Smoked Pork Butt | Smoking Pork Butt for Pulled Pork

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Slow-Smoked Pork Butt Recipe

The first step to smoking a pork butt is to apply a good quality dry rub. You can use any pork bbq dry rub, but we always use our own recipe The BBQ Rub.

First, coat the pork butt with a couple of tablespoons of yellow mustard. This will create a means for the rub to stick to the pork butt. Then liberally sprinkle the dry rub over the pork butt and gently massage it into the meat.

Get your smoker up to proper temperature. I cook pork butts at 225 – 235 degrees. I used pecan and cherry because I love the flavor it gives the pork butt and pulled pork.

The length of cooking can be a little tricky to figure out, but a good rule of thumb is 1 to 1 (hours of smoke per lb of meat). But I like to always have a meat thermometer handy and strictly go by internal temperature. You are shooting for an internal temperature of 195 degrees for perfect pulled pork.

Once the pork butt hits 160 internal — usually around 5 – 6 hours of smoke- it’s time to wrap. At this point your pork butt has enough smoke now it’s time to get it tender.

You want to remove the pork butt from the smoker and wrap it in aluminum foil. Place the aluminum foil on the work surface, sit the pork butt on the aluminum foil, and wrap the pork butt up tight in the aluminum foil and place it back on the smoker.

Your pork butt has enough smoke, so adding more wood to the fire is not necessary at this point. Now you are simply rendering the tough connective tissue of the butt and producing tender, mouthwatering pulled pork.

It is helpful to use a digital meat thermometer with a probe to monitor your internal temperature of the pork butt the entire cooking time. This is one piece of equipment that is extremely useful, and it keeps you from having to constantly open up the door to check with a manual thermometer. I used a chef alarm and you can check this one out here: http://bit.ly/1iHBnjn

If you are constantly opening the door, then your pork butt will not achieve the proper tenderness. Every time the temperature in your smoker drops, your butt begins to lock back up resulting in a product that is tough. You have to keep the temperature steady to keep the pork butt cooking. This is exactly why they say, If you’re looking, you’re not cooking.

Once the pork butt has climbed to an internal temperature of 195 degrees you are ready to pull it off the smoker. BUT BE CAREFUL. It will be extremely hot and there will be a lot of au just that has cooked out of the pork butt. Transferring the butt on a pork rack make this process easier. You can get pork racks here: http://howtobbqright.com/bbqshop/

I always suggest letting the pork butt rest for 15 — 30 minutes before pulling. Open the aluminum foil very carefully and allow some of the steam to escape. Drain off as much liquid as possible from the pork butt and pull the meat.

I prefer to have pulled pork instead of chopping it. To me it has a much better texture.

This pulled pork is ready to be served on a pulled pork sandwich, pulled pork plate — or used any way you like. Enjoy!

For more how-to recipes visit: http://howtobbqright.com/

For Killer Hogs BBQ Sauce, Rub and Competition BBQ equipment, visit: http://howtobbqright.com/bbqshop/

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