BBQ Pulled Pork from a Grilling Perspective
BBQ Pulled Pork article and Recipe from my friend Roger Williamson. I have a wonderful feeling that Roger will be contributing some great article to Cooking-Outdoors.com and I can't wait to see what he cooks up next!
The Pulled Pork Sammich
I got this down south BBQ cook book about 10 years ago, and the recipe in it that caught my attention was Pulled Pork. At that time I had never heard of Pulled Pork Sandwiches, or Pulled Pork, but how the author described it captured my imagination. There is a long history with pulled pork, cooked low and slow over hardwood coals down in the southern US. I was the first one of my group of friends to try it, long before it was available in local Halifax restaurants and after that first attempt – the question was “when are you making pulled pork again”. It turned out fantastic, and I have been making some form of that original recipe (I have modified it quite a bit) for the past 10 years for big gatherings of friends.
I started making this on my propane Weber, but fell in love with Charcoal cooking a few years ago and never looked back. The only thing you need to make great pulled pork is time and patience, if you take your time with this you cannot mess it up. Be prepared for 8 – 14 hours of low and slow before you are ready to “pull” the pork.
Pulled Pork – What you need
Rub
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup chili powder
1/3 cup paprika
2 tblsp kosher salt
Pork Shoulder – look for what butchers call a “Boston Butt”, despite its name it comes from the shoulder, 6 – 10lb is good for A LOT of sandwiches
Wood for smoke – I prefer hickory for pulled pork but oak, apple, or maple would add interesting flavors as well
Time 8 – 14 hours of it
Patience – or beer, that works too
Buns – good buns, again…everybody likes good buns.
Sass (sauce)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup ketchup
¾ cup water (boil off)
¾ cup brown sugar
½ tsp cayenne pepper
Mix up in a pot and bring to a boil reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 30 min
How To , The night before pork… Lay the pork shoulder out on a cutting board or better yet a good size tin pan to catch the leftover rub. Liberally rub the shoulder with the BBQ Rub all over, massaging into every nook and cranny. If you have the time, let this sit over night in the fridge covered so the flavor of the rub sinks into the pork, the rub will also help form the crust or “bark” on the pork shoulder as it cooks.
The (early) morning of… Take the pork out of the fridge 30 – 45 min before you will be placing on the grill. Before you light your BBQ, get a tin drip pan in place below where you are going to position the Pork Butt and fill it with water, this helps keep the temp low and aids in maintaining a moist cooking environment, and also catches all the drippings from the meat .
Fire up your BBQ to a steady heat of 225 – 250. You are going to place the Pork on indirect heat, which essentially means make sure there is no direct flames below the Pork. Put the pork on and wait for 30 min to ensure you have a temp of 225 – 250.
Once that happens, you are going to add the wood smoke, if you are using a propane BBQ, place a handful wood chips in a foil wrap with a few holes poked in it and place the pack directly on the burner. IF you are using coals, throw some wood chips or better yet chunks in with the coals. On a propane BBQ your smoke will last about 30 min or so, add another pack an hour later, you want to maintain a low steady stream of wood smoke for about 3 hours. Keep the lid closed and be prepared to wait. Depending on the size of the Butt it will take 8 – 14 hours.
In the meantime make the sass… Mix up in a pot and bring to a boil reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 30 min, let cool off until time to add to the pulled pork. You should have a good meat thermometer, you will notice that at about 6 – 8 hours in the temp will have reached 170, it will hold at that temp for a number of hours – this is called “the stall”. If you are in a rush and guests have arrived you can take it off and shred it, and it will be good, but it won’t be legendary. To be legendary good = Do not raise the temp, the shoulder will hold at 170 or 180 for a few hours, and then start to heat up again. During this time, the tough parts breakdown; the fats dissolve and generally turns into something amazing. When the temp finally hits 190, it is done. You will know you have hit the sweet spot when you put a fork in and turn and you can twist it out without resistance.
At this point its time to pull your pork. Use 2 forks to pull the shoulder apart into little pieces, alternatively you can chop but I prefer the fork method. Throw all the pork into a big pot and pour the sauce on top and mix in. Toast the buns and you can either put a little bit of mayo on the buns or a little bit of homemade slaw, whatever your preference. If you want you can reserve a bit of the sauce and pour that on. I have talked about pulling pork, forking and good buns, good thing this is a family website. Roger Williamson, has been an avid outdoor cook since he was a kid. “I am not sure what inspired me but I can remember being 8 years old on a Saturday morning outdoors in the backyard on a little hibachi grill cooking bacon on tinfoil over charcoal. I was always fascinated with not only cooking outdoors, it may have started with my grandfather who had a cousin who was a lobster fisherman, and one of my earliest memories of cooking outside is boiling lobsters with him in a cast iron kettle on a fire.”
Roger lives in Nova Scotia Canada, a nice little village called Fall River on the outskirts of Halifax. His day job is in telecommunications, primarily Fibre to the Home. Passion? Grilling and BBQ, of course! You can follow Roger on twitter @Ragaa
- Rub
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup chili powder
- ⅓ cup paprika
- 2 tblsp kosher salt
- Sass (sauce)
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup ketchup
- ¾ cup water (boil off)
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- Mix up in a pot and bring to a boil reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 30 min
- How To
- The night before pork…
- Lay the pork shoulder out on a cutting board or better yet a good size tin pan to catch the leftover rub. Liberally rub the shoulder with the BBQ Rub all over, massaging into every nook and cranny. If you have the time, let this sit over night in the fridge covered so the flavor of the rub sinks into the pork, the rub will also help form the crust or “bark” on the pork shoulder as it cooks.
- The (early) morning of…
- Take the pork out of the fridge 30 – 45 min before you will be placing on the grill. Before you light your BBQ, get a tin drip pan in place below where you are going to position the Pork Butt and fill it with water, this helps keep the temp low and aids in maintaining a moist cooking environment, and also catches all the drippings from the meat .
- Fire up your BBQ to a steady heat of 225 – 250. You are going to place the Pork on indirect heat, which essentially means make sure there is no direct flames below the Pork. Put the pork on and wait for 30 min to ensure you have a temp of 225 – 250.
- Once that happens, you are going to add the wood smoke, if you are using a propane BBQ, place a handful wood chips in a foil wrap with a few holes poked in it and place the pack directly on the burner. IF you are using coals, throw some wood chips or better yet chunks in with the coals. On a propane BBQ your smoke will last about 30 min or so, add another pack an hour later, you want to maintain a low steady stream of wood smoke for about 3 hours. Keep the lid closed and be prepared to wait. Depending on the size of the Butt it will take 8 – 14 hours.
- In the meantime make the sass…
- Mix up in a pot and bring to a boil reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 30 min, let cool off until time to add to the pulled pork.
- You should have a good meat thermometer, you will notice that at about 6 – 8 hours in the temp will have reached 170, it will hold at that temp for a number of hours – this is called “the stall”. If you are in a rush and guests have arrived you can take it off and shred it, and it will be good, but it won’t be legendary.
- To be legendary good = Do not raise the temp, the shoulder will hold at 170 or 180 for a few hours, and then start to heat up again. During this time, the tough parts breakdown; the fats dissolve and generally turns into something amazing. When the temp finally hits 190, it is done. You will know you have hit the sweet spot when you put a fork in and turn and you can twist it out without resistance.
- At this point its time to pull your pork. Use 2 forks to pull the shoulder apart into little pieces, alternatively you can chop but I prefer the fork method. Throw all the pork into a big pot and pour the sauce on top and mix in. Toast the buns and you can either put a little bit of mayo on the buns or a little bit of homemade slaw, whatever your preference. If you want you can reserve a bit of the sauce and pour that on.
