Our team is driven by customer satisfaction and food! We are sharing our favorite recipes this year on LinkedIn with our “When is our next potluck?” series. This one was so more involved, so it's getting a post here!

Paul Foster, one of our developers, is sharing his smoked pulled pork. It seems daunting if you’ve never done it, but it’s un-grill-ievably good and easier than you think. With some upfront setup, time does the work for you. Kind of like a CRM right? It’s not as big a project as you fear. Once you’ve done some initial setup, just let it cook. The benefits will grow as everyone comes on board… and you won’t know how you ever lived with out it!

♨️ Un-grill-ievable Smokey Pulled Pork ♨️

Preparation

This recipe is not difficult. It just takes time - about 6 hours. A drink of your choice will help pass the time.

Ingredients

3 to 5 pounds of Pork Butt (shoulder)

salt for brine

½ cup yellow mustard

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

½ cup brown sugar

BBQ sauce (optional)

Slider rolls (optional)

Supplies

Charcoal briquets

Hickory wood pellets

Fire starter cubes or equivalent

Tools

Weber style charcoal grill with thermometer

Large pot for brining

Small aluminum pan

Tongs for moving meat

Meat thermometer

Aluminum foil

Meat claws for shredding

Brining

In the large pot, add enough water to cover the pork.

For each gallon of water, add 1 cup of salt and stir.

Add the pork and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.

Charcoal setup

Use a Weber style charcoal grill. Clean out the grill and arrange charcoal in a “U” shaped pattern around the outside of the grill. The charcoal should be 2-3 layers deep and wide. 

On one end of the “U”, place a charcoal fire starter under the charcoal. I use the wax cubes. Add the hickory wood pellets to the first half of the charcoal, on the side with the fire starter. This will add the smokey flavor.

In the center of the “U”, place an aluminum pan with water to catch the drippings and provide moisture.

Open the top and bottom vents. Light the fire starter and close the lid. 

Put the cooking grate in the grill.

After the charcoal is lit, adjust the top vent to about half open to get the grill temperature to 250 to 300 degrees.

Prepare the meat

Remove the pork from the brine and discard the brine. Dry the pork with paper towels.

Coat the entire meat with the mustard. (You can measure or just squirt it from the bottle.)

Mix the brown sugar, pepper and garlic powder as a rub.

Coat the mustard covered meat with the rub.

Cooking

Place meat in the center of the cooking grate and close the grill.

After an hour, rotate the meat about 180 degrees, to cook more evenly. By now more of the charcoal should be burning. 

After another hour, rotate the meat again and check the internal temperature of the meat. Keep cooking until it reaches 150 degrees.

Once the meat is at 150 degrees, wrap the meat in 2 layers of aluminum foil to seal in the juices. Put it back on the grill and let it cook for another hour. 

Check the temperature. When it is above 190 degrees, remove from grill. 

Close all grill vents to put out the grill. Clean it later.

Finish and eat

Keep meat wrapped and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

Open the aluminum wrapping.  Use the meat claws to shred the meat.  Remove any bones and discard them.

Plate the meat and server with the slider rolls and BBQ sauce (optional). After eating is a good time to clean the grill.