5 Tips for Pulled Pork Perfection! | Chuds BBQ

welcome back to chuck's barbecue everybody my name is bradley robinson and today i'm going to give you my five tips for the perfect pulled pork coming up this is a pork butt pat it dry i picked this up at my local heb this is just your standard run-of-the-mill pork butt which is tip number one you want to get yourself a bone-in pork butt preferably one with a nice good fat cap on there i see a lot of people they like to remove the fat cap or score it but i really don't think that's necessary and it's half the reason why i love cooking pork butts so much it really is the perfect cut for the beginner because there's zero trimming zero butchery required they're cheap they're readily available and they're really hard to screw up so get yourself a bone-in pork butt fat cap on they're a lot cheaper when you get them bone-in and that bone is really going to help this cookout because it's not going to have big gashes in it where the butcher had to remove the bone it's going to add some thermal mass to the inside which is really gonna help this thing cook evenly so now we move on to tip number two which is the rub because pulled pork isn't a traditional texas cut there really aren't any traditions that we have to uphold so while you can use just salt and pepper and have great results using some more complex rubs works out really well for making your pulled pork that being said i've done plenty of pork butts using just salt and pepper it works out really well you get that kind of briskety bark on top and as long as you have salt pepper smoke it's really all you need but a pork butt lends itself to so many different flavor profiles really well you can do sweet you could do spicy you could do savory it always comes out great so today we're going on with some good old-fashioned chud rub this is rub i make i sell it online at shopchuds.com this is great it's a very pepper heavy rub but essentially it's two part 16 mesh black pepper one part diamond crystal kosher salt with some paprika garlic other savory flavors in there it works really well on a lot of things especially pulled pork nothing to it folks just a nice heavy coating all the way around it's a big chunk of meat so we don't really need to worry about over salting it or anything like that i'm also not a big fan of binders but on a pulled pork because we're shredding this thing up at the end you can get away with whatever you want little mustard is always nice but this thing is plenty tacky for this rub to stick and please folks don't forget the sides come on so that's my tip number two just choose a fun rub it's really good time to experiment with new rubs making your own but you can also just get away with good old salt and pepper because like i mentioned pulled pork is incredibly versatile and incredibly forgiving it's also nice because we don't really need to worry about the presentation nearly as much because this is getting all shredded up at the end of the day so it's not like a brisket where we need that bark to be perfectly intact and have that aesthetic appearance oh this is a big boy this is gonna be a long cook should have got started sooner looking good to me let's fire up the pit there's a snake in my boot in 4k so on the pit we go tip number three is all about the cook and again we're not aiming for a specific texture like we are on brisket beef ribs pork ribs where you want it to be as tender as possible without completely falling apart but we're making pulled pork so we want this to completely fall apart so we're basically aiming for a maximum tenderness but you can't go too far and turn it into mush but because it's a little more forgiving than those other cuts we can rock this at a higher temperature which is something i love to do so behind me right now this pit is going at about 300 degrees 275 300 in that range if it goes up to 325 i'm not worried about it and you could cook this thing at 220 250 if you wanted to it's just going to add a lot of time to your cook and the results aren't going to be much better so i highly recommend cooking a little on the hotter and faster side also when i placed it on i like to aim the bone the flat side of the shoulder blade bone towards the fire because if there's any part of that pork butt that can take the brunt of the heat that is it especially use that bone is going to insulate the meat surrounding it so to have a little extra attention paid to that bone is really going to make sure this thing cooks evenly so on the pit this goes i'm rocking a post oak fire 300 degrees like i normally do and i'm not going to touch it i'm not going to do anything except maintain temperatures for the next six to eight hours until it's time to wrap this thing up eight hours later this pork butt is coming off the pit that is hot as you can see we have got a lovely bark on this thing and that fat cap is feeling super tender you can tell just kind of by squishing it it's got that nice rendered crispy vibe going on definitely a little darker than i'm used to because usually i go with salt and pepper on a pork butt but all those powdery spices have darkened this thing up a little bit but also added wonderful flavor internal temp we're rocking right around 170 175 degrees which is where i really like to wrap a pork butt for a brisket i usually aim a little hotter on 180 and that's because i don't want to steam the brisket too much in the wrap but because we're going to be shredding this into pulled pork having that extra moisture is just going to help us in the long run when it comes to wrapping your pulled pork you can do pretty much anything you want a full foil wrap is a really great thing for a pork butt again it's going to steam it it's going to cook it all the way through as quickly as possible all the juices are going to be collected in the foil wrap which is going to tenderize it from both sides along with the steam and it's a great way to have a really quick finish on a pulled pork while making sure everything is nice and juicy you could also paper wrap this thing i don't see people doing that much doesn't really make sense but it would definitely work really well if that's all you got you could also not wrap this thing but as you can see these edges are starting to get a little bit crispy so softening everything up and kind of letting it continue cooking in a more humid environment is definitely going to help out i just want to pull a little corner off so bad oh yeah save me for myself but if you know this channel you know i'm going with the foiled boat it's my preferred wrap on this channel and for good reason you know that foil is going to help cook this thing from the bottom while insulating the sides which is going to make it cook a lot quicker you have this big old fat cap on top is going to stay exposed which means it's going to get nice and rendered we're going to get some like bacony crispy bits on top which one mixed throughout the pulled pork is gonna be so flavorful and that is my tip number four give this thing the foil boat it is designed for a pork butt the foil boat works great with any cut that has a fat cap on it and like i mentioned because we're gonna be shredding this up having that extra heat on the bottom because we're wrapping it around 160 575 internal we're gonna have a little extra juice which is gonna really tenderize the bottom of this thing it's gonna speed up the cook and we're going to get a little extra smoke on there so let's wrap it up that's how you know it's not ready yet if you can pick it up by the bone it's not quite there although these little edges are done beautiful little foil boat pork butt going back on the pit it's at this stage too that you could really bump these temps up if you're in a hurry now that it's got that foil protection it's already got a nice bark on there all we're doing now is waiting for this thing to come up to an internal temp of around 200 205 degrees while we wait for our pork butt to come up to temp let's go ahead and get the rest of our accoutrement ready for the inevitable pulled pork sandwich that we're going to make starting with some apple cider vinegar brown sugar pinch of black pepper granulated garlic a little bit of cumin because i'm feeling frisky some msg optional paprika some red pepper flakes some mustard a little bit of hot sauce some worcestershire sauce and a little bit of spicy ketchup we're gonna let that come up to a simmer just to let all of those spices and sugars dissolve looking good and to be honest i just threw this together with things that i had in arm's reach as long as your sauce is acidic and has a little bit of spice to it it's gonna be good you know you could use straight up hot sauce it would be great you could use straight up apple cider vinegar it would be great but making your own is kind of fun and it makes you look a lot more professional in front of your friends and family but it is looking a little thin perfect not thin to it next up we're gonna make a quick barbecue slaw which simply means some sliced up cabbage with a little bit of barbecue sauce on top super lazy super easy very quick great for a sandwich with the hog sauce we got some really nice acidity this barbecue sauce is going to add some nice crunch as well as a little bit more sweetness and it's just so lazy i love it after 12 hours this pork butt is finally done that is hot and yeah this one took a long time when i was at the store i thought about getting the six pounder that would have saved a lot of time but this 10 pounder just had a much better fat cap and a lot better intramuscular fat and you know what sometimes the extra hours are worth it because if you're going to spend all day cooking a pork butt you might as well get one that is going to be beautifully probed tender oh feels like butter rocking about 203 degrees internal feeling nice and tender right to the bone love it got that crunchy bark on top we're gonna let this rest down for probably about an hour maybe 45 minutes or so until this comes down to an internal temperature of about 150 degrees and then we will shred it up it's looking nice feeling nice and tender shall i give the old bone test oh oh how you doing that's how you know folks look at that there's no faking that and that's why you get a bone and pork butt cause at the end of the day comes right out let's shred this up oh god what doesn't look good about that folks oops all that juice all that fat glistening all we gotta do now is just break in nice and tender i mean just the fat cap on here alone it's so barky it's got this crispiness to it from that foil boat i'm gonna have to dive into a little piece of that real quick oh my god that is unbelievably flavorful top layer got that wonderful smoking on there pulling apart like pork belly love it this is perfect texture right here you know it's not completely mush we still got some really nice texture in there all this bark is breaking apart and getting evenly distributed so we're gonna have flavor all the way throughout oh that is a perfect pulled pork in my opinion best thing you can get other than whole hog got these bark pieces they're so sticky love it and there you have it folks perfect pile of pulled pork but we're not done yet we still gotta add in our hog sauce just a healthy drizzle all that acidity and brightness is really going to help cut through all the fattiness the saltiness the smokiness i mean what more do you need in life than that folks a little bit of bark some tangy sauce i got to give this a try oh man that might be the best pulled pork i've ever made on the channel martin's potato roll nicely toasted a lovely mound of your beautiful pulled pork juicy tender smoky these little pieces of bark oh so good and we're gonna top that off with our little barbecue slaw we made for even more flavor and even more texture and then we top it off boop it's fatty tangy smoky salty sweet it's all the best flavors in perfect balance i need to take a bite that was so good so simple the tang from the sauce the sweetness from the barbecue slaw the crunch the lovely smoky flavor so tender so juicy oh my god i can't stop i'm going back in so good so to recap my five tips for the perfect pulled pork one get yourself a bone in pork butt with a nice fat cap on there don't trim it don't score it don't do anything just leave it as is two use your favorite rub this is the time and place to experiment with new rubs whether they're homemade store-bought spicy sweet unique you name it salt and pepper does work great but if there was ever a time to experiment with new rubs this is it three cook it hot and fast again i was rocking 300 degrees for most of the time on this cook and this thing turned out perfectly you're going to save a lot of time and if you don't get the largest pork butt at the grocery store you can get away with a six or eight hour cook four give the old foil boat i highly recommend it leaving that fat cap exposed really gives you that crispy bark extra smoke flavor helps it cook quicker and it ensures that you're gonna render down that thick fat cap that you left on and then tip number five make yourself a nice tangy sauce again it can be as simple or as complex as you like there are tons of recipes out there for vinegar-based sauces but as long as you got some nice tang and heat to help combat all that heavy smoke and fat flavor in this thing you're gonna end up with some amazing pulled pork at the end of the day but if you enjoyed this video let me know by hitting that subscribe button and dropping a like on this video leave a comment down below letting me know what you want to see me cook next if you give this recipe a try for yourself be sure to tag me on instagram at chud's barbecue i'd love to see what you all are cooking big shout out to all the patreon members thank you for supporting team john allowing me to keep making all these videos and until the next time i see you please go cook something outside peace

Channel: Chuds BBQ

Views: 136,708

Keywords: pulled pork, taxas style, texas style pulled pork, bbq, barbecue, texas bbq, pulled pork recipe, pulled pork for beginners

Id: ECnDfJIxbag

Length: 12min 46sec (766 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 26 2022