I love flavorful and tender smoked meat. I’m so excited to share one of my amazing smoked-meat recipes with you. I call it ‘Fall-Apart-Tender Pulled Pork’. It is very delicious.
The meat is infused with amazing flavor from the smoking and seasoning process. It is very tender and just falls off the bone as you go to shred it.
I’m not lying when I say it is yummy—proof is that anyone who has had this fall-apart-tender pulled pork enthusiastically and often ask for seconds and thirds.
I do want to note that this is a recipe you need to plan to make. It takes hours of smoking and then cooking. While there are only a few minutes of actual preparation (putting the mustard and spices on the pork), you do need to tend to it like most smoked meat. The plan ahead, preparation, and attending to the meat are well worth the effort for the end result.
Adding my homemade BBQ sauce to it, makes this tender pork even better. With the sauce it goes from being absolutely delicious to insanely good.
Since I’m all about saving money, I should mention that this is a very budget-friendly meat. One $11.00 pork shoulder will feed a family of 8 for 4 different meals. Thats $2.75 total for the meat for 8 people each meal!
This is a GREAT recipe for holidays, BBQ’s, parties, etc. as it feeds so many inexpensively (there are I’d guess about 25 adult servings or 40 child size servings in a standard size pork shoulder).
So it’s a great way to save money, please a crowd of people, and provide meat for a large gathering.
We make great use of the leftovers and they refrigerate well for up to 10 days.
If you are wondering what you will do with your leftovers, check out this post for other pulled pork recipe ideas. A few common ones I make are: pulled pork tacos, or pork mac and cheese, pork quesadillas, a pork protein bowl, or a pulled pork salad.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.
Ingredients
Pork shoulder
Spicy brown mustard– spread generously on shoulder ~1/2 Cup
Pork Dry Rub-spread generously on shoulder ~1/3 Cup
Apple Juice in a spray bottle to spay on shoulder every 30 minutes ~1 1/2 Cups
Supply List
smoker (we have a Traeger)
wood pellets
spray bottle
deep pan (roasting pan)
meat shredders
meat thermometer we have the Weber iGrill and love it as it connects to an app and gives us real time temperature readings.
Instructions
Start on smoke, allowing pellets to ignite. Stay on either smoke or heat smoker to 180 F. Heat for 5-15 minutes.
While the smoker is heating coat pork shoulder in spicy brown mustard (regular mustard will work as well).
Rub generously with pork rub. We really like this kind, but any will do.
Smoke it 4-5 hrs on low heat (either smoke setting or up to 180).
Spray with apple juice every 30 minutes.
Flip it every hour for 4-5 hours. After 4-5 hrs the meat has already absorbed the smoke flavor to its maximum. You can continue smoking it longer, but to preserve wood chips we take ours off and put it in the oven.
Wrap it really tight in thick aluminum foil. Make sure it is wrapped in 2-3 layers of aluminum foil (super tightly).
Place in roasting pan (or deep pan) fat side up. Roast in large deep pan at 225 F for about 4 hours or until internal temperature is 190. TIP– They way we do it is Put it in oven at 190 F overnight and then middle of meat 190F when we wake up, but to add a little additional time (and make sure it is fall-apart-tender, we usually leave it in the oven at 225 F until lunch or dinner the next day).
Take it out and unwrap it. Allow it to rest for 15 minutes. Shred it with these meat shredders.
Add BBQ sauce or serve plain. Refrigerate left overs for up to 10 days. Try these amazing pulled pork recipes for leftover uses.
We add this amazing BBQ sauce—the best homemade version ever and save the extra sauce for left overs (the meat will soak the sauce up) so its nice to add additional sauce on future meals.
Save leftovers and use them for these many delicious recipes I’ve rounded up here.
- * Pork shoulder
- * Spicy brown mustard- spread generously on shoulder (1/2 Cup)
- * Pork Dry Rub-spread generously on shoulder (1/3 Cup)
- * Apple Juice in a spray bottle to spay on shoulder every 30 minutes (1½ Cups)
- Coat in spicy brown mustard (regular mustard will work as well).
- Rub generously with Pork Dry rub.
- Smoke it on a tray (unwrapped) for 4-5 hrs on low heat (use either smoke setting or up to 180).
- Spray with apple juice every 30 minutes.
- Flip meat every hour for 4-5 hours. After 4-5 hrs the meat has already absorbed the smoke flavor to its maximum. You can continue smoking it longer, but to preserve wood chips we take ours off and put it in the oven.
- Wrap it really tight in thick aluminum foil. Make sure it is wrapped in 2-3 layers of aluminum foil (super tightly).
- Place in roasting pan (or deep pan) fat side up. Roast in large deep pan at 225 F for about 4 hours or until internal temperature is 190. TIP- They way we do it is Put it in oven at 190 F overnight and then middle of meat 190F when we wake up, but to add a little additional time (and make sure it is fall-apart-tender, we usually leave it in the oven at 225 F until lunch or dinner the next day).
- Take it out and unwrap it. Allow it to rest for 15-30 minutes. Shred it with meat shredders.
- Add BBQ sauce (see this site for the best homemade version ever).
- Or serve plain.
- Refrigerate leftovers for up to 10 days.
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