This smoked pulled pork recipe is one of the longest cooks I have done. I wanted this pulled pork to come our super juicy and full of smoke flavor so I set my smoker to 180 degrees and let the smoke roll. I used this low temperature because it was midnight when I started the cook and I wanted to make sure I was able to sleep in peace without having to worry about over cooking my pulled pork.
After 6 hours of sleep, my pulled pork registered about 115 degrees and had formed a super bark. At this point I spritzed the pulled pork with some apple cider vinegar and bumped the temperature up to 225 degrees to help speed up the cook a bit. After another 4 hours a 225 the pulled pork finally hit 150 degrees and it was time to wrap.
Included in my wrap was some brown sugar, a apple cider vinegar and BBQ sauce mixture, butter, honey and apple slices. I placed the pulled pork back on the smoker at 225 degree for about another 4 hours until it hit roughly 195 degrees internally. Then I removed the pulled pork from the smoker and let it rest for roughly 2 hours.
As soon as I removed the wrap from my pulled pork I knew I had cooked something special. The money muscle was already starting to separate from the rest of the meat and the bone was starting to pop out. Of course the bone pulled out with no problems and as I grabbed the meat and gave it a squeeze it literally fell apart in my hand.
Even though this pulled pork recipe took a total of 16 hours from start to finish, it is by far the juiciest pulled pork recipe I have ever smoked. Needless to say, my guests devoured this pulled pork and gave their compliments to the chef.
Pulled Pork Ingredients
- 12 lb bone in boston butt
- Kosher salt
- Black Pepper
- BBQ rub (preferably an apple flavored rub)
- 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup BBQ sauce
- 4 tbsps. honey
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 apples
Prep Instructions
- Shave any loose ends off your boston butt
- Season generously with kosher salt, black pepper and BBQ rub
- Be sure to pat your seasoning into your boston butt
Initial Smoking Instructions
- Preheat smoker to 180 degrees
- Place boston butt fat side up on smoker
- Smoke until you reach an internal temperature of 115 degrees
- Increase temperature on smoker to 225 degrees
- When your boston butt reaches 150 degrees internally, remove from smoker and wrap
Wrapping Instructions
- Use a tin foil pan or dutch over if your boston butt fits
- Place 1 cup of brown sugar on bottom of tin foil pan
- Mix apple cider vinegar and BBQ sauce in a separate bowl and pour half on top of brown sugar
- Cut 1 stick of butter in half the long way and place on top of brown sugar
- Top with 2 tbsps. of honey
- Place boston butt fat side down on top of ingredients in tin foil pan
- Top boston butt with 1/2 cup brown sugar
- Top with remainder of apple cider vinegar and BBQ sauce mixture
- Top with 1 stick of butter cut in half the long way
- Top with 2 tbsps. of honey
- Cut apples into slices and place in tin foil pan
- Cover with aluminum foil
Final Smoking Instructions
- Place wrapped boston butt on smoker at 225 degrees
- At 195 degrees internally check your boston butt for tenderness with a probe
- If you do not get any resistance when probing your boston butt, remove from smoker
- If you do get resistance when probing you boston butt, continue smoking and check for tenderness every 30 minutes
- Once your boston butt is tender, remove from smoker and let rest for at least 1 hour
Plate Prepping Instructions
- Pull bone out of boston butt
- Pull boston butt apart with hands, fork or bear claws if you have them
- Once boston butt is pulled, top with juices from the bottom of your tin foil pan
