Smoked Pulled Pork Recipe

This smoked pulled pork recipe on the grill is absolutely fantastic and very easy to do. Smoking pulled pork is one of my favorite ways to spend time at the grill the whole day. My wife bought me a new Traeger Grill for fathers day and this is honestly my first try at smoked pulled pork. It normally takes one or two tries at a recipe before it is worth blogging, while this one was perfect the first time. Here’s what we did:

Use leftovers from this post to make:

A great side dish for this pulled pork is our smoked baked beans recipe. Another white meat option would be to make our chicken wings. Check out our post on everything you need to know to make killer wings.

[bctt tweet=”This smoked pork roast is perfect for leftovers like eggs benedict and pulled pork sliders.” username=””]

Prepping Pork Shoulder for Smoked Pulled Pork

Pork shoulder is a great option for smoking your own pulled pork. It is not overly expensive and it is a nice size for a low and slow cook. In fact, when you’re at the store, go ahead and pick up a six pack while you’re at it. This will greatly improve your smoking experience.

Open your first beer, put the pork shoulder on a baking sheet and cover with your favorite dry rub. Don’t have a favorite? I went ahead and put in some of my favorite products via links on Amazon so you don’t even have to think about what to use. Just pick one and let me know about it in the comments.

Smoking Pulled Pork

Now that you rubbed down your pork, it’s ready for the grill. Any grill will work. You need only be able to control the temperature and add smoke. I used my new Traeger Grill, which burns pellets to add smoke and in addition maintains a constant temperature. A gas or charcoal grill would do the job just fine but with much more work as you have to add wood chunks for the smoke flavor and watch the temperature for a whole day.

I preheated my grill to 225 and placed the pork should directly on the grill surface. As a result, the bottom will get just the slightest bit of grill marks. For the first three hours, I basted it with apple cider. That seems to make a nice flavorful and smoky crust in the end. Make sure to have that second beer during this phase.

how to smoke pulled pork — Just starting the pulled pork. The grill is set to 225 degrees.

After three hours of smoking the pork, I put the pork shoulder on tinfoil because it will collect any drippings. The dripping will be used to pour over the top of the finished smoked pulled pork resulting in deliciously moist, juicy, and flavorful pulled pork.

smoking pulled pork — 3 hours of cooking later… Now, place the pork on tin foil to collect any drippings.

Continue to smoke the pork on your grill for five to seven more hours. Beers 3 and 4 should get you through the long stretch here. The pork shoulder will be smoked when the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees. This extra time will result in a very smoky thick crust on the outside which consequently locks in most of the natural juices of the pork causing it to be very tender.

When the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees, your smoked pulled pork is cooked. Pull it off the grill and let it rest for half an hour while the meat reabsorbs the juices trapped inside. I covered mine with tinfoil so it cooled slowly. I prefer this rather than letting it just sit out on the counter.

Pulling The Smoked Pulled Pork

After a cool down period (and another beer) but while the pork is still hot, use forks or your hands to pull the pork apart. You will probably need to use a fork because the temperature after thirty minutes was still very hot to touch. Look at how much smoke stained the pulled pork below in the first piece we pulled off! It looks amazing.

Keep pulling the pork apart removing any fat and connective tissue that may be on the shoulder. We served ours with mustard leaves from the garden and a garnish of basil for color. Enjoy your pork with your final beer.

This recipe is a close adaptation of Traeger Grills’ pulled pork recipe in their cookbook. It worked wonderfully well. The smoked pulled pork recipe was very easy yet made a fantastically juicy, textured, and flavorful smoked pulled pork.

If you liked this recipe, you will probably also like our Grilled Pheasant or Jalapeno Poppers too.