Making this at home spoiled us from ever fully enjoying pulled pork elsewhere. The juicy flavor and texture becomes apparent as soon as you pull the shoulder blade bone out of the meat after smoking.
Some people have tried this without injecting the meat but we personally find that there is no comparison for allowing the shoulder to become infused with the marinade mixture. In addition, we always want the juiciest pulled pork possible so we include a water pan in the smoker, spray the shoulder hourly with apple cider vinegar and butter, beer in the foil wrap along with brown sugar and siracha.
For the juiciest pulled pork you will ever eat, follow the direction to a tee. You’ll be happy you did.
”Pulled
1 Bone In Pork Shoulder
MARINADE
1 Cup Apple Juice
1/2 Cup Water
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
1 Tablespoon White Sugar
DRY RUB
Yellow Mustard
1/2 Cup Onion Powder
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup Garlic Powder
1/4 Cup Hungarian Paprika
1/4 Cup Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons Ancho Chili Powder
1 Tablespoon Cayenne Pepper
SPRAY
1/2 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar for Spraying the Shoulder During the Smoke
FOIL WRAP
1 Stick Softened Butter
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Can of Good Beer
2 Tablespoons of Siracha
Directions
- Trim the fat off the pork shoulder and then inject the marinade.
- Cover the shoulder and place in the refrigerator for 5 hours or more.
- In a large bowl, whisk all the dry rub ingredients together.
- Dry the shoulder with paper towels and then cover it with the yellow mustard.
- Then sprinkle the dry rub all over the shoulder.
- Place a water pan in the smoker and be sure to keep water in the pan throughout the smoke.
- Set the smoker for between 250 and 275 degrees. (You’ll find the rught temp on your smoker eventually to hit 165 degrees between 6 and 8 hours of smoking. Start by trying the 275 temperature.
- Once the smoker is fully heated place the shoulder in the smoker “fat side down”.
- Insert an auto read thermometer.
- Spray the shoulder with apple cider vinegar every hour while it smokes.
- Once the shoulder reaches 165 degrees, and the bark seems set (6 to 8 hours), remove the shoulder.
- Wrap the shoulder in aluminum foil, add the foil wrap mixture and return the shoulder to the smoker.
- Cook until temperature reaches 205 degrees (approximately 2 more hours).
- Remove the shoulder but leave the foil on and let it rest 1 hour before pulling the pork.
- Pour the pork shoulder and the juice of the foil wrap in a large pan for pulling. Pull the pork and add as much of the barbeque sauce as desired to the mix.
- Serve with your favorite buns, additional sauce on the side and always, yes always, top the pork with our coleslaw. (Okay you don’t have to but you should. Haha.)
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