The easiest Smoked Pork Butt recipe that you will find! (2024)

FAQs

How to smoke pork for beginners? ›

We like to smoke our butts at 275 degrees for about 6 to 7 hours - until the butt internal temp is at about 180. Then you will want to wrap the butt and put it back on the smoker for 1 - 2 hours till the internal temp reaches 205. It's not burnt!

Smoke in the preheated smoker, maintaining a temperature of 200 to 225 degrees F (95 to 110 degrees C), until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C), 6 to 18 hours. Let pork roast rest for 30 to 45 minutes before shredding.

Our top choices are brisket, pork shoulder (for pulled pork), pork chops, and ribs. You can also give our St. Louis Ribs a try in your new smoker. Beef brisket, pork shoulder, and ribs are three cuts that offer sufficient fat to keep them juicy and tender when done.

Smoked Pulled Pork Ingredients

Pork shoulder: Pork shoulder is perfect for pulled pork because it's inexpensive, forgiving to work with, and tends to have a lot of marbling (which means it'll result in tender meat).

Marinate Your Meat Before Smoking It

Marinating your meat for 24 hours will help prevent it from drying out. Just fill a large casserole dish or bowl with your preferred marinade -- you can use any combination of water, vinegar, juice and seasoning -- and submerge your meat at the bottom.

The day before you plan on smoking your pork, remove it from the fridge. Take it out of the packaging and season it heavily with salt and pepper on all sides. Don't be afraid to use a decent amount of salt because you will be letting the salt sit overnight to penetrate deeply into the pork.

Hot & Fast Pork Butt – Pulled Pork Sandwiches

The main benefit of cooking hot and fast is a shorter cook time. Instead of tending to a smoker for 12+ hours, you're only looking at about 6-8 hours. So if you're in a time crunch, but want some great bbq, hot and fast is the way to go!

Most barbecue enthusiasts (including our team here) recommend cooking pork butt according to the heat source. So, if you've got a vertical smoker or grill with a bottom heat source, cook the pork butt fat side down. If you're using an offset smoker with a one-sided heat source, point the fat cap toward that.

In addition to marinating the pork, you can further enhance its flavor by applying a dry rub before smoking. A dry rub is a mixture of spices and herbs that is rubbed onto the surface of the meat before cooking. This adds an extra layer of flavor and forms a delicious crust on the outside of the pork.

Brisket is BBQ royalty and one of the hardest and toughest meats to smoke. It takes many hours, dedication and each brisket has a journey and a story to tell.

What is the easiest smoker to use for beginners? ›

Turkey. Though mostly eaten at Thanksgiving, turkey is one of the easiest and quickest meats to smoke.

Boston Butt (Pulled Pork)

If you're new to meat smoking, this is what we recommend starting with first. As it is often very well-marbled, it's by far the most forgiving cut of meat to smoke and is often a lot cheaper than experimenting on a brisket.

It's good to add a binder, which helps the rub stick to it. This can be olive oil, yellow mustard, or a spray oil like duck fat. For pork butt I usually go with mustard. It doesn't add any flavor to the finished product, but I like the way it holds the rub and the color it gives to the exterior early in the cook.

Both come from the shoulder of the pig, but pork butt is higher on the foreleg, while pork shoulder is farther down. As relatively tough and fatty cuts, both benefit from long, slow cooking methods such as roasting, stewing, and braising. But the cuts are different enough that we generally prefer pork butt.

The best time to spritz your meat while smoking is just after the bark has formed. The bark on meat generally forms about 1:30 to 2 hours into your cook. It is important to spritz the meat every half hour to 45 minutes to prevent it from drying out.

I smoke this whole pork shoulder at 225-230 degrees. For a whole shoulder it takes 1hr per pound – so expect a 17-18 hour cook. I smoke the pork shoulder with hickory wood until it gets a nice bark on the outside and hits around 150-160 internal.