Smoked pork shoulder or smoked pork butt is where your pulled pork comes from. It's one of the most commonly found styles of barbeque. It's also one of the most time consuming cuts of meat. The general rule of thumb is you cook a pork shoulder at about an hour and a half for every pound of meat. That puts most pork shoulders at about 12 hours cook time. When you have kids and busy family lives who has time to sit around and watch, monitor and feed wood into a smoker for that long.
What if there were a way to cut that time in half? or more? I asked myself that exact question and came up with an idea. This is some real BBQ Cheat Code stuff here. Smoke and instead of wrapping and slow cooking, why not put the pig under a little pressure? Who's got an Instant pot?
Watch as I made a full pan of pulled pork by smoking a full pork shoulder in 5 hours. Start to finish.
Few components you will need to do this cook is a rub and an injection. So here's the recipes for what I uesd to do this cook.
Pork Rub:
- 1 cup (packed) brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoons dry mustard
- 2 tablespoons onion powder
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
Mix together in a large mason jar or shaker container and use generously. I usually use regular yellow mustard on the meat I'm cooking to help the rub stick better, but occasionally you can also use honey, syrup, or evoo. I like to mix rubs in a mason jar and keep what is leftover sealed and stored in the cupboard for future use.
You also could use my basic rub recipe.
Hog Injection:
- 2 cups apple juice
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1.5 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon of rub
- 1 tablespoon of Louisiana style hot sauce.
Mix all ingredients in a jar or bowl and inject into the meat in a grid pattern using an injection syringe or other device.
Whether it's smoking, roasting, baking, braising or grilling; with quality meats and some imagination, you can create some mouth water meals and memories with loved ones. As a barbecue addict myself I'm here to give you ideas to take your taste buds on a wild ride.
And if you are firing up the grill, please share! I'd love to try your recipes and see your photos! You can hashtag your grill photos #RiddersQclub.
Photos, Videos, Recipes, and more. If you love to smoke, brine, inject, baste and rub come back often to see what's new or click below for more.