Wood Pellet Smoker Pulled Pork Recipe

My Simple Smoked Pulled Pork Butt (AKA Smoked Pork Shoulder) is a go-to any time I am looking to feed a hungry crowd and don’t want too much fuss. With only 3 ingredients, you’re looking at some good, classic BBQ with plenty of flavor.

This process for smoked pulled pork is a delicious way to cook pork butt. It’s a relatively easy process that requires a bit of time, some simple ingredients, and a trusty smoker.

This post is the perfect guide for your first pulled pork. Make sure to read it to the end (lots of good info here) as well as scroll below to the printable recipe card to take in all the pork knowledge so you’ll be fully ready to take on this delicious beast.

Smoked Pulled Pork Shoulder

The reason I call this smoked pulled pork butt “simple” is because of how little effort it takes. This recipe doesn’t require any fancy injections, tools, spritzing concoctions, or wrapping to have it come out absolutely perfect every. single. time. All you need to make this recipe a success is a good pork shoulder, my famous homemade sweet BBQ rub, good smoke, and plenty of time.

Most smoked pork butt recipes call for a bone-in pork shoulder, sometimes also labeled a Boston butt roast or a pork butt. All of these labels are for the exact same cut of pork.

None of them actually come from the butt end of the pig (which can definitely be confusing), but from the upper part of the shoulder. The pork butt, or pork shoulder, has many overlapping and hard working muscle groups that are bound together with tight connective tissue.

Smoked Pork Butt (smoked Pork Shoulder)

That tight tissue makes this cut particularly well suited for smoking. It would be very difficult to simply slice and serve a pork shoulder roast that wasn’t cooked low and slow to break down those tight muscles and connective fibers. You’d end up chewing for a long time and not getting anywhere.

By using the low and slow process of cooking the meat over a wood fire for a long time, those tissues begins to break down, tenderize, and create amazing strands of super succulent smoked pork shoulder.

This simple smoked pulled pork shoulder is made using old school BBQ techniques and flavors to give you super authentic and extra tasty pulled pork. Here’s how to do it:

How To Cook A Boston Butt On A Traeger Pellet Grill

With your smoker running steady at 225 degrees F, you can typically plan about 2 hours of cook time per pound of pork.

For example, an 8-pound pork shoulder will take about 16 hours from start to finish. Quick note! Every cut of meat is a little bit different, so plan ahead for variations in cook time! I’ve had some 8-pound smoked pork butts finish in 12 hours and some 10-pound smoked pork butts take 20 hours to finish.

I recommend a good instant read probe thermometer to keep track of the internal temperature of the meat, and for this one reason. You’ll notice a pattern emerge as you start to smoke pork butts more frequently. Your meat rises in temperature up to about 145 degrees F pretty quickly, then the cooking process will slow dramatically and take hours to increase in temperature from 145 degrees F to 165 degrees F. This phase is called the “Stall” and is completely normal. Don’t panic, just let everything keep cooking and eventually the temperature will start to rise again.

Extreme Smoked Pulled Pork Recipe

A lot of pitmasters choose to wrap their smoked pork butt in foil or butcher paper at this point to help shorten the process and push their meat through this stall period (you can see how I utilize this technique HERE). For this simple smoked pork butt recipe, I did not wrap at all.

Instead, I let the smoke continue to work on the pork shoulder and it helped to develop a really amazing exterior crust on the outside of the meat called “bark.” For those not familiar with the world of BBQ, this outer coating may appear burned, but to those in the know, that dark caramelized bark is absolutely coveted!

If you’re like me, you often have a hankering for pulled pork when you only have your small family to feed. If you find yourself in this predicament, simply freeze the leftovers!

Smoked Pork Shoulder (w/ Apple Spritz!)

Ready to reheat that pork you have ready in the freezer? Here are some ways to get your pork tasting just as good as the day it came off the smoker.

Hooray! You’ve mastered this simple pulled pork recipe! Ready to get a little fancy and try some other flavors and techniques? Try my other tasty recipes below! Each one is unique and simply bursting with flavor.

This simple smoked pulled pork recipe only requires a few pantry ingredients and a smoker to achieve those melt-in-your-mouth strands of tender pulled pork.

How To Make Smoked Pulled Pork

Calories: 257 kcal | Carbohydrates: 1 g | Protein: 34 g | Fat: 12 g | Saturated Fat: 4 g | Cholesterol: 116 mg | Sodium: 153 mg | Potassium: 592 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 1 g | Vitamin A: 12 IU | Vitamin C: 1 mg | Calcium: 25 mg | Iron: 2 mg

**This post was originally published in September 2017. We recently updated it with more information and helpful tips. The recipe remains the same.

Susie Bulloch founded Hey Grill Hey in 2015 with one desire: To help people make better BBQ. To date she has created over 550 recipes that millions of people cook every month, making Hey Grill Hey a name synonymous with amazing BBQ. Susie and her husband Todd run a family business that includes a line of signature BBQ rubs, sauces, and gadgets.

Low And Slow Pulled Pork (smoked Pork Shoulder) Recipe

The Grill Squad is our exclusive membership program that will transform bland cookouts into booming barbecues that you'll remember for a lifetime. The technique and skills you learn will bring your backyard cookouts to a new level. For the cost of a full brisket, you'll get annual access to an exclusive BBQ community, Pitmaster Classes, discounts, and much much more!Smoked Pork Shoulder is a classic summertime BBQ recipe. Come check out my tried and true method for making Traeger Smoked Pulled Pork along with my 10 pro tips for the best smoked pork.

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We get a few warm days and then it is back to cold and rain. I’m currently wearing long pants and long sleeves and kind of wish the heater was turned on but it just feels wrong to do that in JUNE.

Pit Boss Pulled Pork

Earlier this week we had a few nice days, so I made our first Smoked Pulled Pork of the season (not our first time making it, but I haven’t ever posted a recipe here before).

I am so glad we bought our Traeger 3 years ago because it has been so fun to be able to cook all my favorite Texas BBQ food at home!

“I love this recipe! We’ve tried a couple others and the pork seems a little dry. This recipe is fool proof and comes out with a nice bark and OMG the moistness!”

How To Smoke A Pork Butt For Pulled Pork

Before you begin preparing your smoked pork shoulder on a Traeger, you’ll need to make sure you have some of the required equipment. If you aren’t new to smoking, you probably already have these items.

The basic steps to preparing smoked pulled pork are: trim, brine, score, rub, and smoke. I’ll break down the smoking process we use.

The above is simply a quick summary of this recipe. Check out the free printable card at the bottom of this post for all the detailed instructions.

Delicious Smoked Pork Butt (smoked Pork Shoulder)

In our house we have a running joke where we frequently say things like “hey, pro tip here…” when we’re giving one of the kids advice or something.

I thought I’d give you some of MY “pro tips” to make the best smoked pulled pork. Here’s a quick overview of the tips I’m sharing in the post.

Removing large chunks of fat before the meat cooks will allow more surface area for the smoke to penetrate the meat. Smoke does not pass through fat very effectively.

Traeger Pulled Pork

If you want a lot of smoke flavor, make sure you’ve trimmed away anything thicker than 1/2-3/4 of an inch from the exterior.

When thinking about making a really great pulled pork, one of the easiest things you can do to get great meat is to brine your meat before cooking it.

Score the top and bottom of your pork butt with a tic-tac-toe pattern (3-4 lines by 3-4 lines) before adding the rub.

Smoked Pork Shoulder

You’re exposing even more surface area which allows more meat to be covered with the rub, and more space for the smoke to pass through.

Adding a rub to the exterior of your meat will give great flavor and help you develop that awesome classic BBQ bark.

Bark on the exterior of the meat will give attractive color, texture, and great taste when you’ve pulled the pork. Try my recipe for Homemade Southwestern Pork Rub.

Smoked Pork Shoulder (pork Butt) Recipe

My pork rub features a mix of brown sugar, garlic powder, oregano, chili powder, cumin, black