Pulled Pork Recipe

Planning ahead for Memorial Weekend, I needed a recipe that would feed at least 10 people.  Pulled Pork is always a crowd-pleaser.  I found this recipe online last year and have cooked it several times and have tweaked it and made it my own.  What I love about this recipe is the pork is slowed roasted uncovered for 12-13 hours while you sleep in a low temperature oven of 225 degrees F.  It gets a rich, dark crust on the outside, but the pork inside remains melt in your mouth moist.  It literally falls off the bone and shreds  easily with two forks.  What more could you ask for?   Yes, some people might want to use a crock pot, but this recipes is all about the slow roasted crust that you could never achieve in a crock-pot.

Pulled Pork ready for a crowd!

Here is the plan:  Purchase your 7-8 lb. Boston Butt with bone-in, make your dry rub and brining liquid, and brine the pork in the a.m. for at least 8 hours.  Later in the evening before bed, take roast out of brine and dry it, rub in the dry rub (leaving 1/2 cup of rub aside), put it in the oven and go to bed.  When you get up in the morning (12 hours later if your lucky enough to get that much sleep) open the oven and check the temperature of the roast with a meat thermometer.  It should read 200 degrees.  Shut off the oven and let it rest for 2 hours.  When temp is down to 170 degrees, it's ready to be pulled.   I serve the pulled pork on buns with cold slaw and bbq sauce on the side.

 Pulled Pork

1 whole boston butt with bone 6-8 lbs. 

Dry Rub

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp ground pepper

1 tbsp paprika

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix well and store in an air tight container.

Brine Solution

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 qts cold water

2 bay leaves

3 tbsp dry rub mix

Add salt to cold water and stir very well until all the salt is completely dissolved. Then add the brown sugar, dry rub, and bay leaves and stir well to combine.

Pork shoulder preparation:

Rinse the pork shoulder and place in a large container or zip lock bag, pour in the brine solution until the shoulder is completely covered. Cover the container and place in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. Then remove pork shoulder from brine solution, pat dry with paper towels, place in baking pan that is bigger than the shoulder by at least 2 inch in length and width and at least 3 inches deep. Sprinkle dry rub onto the surface of the shoulder and massage. Coat all sides. Make sure the fat layer on the shoulder is facing up before cooking! Place baking pan uncovered in a 225 degree oven on the middle rack. Monitor the temperature with a meat thermometer after 12 hours. Opening the oven often to check causes it to take longer.  It’s better not to open oven.  Cooking  the pork at night while you sleep from 9 p.m. – 9 a.m. is perfect. Do not remove from the oven until the center of the shoulder reaches 200 degrees. When the shoulder has reached 200 degrees, shut off the oven and let the roast cool for 2  hours before removing from the oven. Cover roasting pan while cooling. When the temperature drops to 170 degrees remove from oven. Place on a large cutting board, and remove the large sheet of crusted fat on the top. Pull apart with two forks, it will pull apart very easily. I sprinkle and mix the leftover dry rub over the pulled pork for a favor boost.  Serve 10 people

Adapted from www.kevinandamanda.com