A barbecue classic, seasoned with a Texas-style dry rub and cooked over oakwood, this smoked pulled pork is fall-off-the-bone tender and bursting with bold, wood-fired flavors.

Pulled pork is an all-time BBQ favorite of mine and for good reason: It’s slow-smoked until melt-in-your-mouth tender and then shredded into incredible strands of buttery pork. Made from pork butt, it’s loaded with fat and rich marbling, making it perfect for low-and-slow cooking. As this fat slowly renders, it bastes the meat from within to infuse it with flavor and transform it into barbecue gold.

This can take several hours to cook, but don’t let that put you off. This is a simple recipe and pork butt is a very forgiving meat, so it’s a great jumping-off point for you to get to grips with barbecue smoking.

Pulled Pork Explained

Pulled pork is made from pork butt, a cut that comes from the upper shoulder of the pig (despite what the name suggests). It’s smoked low and slow until it reaches a high internal temperature, breaking down the fat and connective tissue, transforming the meat into something so tender it can be shredded (or “pulled”) into juicy, flavorful strands.

When prepared well, pulled pork is incredibly tender and full of smoky flavor. The meat falls apart easily, and the shoulder blade bone should slide out with almost no resistance.

Pulled pork is also a great option for barbecue beginners. Pork butt is relatively affordable and forgiving. It’s hard to overcook, and even if the cook isn’t perfect, the results are usually still delicious. That makes it ideal for practicing fire and smoker management without the stress of getting everything just right.

The dish has its roots in Southern barbecue, where whole hogs were traditionally slow-cooked over pits or in large smokers. That low-and-slow technique remains essential, turning tough cuts of meat into tender, juicy shreds infused with smoke and spice.

While many regional versions include sauces, this recipe takes a Texas-style approach. It uses a simple dry rub of salt and black pepper, skips the sauce, and relies on the pork’s natural flavor enhanced by its own rendered juices to keep the meat moist and delicious.

Ingredients

This recipe keeps things incredibly simple to keep the focus purely on the pork:

Pork Butt: We want as much flavor and moisture as possible, so go for bone-in butt with the fat cap on top still intact. Some recipes use larger pork butts in the 10lb region, but I’ve gone for something slightly more modest in size (6lbs) for the sake of speed and convenience.
Yellow Mustard: Your new best friend when it comes to smoking larger meat cuts, applying yellow mustard creates a tacky surface (or a binder) for the dry rub to stick to without any real detectable flavor.
16-Mesh Black Pepper: A staple of Texas BBQ, this is no freshly cracked black pepper. Instead, it’s a much coarser grind that stands up to long smokes and helps build a solid bark.
Coarse Salt: Always go coarse over fine salt as it’s easier to apply evenly and creates the dry brining effect we’re after. The good news is that since this is a big chunk of meat, we don’t need to stress too much about over-salting.
Garlic & Onion Granules: Garlic and onion each deliver savory notes that round out the dry rub. In both cases, go for granules over powder as they won’t clump as easily and will be easier to apply evenly.
Apple Cider Vinegar: Used in our spritz, ACV cools the meat surface to help it keep moist, absorb more smoke, and develop bark. I use it in a 1:1 ratio with water to dilute the sharp flavor a bit.

How to Smoke Pulled Pork

Fire Up: Set your smoker to about 250–275°F (121–135°C). Add oakwood to your coals and place a filled water pan inside the chamber.
Season: While your smoker warms up, coat the pork butt with a thin layer of yellow mustard to form a binder. Combine the dry rub ingredients and apply liberally to the pork butt, covering all sides. Leave the pork butt sitting at room temperature until your smoker is ready to cook.
Smoke: Place the pork on the grates fat-side up and with the bone-side facing the heat source. Let it smoke until it reaches an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C), usually after 4–5 hours.
Spritz: After the first hour, begin spritzing the pork every 30–40 minutes with a 50:50 mix of apple cider vinegar and water. This keeps the pork juicy and helps develop a lovely bark on the surface.
Wrap: Once internal temp hits around 160°F, the pork might hit “the stall”, where evaporation cools the surface and the temperature plateaus. To push through, double-wrap the butt tightly in pink butcher paper or foil (the “Texas Crutch”).
Cook: Return the wrapped pork to the smoker and cook until the internal temperature reaches 195–200°F (90–93°C). At this point, the meat should be probe tender and ready to pull.
Rest: Remove the pork from the smoker and, still wrapped, let it rest until the internal temperature drops to around 150°F (65°C). This can take up to about an hour.
Shred: Unwrap the pork butt and remove the shoulder blade bone (it should slide out cleanly). Shred the meat into chunks rather than fine threads, mixing the bark evenly throughout. Pour any remaining juices still in the foil or paper back over the pulled pork for extra flavor.
Eat: Serve by itself or pile it on high in sandwiches, tacos or on nachos. Perfect.

Quick Tips

Don’t Trim or Score the Fat Cap: Leaving it intact will help add flavor as the fat renders, and prevent the interior meat from drying out over the period of the long cook.
Cook hotter than you think: I have put 250-275°F as a guide in the recipe, but don’t stress if you go as high as 300-325°F. Pork butt is really forgiving and fatty enough to give you a really wide margin of error.
Position the Bone Towards the Fire: Place the bone side of the pork towards the fire to protect the rest of the meat from direct heat and let it cook more evenly.
Use the Rendered Juices: When you unwrap the pork after cooking, don’t toss the juices. Pour them back over the shredded meat for even more flavor.