Smoked Pulled Pork

This smoked pulled pork is pork shoulder coated in a homemade spice rub, then smoked until tender. Serve your pulled pork butt as-is, or pile it into a roll to make pulled pork sandwiches!

Course Main

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 8

Total Time 8 20

Servings

Calories 393kcal

Author Sara Welch

Ingredients

4 pounds boneless pork shoulder
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1/4 cup BBQ spice rub
3/4 cup apple juice
1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce

Instructions

Preheat an electric smoker to 235 degrees F. Load the smoker with apple wood, cherry wood or hickory chips.
Evenly apply a thin layer of yellow mustard to the pork. Then sprinkle the rub all over the meat.
Place the roast in a disposable foil pan or directly on the smoker rack.
Cook for 2 hours. After 2 hours, brush the apple juice over the pork once per hour.
At the 4 hour mark, check the temperature of the meat. When the internal temperature is at 160 degrees F, brush with remaining apple juice or any drippings that have accumulated if you're cooking your meat in a pan. It can take around 5 hours to reach this temperature.
Wrap the meat in peach butcher paper or foil. Increase the smoker temperature to 250 degrees F.
Smoke the meat for another 3-4 hours or until the internal temperature registers at least 195 degrees F. Cook the meat to 205 degrees F if you prefer softer pulled pork.
Remove the meat from the smoker and let stand wrapped for 10 minutes and unwrapped for 5 minutes.
Shred the meat. Toss with BBQ sauce, then serve.

Notes

You can wrap your pork in either foil or butcher paper. Foil will work just fine, but the best pork is smoked with peach butcher paper. Wrapping the pork in peach butcher paper allows the meat to hold in its juices while allowing the smoke to permeate. You’ll also get nicer, more flavorful bark.
This recipe calls for a 4 pound pork roast. You can double or triple the recipe to feed a larger crowd, just be aware that the smoking time may increase by up to 2 hours for each additional pound of meat used.

Nutrition