How to Smoke Pulled Pork for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you're looking to learn how to smoke pulled pork, look no further! This step-by-step guide will teach you everything you need to know. 

Smoking pulled pork is a seriously delicious and easy-to-achieve cook that will impress all of your friends and family. 

Not only is it easy to do, but it's also a relatively inexpensive way to feed a large crowd. In this guide, we are going to provide you with all the tips on how to make sure your pulled pork comes out perfectly every time. 

Let's get started!

These are the must-have ingredients you’ll need for today’s cook:

*A pork shoulder

* Kosmos Q Honey Chipotle Killer Bee & Hot Dirty Bird or your favourite pork rub

* Apple juice (& a spritz bottle)

* Butter

* Brown Sugar

* Honey

Equipment:

* A smoker

* Aluminium foil 

Now that you have all of your ingredients, it's time to get started! 

Here’s our foolproof method for cooking incredible pulled pork: 

Prepare your pork shoulder: 

1. Trim any excess fat off of the pork. You don't need to remove all of it, but you definitely want to get rid of the hard fat that won't render down. This will help ensure that your pulled pork is moist and full of flavour.

2. Next, liberally apply the barbecue rub all over the pork shoulder. Be generous with it! Allow your pork to sit for 20 minutes to allow the rub time to penetrate the meat.

While the pork shoulder is sitting, now is the perfect time to prepare your smoker, in today’s cook we are using the Flaming Coals Gravity Feed Smoker. To prepare this unit: 

• Add a 10cm layer of Flaming Coals lump Charcoal into the chute

• Add a chunk of cherry wood into the chute
• Repeat 3 more times, this should get you halfway up the chute
• Fill the rest of the chute with lump charcoal
• Fill your water pan with boiling water
• Light the charcoal with a Flaming Coals charcoal starter wand

• Attach the Flaming Coals Tempmaster Pro for temperature control

We are using a Flaming Coals Tempmaster Pro to help regulate the temperature of the smoker throughout the cooking process. The temp master pro works by placing a temperature probe inside the smoker to measure the ambient temperature of the pit. This information is sent to a computer that activates the fan module. When the pit is too high in temp, the fan cuts off, when the pit is low, the fan activates. (it’s a little more technical than this - the computer is quite smart and cuts off before you overshoot the desired temperature). 

3. Place the pork into the Flaming Coals Gravity Feed Smoker, at 225 degrees Fahrenheit for about ten hours.

4. Every hour or so, spritz the pork shoulder with apple juice to keep it moist.

5. At the 5-hour mark we tested the internal temperature of the pork shoulder, it was probing at a consistent 150 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was time to wrap the pork shoulder. First apply a nice layer of honey, then brown sugar and finally a nice layer of butter. We are wrapping today in aluminium foil. 

6. Now get your wrapped pork shoulder back into the Flaming Coals Gravity Fed Smoker for another 5 hours (or until you believe the pork shoulder is probing like butter). We also raised the temperature of the pit from 225 Fahrenheit to 250 degrees Fahrenheit to help speed up the process. 

7. When the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees Fahrenheit and is probing like butter i.e. no resistance. It’s time to remove the pork shoulder from the smoker and put it in a hot box to rest for a minimum of 1 hour. If you don’t have a hot box, simply place it in an esky. 

8. After your pork has rested, it's time to pull it! Get a large aluminium tray and begin shredding it with your hands. Remember to use heat-resistant gloves and nitrile gloves to protect your hands - it’s going to be piping hot!

9. Once you’ve pulled your pork, it’s time to mix in your favourite barbecue sauce. In today’s cook we are using Kosmos Q Raspberry Chipotle sauce and can we just say - it's bloody phenomenal! One of the best sauces we’ve EVER tasted. 

Our favourite way to use pulled pork is on burger rolls with a nice layer of coleslaw. You can get as fancy as you like and add cheese and other toppings, but we like letting the pulled pork be the hero of this dish! 

Now that you know how to smoke pulled pork, you can impress your friends and family at your next cookout! Just gather your ingredients, follow the steps, and enjoy!  Thanks for reading.  We hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, please share it with your friends!

Check out our recipe blogs

Check out our range of Kosmos Q Rubs and Sauces

Check out our range of BBQ Smokers