Raised in the Kitchen is available now! Traeger pulled pork to make the best pulled pork from your own kitchen?
The key to making this Carolina pulled pork recipe is the brine. This recipe for the world’s best Carolina pulled pork all starts with a brine. Creating the Best Pulled Pork Recipe When I think of BBQ, I can’t help but think of slow and low style, the Carolina way. In order to cook the best pulled pork, it’s essential that you plan ahead and spend some time prepping and cooking that delicious meat at those lower temperatures. This helps bring out all those flavors that melt in your mouth and allows that pork to literally fall apart. This recipe may seem like a process, but here’s the deal: you really just plop the pork in the fridge to marinate, and then transfer it to the oven.
Although it takes a long time, you’re just going about your everyday life so it’s really not extra work on your part. Shout out to Guy, who gets to eat for a living! We occasionally watch his show on Netflix at night, and first of all, it makes us so hungry, but we also feel like we can totally guess when he doesn’t really enjoy something. We wish we could find out what he really thinks are the best and the worst of the places he has tried. Anyway, I got a little off topic. Here are the secrets to the world’s best Carolina pulled pork. Carolina Pulled Pork Ingredients There are three main components to this pulled pork recipe: the brine, the dry rub seasoning, and the homemade bbq sauce.
Note that you’ll be using apple cider, NOT cider vinegar, in the pork shoulder brine. But many of our readers have missed that and added pure vinegar and so we had no choice but to try it since so many of you loved the results. So we prefer the juice but hey, vinegar is fun too! Apple cider adds a little more flavor without ever tasting like apple, and all you have to do is dump it in. For the pulled pork seasoning, we like to use a blend of onion powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, kosher salt, pepper, cayenne, dry mustard, cumin, and brown sugar. Finally, the homemade bbq sauce is completely optional but our family goes crazy for it. We make our sauce with apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, brown sugar, chili powder, red pepper flakes, and salt.
Of course, you’re welcome to use a store-bought sauce, but if you’re looking for the best pulled pork recipe ever, well, you need to use homemade sauce. What’s the Best Pork for Pulled Pork? To make the best pulled pork, you’ve got to start with the best cut of meat. Most barbecue restaurants use whole pork shoulders, but they’re rarely available in grocery stores. If you find a whole shoulder, use it. Otherwise, we recommend a Boston butt, which is half of the shoulder, the other half being the picnic shoulder. How to Make Pulled Pork in the Oven This pulled pork recipe looks lengthy, but each step of this recipe is incredibly easy.
Stir together the pork shoulder brine and let the pork soak in it for 12 to 24 hours. Remove the pork from the brine and place it in a large baking dish, then pat it dry with paper towels. Rub the pulled pork seasoning all over the meat, saving just a little of the dry rub for later. With the fat facing up, bake the pork at a low temperature until it registers 200ºF at the thickest part. Turn off the oven and let the pork rest for a couple hours. Take the pork out of the oven and remove the fat from the top.
Then, shred the meat with two forks. Drain half the juices from the pork, then add the remaining dry rub and toss in the homemade bbq sauce. How Long to Cook Pulled Pork If you’re southern, you know this isn’t just a secret but practically a law in the south — LOW AND SLOW. I let it cook for over an hour and it was dry and hard as a rock! Bbq is very relaxed, just like southerners. It wants to hang out all day, and while you may think you’re overcooking it, you’re not!