Bourbon Smoked Pulled Pork

The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co.

One of the most commonly smoked meats is pork, while the most sought after menu item is pulled pork. It’s a time honored favorite never missing from your favorite BBQ joint or local street fair. When looking to satisfy that intense BBQ craving, smoked pulled pork has the best culinary chops to get the job done.

Making your own pulled pork can be fun, rewarding, and exceptionally tasty. Once you have perfected your own style and flavor combinations, you’ll probably feel ready to conquer the smoked meat world by entering yours into any local competition! Although, providing an extraordinarily flavorful and satisfying meal to all your friends and family is just as rewarding as well.

The internet is flooded with an incredible amount of smoked pulled pork recipes for you to choose from. We love to create and cultivate our own style of recipes using our very own The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co. products. This recipe of Hickory Smoked Bourbon Pulled Pork is no different, and we have made it for our friends, family, and even private events for 50 to 100 people. While the internet provides you endless recipe options, we hope that our smoked pulled pork becomes a beloved family tradition. 

The Hickory Smoked Bourbon Pulled Pork is based on a two step process. The meat is injected with marinade the day prior to cooking and then cooks on the smoker for a solid 8 to 10 hours. The ingredients you will need for this recipe are as follows…

1. 1/3 Cup Bourbon (Your Choice)
2. 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
3. 1/3 Cup Honey (We recommend using local honey - Preferred Mesquite Flower Flavored Honey)
4. 1/2 Stick 80z of Butter
5. 1/3 Cup Apple Cider
6. 1 Teaspoon The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co.  Whisky Smoked Sea Salt (Fine)
7. 1 Teaspoon The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co.  Applewood Smoked Espresso Peppercorn
8. 8 to 10 Pound Bone-in Pork Butt

This recipe is based on a pork butt weighing between eight and ten pounds. 

Prep the pork butt by removing any extra skin or thick layers of fat. A small amount of fat is fine to leave on and will add flavor as it cooks. 

The night before you plan to smoke your pork butt, combine the ingredients listed above and mix in a small pot on the stove at medium heat. As the ingredients begins to liquify, turn the heat down to a light simmer so that crystallization does not occur. Once the ingredients are throughly blended and liquified, move to a warmer on the stove top if you have one or keep the heat at a very low temp. Take a meat injector, found at any BBQ store, and fill it as full as you can. Before injecting the ingredients into the pork butt, make sure the pork butt is in a plastic bag or container. This will help to contain any excess liquid. Now you can begin to inject the marinade into the pork butt on each side as many times as you can until you have emptied the pot of marinade.

Tie up the plastic bag with the pork and make sure there are no leaks and place in the fridge over night. 

Plan accordingly for the amount of time it will take to cook the pork butt. Depending on the weight, you will figure one hour of cook time per pound when smoking at a temperature of 225 degrees. Weather also plays a factor in the cook time as well. If it is extremely cold outside, you might want to bump the heat up to compensate for the colder temperatures. 

In the morning, take the pork butt out of the fridge and let it set until it is close to room temperature. While you are waiting, lather the pork butt in yellow mustard and season with The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co. Applewood Smoked Sea Salt and Applewood Smoked Espresso Peppercorn.

Add your favorite wood pellets into your smoker. We recommend Hickory Wood for this recipe, however, you can choose whatever wood flavor that fits your unique taste. Set your smoker to 225 degrees. Once your smoker has reached the desired temp, place your pork butt right onto the grill racks. Remember, this is not necessarily a set-it and forget-it cooking process. After the first 3 1/2 hours on the smoker, spray the outside of the pork butt with Apple Cider Vinegar. This helps with adding additional flavor as well as keeping the pork from drying out during the smoking process. Continue this process every 30 minutes until the pork has been on the smoker for five hours. 

Once the pork has been on the smoker for five hours, it is time to wrap the pork butt in butcher paper. We have tried aluminum foil in the past but have found that butcher paper works best. Once you have wrapped the pork, place it back on the smoker for the remainder of the cook time. This is based on an 8 to 10 pound pork butt, so plan on 8 to 10 hours of cook time. Please note during the final cooking hours you can flip the pork butt mid way through so that it cooks evenly. 

As you get closer to the final hour on the smoker use a meat thermometer to get the internal temp of the meat. You are looking for a final internal temp of 205 degrees. It cannot be less than that. At a temperature of 205 the meat will begin to break down, which allows you to easily pull the meat apart to get the style of smoked pulled pork we have all come to know and love. 

When you have reached the internal temp of 205, remove the pork butt from the smoker and let it rest for an hour - do not remove the butcher paper. One option is to place the pork butt in a cooler with no ice, cover it with towels and let it set for an hour. This is a viable option, but if you don’t want to go to the extent of using a cooler, we recommend setting the pork in a baking pan and covering it with a towel to keep as much heat in as possible. After an hour, remove the towel and butcher paper. We recommend leaving the pork butt in the baking sheet as it gives you room to pull the pork. Before you begin to pull the pork with “claws”, go for the bone and pull it out. If all has been cooked properly, the bone should pull out clean without any meat attached. Now you can begin to pull apart the pork butt. Keep pulling until you have fine slivers of meat or the desired texture you are looking for. Once you have pulled everything apart, it is recommended to place it in a crockpot to keep warm. We also like to add a thin layer of water at the bottom of the crockpot so that the meat does not dry out depending on how long it is until you serve. 

The final steps are up to you! Grab your favorite sides, rolls, drinks and dig in. Notice we did not include any BBQ sauce in this last step. Trust us when we say that you will love the Hickory Smoked Bourbon Pulled Pork as is with no additional sauces. Enjoy!