Hot & Fast Pulled Pork

Pulled pork is usually the kind of cook that asks you to clear your calendar, start the smoker before breakfast, and accept that dinner happens whenever the pork decides it happens.

This recipe has other plans.

Cooking a pork butt at 325°F cuts several hours off the traditional low-and-slow process while still giving you plenty of bark, tender meat, and all the juicy pulled pork goodness you're after.

We start with a spicy brown mustard binder and a heavy coating of Rub Yer Meat BBQ Rub. After a few hours on the smoker building color and bark, the pork goes into a pan with apple juice and a little teriyaki sauce before being covered and cooked until tender.

The whole cook took us about 5½ hours, which means you can make legitimate smoked pulled pork without setting an alarm for some deeply unreasonable hour of the morning.

Why Cook Pulled Pork Hot & Fast?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with cooking a pork butt at 225°F or 250°F all day. Low and slow works.

But pork butt is also one of the most forgiving pieces of meat you can put on a smoker, which makes it a great candidate for turning up the heat.

At 325°F, you still have enough time on the smoker to develop a good bark and pick up smoke flavor, but you move through the cook considerably faster.

Once the bark is where you want it and the pork hits around 160°F internally, moving it into a covered pan helps push it through the rest of the cook while keeping plenty of moisture around the meat.

Faster pulled pork. Same pile of napkins.

Ingredients

• 1 bone-in pork butt, approximately 7 pounds
• 1/8 cup spicy brown mustard
• 1/4 cup Rub Yer Meat BBQ Rub
• 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• Hamburger buns, for serving
• Coleslaw, for serving
• Your favorite BBQ sauce, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat the Smoker

Preheat your smoker to 325°F and set it up for indirect cooking.

2. Season the Pork

Remove any loose or scraggly pieces of meat or fat from the pork butt.

Coat the entire pork butt with a thin layer of spicy brown mustard. The mustard acts as a binder and helps that seasoning hang on while the pork cooks.

Season every side generously with Rub Yer Meat BBQ Rub.

Don't get timid here. A pork butt is a big piece of meat with a lot going on underneath that bark. Give it a proper rub down.

3. Smoke the Pork

Place the seasoned pork butt directly on the smoker grates.

Cook at 325°F for approximately 3 hours, or until the outside has developed a dark, well-set bark and the internal temperature reaches roughly 160°F.

Temperature is useful here, but don't ignore what the pork looks like. You want that seasoning and bark firmly attached before moving to the next step.

4. Pan the Pork

Pour the apple juice and teriyaki sauce into a foil pan.

Place the pork butt into the pan and tightly cover the entire pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Return it to the smoker.

5. Cook Until Tender

Continue cooking at 325°F until the pork reaches approximately 203°F internally.

More importantly, check the pork for tenderness. A thermometer or probe should slide into the meat with very little resistance.

The total cook for our approximately 7-pound pork butt was around 5½ hours, but every pork butt is different. Cook to tenderness rather than trying to force the meat onto a schedule.

6. Rest

Remove the pan from the smoker and carefully uncover it.

Let the pork rest for 30 to 45 minutes before pulling.

Don't skip the rest. You just spent several hours making that pork juicy. Give it a few minutes before tearing into it.

7. Pull and Serve

Remove the bone and shred the pork, discarding any large pieces of unrendered fat.

Season the pork again with more Rub Yer Met BBQ Rub. 

Mix some of the juices from the pan back into the pulled pork for additional moisture and flavor.

Pile it onto a bun with coleslaw and your favorite BBQ sauce.

Then get out of the way.

Serving Ideas

A pulled pork sandwich with slaw and BBQ sauce is hard to beat, but there's no reason to stop there.

Use the leftovers for:

• Pulled pork nachos
• Tacos or quesadillas
• Loaded baked potatoes
• Breakfast hash
• Pulled pork mac and cheese
• Pizza
• BBQ sandwiches the next day

Basically, cook one pork butt and you've bought yourself several very good excuses to keep eating pork.

A Few Tips for Hot & Fast Pulled Pork

Don't wrap too early.
The first part of the cook is where you're building your bark. Wait until the exterior has the color and texture you want before covering the pork.

203°F is a guideline, not a finish line.
Some pork butts will be ready a little earlier and others may need to go higher. Probe tenderness tells you more than any single temperature.

Save those pan juices.
There's a lot of pork flavor sitting in the bottom of that pan. Mix some back into the meat after pulling.

Season generously.
You're seasoning the outside of a seven-pound chunk of pork. This is not the moment for a delicate sprinkle of Rub Yer Meat.

Hot & Fast Doesn't Mean Cutting Corners

Traditional pulled pork will always have a place in BBQ. Sometimes spending most of a day tending a smoker is exactly what you signed up for.

But sometimes you've got people coming over and didn't feel like waking up with the roosters.

Cooking at 325°F gives you another option.

You still get smoke. You still get bark. You still get tender pork that pulls apart in your hands.

You just get to eat it a whole lot sooner.

And we're generally in favor of anything that reduces the distance between Rub Yer Meat and dinner.