Smoking a pork butt on the BBQ/Smoker
Smoking a pork butt is much more than just pulled pork. The Kitchen Bucket List signature BBQ rub and the low & slow smoke will give you smokehouse BBQ flavored pork butt conveniently located right in your backyard. Ready? ✨Prep✨Smoke✨Wrap✨Serve✨
Equipment
- BBQ or smoker
- Smoking wood (Hickory or your preference)
- Marinading BBQ tray
- Mixing Bowl
- Instant read thermometer
- Heavy duty aluminum foil (2 large pieces to wrap the pork butt)
- BBQ tongs
- BBQ spatula
Ingredients
- 10 lbs Pork Butt bone-in (Boston Butt)
BBQ Rub
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper (Freshly ground is the best.)
- 2 teaspoons smoked Paprika
- 2 teaspoons celery salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic salt
- 2 teaspoons ground mustard
- 2 teaspoons dry minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons celery seed
Instructions
Prep the Pork Butt
- Smoking a pork butt starts with unpacking and drying it with a paper towel.
- Place the pork butt on a prep surface. Set aside.
- Make the BBQ rub by combining the rub's ingredients in a mixing bowl.
- Fully coat the pork butt with the BBQ rub.NOTE: Don't be afraid to rub the pork butt🤣.
- Time to refrigerate and dry brine. Place the pork butt on a tray uncovered overnight, for 12 hours or more. I have found not covering it allows a slight crust to form. This aids in keeping the pork moist through the first part of the cook.
Time to Smoke - 10 hours
- Prepare your BBQ for indirect cooking.
- Preheat the BBQ or smoker to 250 degrees F. BBQers add your smoking wood.
- Place a drip pan under the pork butt. I filled it with water or you can use apple juice for more aromatics.NOTE: This step helps catch all the drippings. In my BBQ, I can place a drip pan under the grill grate resting on the diffuser plate with its legs up. If you don’t have room, place the drip pan on the grill grate and place the pork on a rack above it (a roasting pan is ideal).
- Once at the temperature, you are going to start smoking a pork butt. Place it on the grill grate with the fat side up. Take the pork butt directly from the fridge, I find it helps the smoke penetrate more into the meat.
- You will be smoking the pork butt with the lid closed for 5 hours (half of the estimated full smoking time).NOTE: If you are smoking a different-weight pork butt use the smoke time estimator of an hour per pound.
- At the halfway point, 5 hours, time to check how smoking a pork butt is going. I could smell the smokehouse BBQ flavors as soon as I stepped outside. It had an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. I could feel the Big Green Egg pork butt getting tender and it had a great golden bark. So, I increased the BBQ temperature to 275 degrees F. (see Notes)
- Peeking time now, every hour or as needed. I know don't peek during the low and slow, but it is ok. You need to see the color and when the crack happens. (see Notes)
- At the 7-hour peek, I could see a slight crack through the fat cap and the Big Green Egg pork butt had a dark red color. This is a great indicator that you are getting close to wrapping, the final part of the cook.
- After 8 hours of smoking a pork butt, the peek showed it had a dark red mahogany color with a deep crack in the fat cap. Prepare the aluminum foil to wrap the pork butt.
- Open the lid and check the internal temperature of the pork. It had reached 185 and 190 degrees F. on the thinner and thicker sides. Time to pull the pork butt and wrap it.NOTE: Don't be tempted not to wrap due to the intense smokehouse BBQ flavors. Wrapping is going to allow the pork butt to give you even more tender pulled pork.
Wrap & Finish
- Be careful removing the pork butt from the grill grates, it is tender like Jello. I used BBQ tongs and a BBQ spatula to move it to the foil, which was staged in two layers to prevent any leaks. Wrap the pork in the aluminum foil tightly. Place back on the BBQ and close the lid. Continue cooking at 275 degrees F.
- Wait for the pork to come up to an internal temperature of 200 to 205 degrees F. This took another 2 hours. NOTE: Getting the Big Green Egg pork butt up to around 200+ degrees is ideal for the pulled pork temperature.
- At 10 hours, the internal temperature reached 203 degrees F. I removed the wrapped Big Green Egg pork butt and placed it on a sturdy wood cutting board.
Rest & Serve
- I let the smoked pork butt rest for an hour. This is not a set time. I find that resting allows most of the juices to be reabsorbed. This will make shredding the pork easier. Also, you will have even more flavorful and tender Big Green Egg pulled pork.
- Unwrap the smoked pork butt and remove the bone. Be careful, it will still be hot.
- Shred the pork. I used two forks. If you have those cool shredding claws, you will make quick work and have pulled pork in no time.
- Serve and Enjoy, Big Green Egg pulled pork!
Notes
- Increasing the temperature during the smoke helps with the timeliness of the cook, getting through the stall, or if the meat has developed the bark I want.
- Peek. This is one of the things I like about the Big Green Egg. You can remove the top vent and peek inside. You can peek through the top dome vent, as well on the Weber. I use a flashlight for this. This was such a BBQ cook-saver in my early days before using a remote meat thermometer.
- The crack in the pork butt fat cap is a great way to tell that it is time to wrap it. So if you are at a different weight or cooking temperature this is a great way to tell that you are close to being done.
- BBQers, a tip to keep your temperature stable when opening and closing the lid. Do it quickly and when you wrap the pork butt "Don't Forget" to close the lid.
