Pulled Pork with Barbecue Sauce
1 cup
½ cup 3 T 4 quarts 4 to 5 lbs ¼ cup 2 t 2 T 2 T 2 T 2 t 1 t BBQ Sauce 1½ cups ¼ cup 2 T 1 T ½ t ½ t ½ cup |
table salt (or 1¼ cup Morton's Kosher)
sugar liquid smoke cold water pork shoulder (bone in or out) (pork butt, shoulder blade roast) yellow mustard liquid smoke black pepper smoked paprika (can use sweet) sugar salt cayenne pepper ketchup light or mild molasses (I use normal and it was fine) Worcestershire sauce hot sauce (optional - I leave it out and put it on the table) table salt (see notes) black pepper defatted pork drippings |
- Cut pork in half or thirds horizontally (more surface area for bark formation)
- Mix first set and refrigerate for 2 hours
- Separately mix 2nd and 3rd sets and set aside
- Dry pork (don’t rinse). Coat with mustard mixture then sprinkle with spice mixture.
- Place on wire rack inside a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet (fat side up, larger pieces on the perimeter). Place parchment over pork and cover with more foil. Seal the edges to trap moisture inside. (parchment keeps acids from eating holes in foil)
- Roast for 3 hours at 325.
- Remove from oven and discard top foil and parchment. Pour liquid into fat separator. Return pork to oven
- Roast about 1.5 more hours until well browned, tender, and 200 degrees.
- Let pork rest on the counter for 20 minutes .
- For the sauce: Mix all ingredients (don’t forget the 1/2 cup of defatted cooking liquid).
- To Serve: Use forks to shred the well rested pork, discarding large pockets of fat. Toss with 1 cup sauce and season with salt and pepper. Serve remaining sauce separately.
- Note: I can make a 3X recipe in my large roasting pan that basically fills one rack of my oven. If you have two huge roasting pans you might be able to fit two in a normal oven but you should rotate and swap levels a few times while cooking. For a 3x recipe just make a single batch of the brine.
- Yield: 8 to 10 servings (You will get roughly 60% yield on a boneless cut. This includes the 1-cup of BBQ sauce that is tossed into the pork. A 5oz final serving of this is good for a sandwich. So 5 lbs boneless will yield about 9.5 servings).
- Note from Craft Fair 2013: This can get a bit salty. Especially if held in a steam tray. Might try leaving the salt out of the BBQ sauce since there is plenty in the ketchup and pork drippings.
- Source: Modified from Cook’s Illustrated
Category: American Modified 12/28/13