De ultieme pulled pork - BBQ Experience Center (2024)

FAQs

What is the best liquid to cook pulled pork in? ›

Transfer everything to a large slow cooker and add a splash of liquid — water is great, but so is broth, apple juice, or beer if you have them handy. Cover and cook on low until the meat is tender and pulls apart easily.

Tough means undercooked. Period. If you had overcooked your pork, it would have shredded into very dry, fine, threadlike strands of meat if you were to pinch it between your fingers.

Try brine: Choose a wet marinade rather than a dry one. Dry rubs may work fine but brine or a wet rub will add that extra moisture along with the flavor that will penetrate deep inside the meat. Keep a spray bottle handy: Keep spraying the meat during smoking or reheating to replace the lost moisture.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Put the pork in a roasting pan and bake for about 6 hours. Basically, roast the pork until it's falling apart and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 170 degrees F.

Your liquid should not cover your pork in the slow cooker: it should only come up about a quarter of the way up the sides. The pork will make more liquid as it cooks, and you need to leave room for that. And 10 hours later, this huge hunk of meat is tender and ready.

Drain the cooking the liquid and reserve. Shred the pork gently using two forks.

The USDA recommends that pork is cooked to an internal temperature of 145°F (62.8°C) for food safety. But every griller worth their salt knows that cuts rich in collagen, like pork butt, need to be brought to much higher temperatures (195-205°F [91-96°C]) to properly break down the connective tissues.

At around 2 hours, your pork chops will be cooked through (145°F) and have a texture similar to chicken breast — tender, but firm. Between 3 to 6 hours, the chops will have a texture closer to pulled pork; it will be easy to cut with a fork and will pull easily from the bone.

A 2-4 Hour Rest Makes Brisket & Pork Butt Better

Briskets and pork butts are commonly cooked to internal temps as high as 205°F, which drives a lot of moisture out of the meat. So why don't these cuts get tough and dry?

This thin, vinegar-based finishing sauce, which differs from a BBQ sauce, is the secret ingredient to kick up my smoked pulled pork. After you've pulled your pork butt, drizzle over the meat and combine. The vinegar adds contrast to the smoky flavor and cuts through the fat in the meat.

How do I get more flavor in my pulled pork? ›

We use brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika, a good amount of salt & pepper, and a pinch of cayenne! Make sure you use all of the seasoning! Also, really rub it into the pulled pork, get all of the nooks and crannies!

If you aren't cooking in a pan wrap in double foil after generously spritzing with apple juice (4 - 8 oz). Return the pork to the smoker. Continue cooking until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 203°F -205°F.

This will help with better flavor because the salt has time to permeate the pork. Cook no higher than 325*F. For best texture you want to cook pork low and slow to break down the collagen and fat.

By the way, just as it's possible to overcook beef in a beef stew, it's quite possible to overcook pulled pork. You want your pork to be pull-apart tender—an indication that the connective tissue has broken down—but not so cooked that the muscle fibers themselves start to lose structure and turn to mush.

A basic rule of thumb, but in no way is it an exact guide, is 90 minutes of smoking time per pound at 225° to 250°. Another way is to use a thermometer the entire time for indications of when your pork may be done. Remove it from the smoker once it reaches an internal temperature of 165°.

Pan juices and BBQ sauce – Pour over some roasting pan juices (it's got tons of flavour, we are NOT wasting it!) and some BBQ sauce. Just enough of both to juice up the meat a bit, not drown it!

Typically, when you make pulled pork, you'll cook it in barbeque sauce or another acidic ingredient like vinegar, citrus, or Worcestershire sauce, which work to tenderize the pork. Now think about soda like any other marinade, working to help break down the meat for pull-apart results.