woohoo!

So not to toot my own horn but from the reactions at work, it freakin rocked the house. It went like this, Potato rolls, the pulled barbecue pork and some slaw.End of story, thats all she wrote. It was off the hook!! I have so much fun with it I don't even know how to describe it. I hope you can get that feeling too. I love the process but love the end result of the faces of people who wrap their lips around my food and just go, YUM! It's so cool.

That's it,

Thanks, J