#header-inner {background-position: center !important; width: 100% !important;}

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Smoked Pulled Pork with Tangy BBQ Sauce

pulled pork
 Can I gush about Ryan for a little bit today? I’ll be brief, I promise, but it’s his birthday and it’s well deserved. I married up. As in all marriages, there are plenty of his quirks that I could gripe about (as he could about me!), but those pale in comparison to his constant acts of selflessness.
Pin Itpulled pork
Take this pulled pork. We’d been talking about using our smoker again, ever since the ribs were such a huge success. With my friends coming to town, it was the perfect excuse to smoke a giant piece of meat! Ryan took complete control of this recipe, from start to finish. The night before he prepared the rub, making an extra trip to the store for ingredients. He woke up at 7 am on a Saturday to get the pork in the smoker (and then spent the day staining the back porch railing, I might add!). He made BBQ from scratch, even after I assured him our store-bought stuff would be just fine. He pulled all 7.5 pounds of the pork, trimming away any excess fat. AND he scrubbed the smoker before putting it away that night, ensuring we wouldn’t return to a sticky mess the next time we pulled it out.

His efforts were much appreciated, as was evidenced by the insane amount of pork the eight of us polished off for dinner that night. Although the photograph shows the pork on buns, we soon discovered it was best sans any bread, which distracted from the wonderfully smoky meat and the tangy BBQ sauce. The spice rub and sauce recipes came from ExtraordinaryBBQ, my go to blog for anything BBQ-related. It’s no surprise they’re blowing the socks off of judges in BBQ competitions—this was some of the best BBQ we’d ever had!
Happy Birthday Ryan, my hard-working, servant-hearted dream of a husband!

One Year Ago: A Very Special Birthday
Two Years Ago: Snickerdoodle Scones
Three Years Ago: Chicken, Mushroom, Asparagus Bread Pudding

Smoked Pulled Pork with Tangy BBQ Sauce
from Extraordinary BBQ

Ingredients:
-7 1/2 lb pork butt
-1 cup all purpose rub (see below)

for all purpose rub
-1/2 cup paprika
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup white sugar
-1/4 cup granulated garlic
-2 tbsp onion powder
-2 tbsp sea (or kosher) salt
-1 tbsp black pepper
-1 tbsp chili powder
-1 tbsp oregano
-2 tsp cayenne

for the sauce
-1 cup ketchup
-2/3 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup beer
-1/2 cup cola
-1/3 cup molasses
-6 oz tomato paste
-3 tbsp mustard
-3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
-1 tbsp sea salt
-1 tbsp dried mustard
-1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
-1 tbsp garlic powder
-1 tbsp onion powder
-2 tsp dried ground thyme
-1 tsp black pepper
-1 tsp paprika
-1/2 tsp cayenne

Directions:
1. To make the rub, mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Trim excess fat from pork. Liberally add the rub to all sides of the pork.
2. Smoked at 225 with apple chips for 5 hours (add more rub after an hour). Wrap pork butt in foil and return to smoker until internal temperature reaches 195-200F. (approximately 9 hours total)
3. Allow to rest for one hour before pulling.
4. To make the sauce, add all ingredients to a medium-sized pot with burner on low. Whisk and turn heat up to high. Bring mixture to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Leftovers can be stored covered in the fridge.
5. Serve pulled pork with sauce, on buns if desired.