Real pulled pork takes a long time. That's what makes it good. I suppose you could save time: dice up some pork loin and pour on liquid smoke after you pressure cook it. You could also buy a Honda, slap a stripe on it and call it a race car. But its not. And it never will be.This is how we made out pulled pork.....
Pork Shoulder
- 7 pounds pork shoulder
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 quart water
- 3 dried pasilla chilies
- 3 dried guajillo chilies
- 3 dried chipotle chilies
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Put the pork shoulder in a brine of the quart of water, sugar, salt and two bay leaves for 24 hours.
During this time create the rub for the shoulder. Take the Pasilla, Chipotle, and Guajillo chilies and grind up in spice grinder. You should be able to find these chilies at any local Spanish market.
After grinding them add the cumin, cayenne, and black pepper to the mixture. You will use this to rub down the whole pork shoulder before cooking.
After 24 hours of brining the pork shoulder take it out and pat it dry. Take the rub and be sure to smear it all over the shoulder. The more rub the more flavor! Wrap the pork shoulder in butcher string to ensure that no meat falls off once this has been cooking for a while.
Put the coals on one side of the grill for indirect cooking. Keep the grill at a low heat at about 250 degrees. Put hickory chips on the hot coals. Getting the shoulder on the spit was a little difficult as it weighs 7 lbs. It took a little wire to keep the pork on the whole day. You will have to continue to put new coals on all day to keep a constant heat. Here is a collage showing the different stages of the pork shoulder throughout the day. We cooked the shoulder for about 12 hours. The last time we did pulled pork we only cooked it for 6 hours. You can imagine how much more tender the meat was this time around.
During the cooking process we used a mop sauce with tequila and citrus flavors. Mostly everything we do on this blog is originally our idea. This mop sauce was inspired by our favorite citrus tequila wings.
Tequilla Citrus Mop Sauce
- 1/2 stick butter
- 5 limes squeezed
- 1/2 grapefruit squeezed
- 1/2 teaspoon red onion powder
- 2 tablespoons tequilla
- 1/4 cup water
- cilantro to taste
Add all these ingredients together and cook on low for five minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Leave the squeezed limes in the sauce for at least two minutes for maximum citrus flavor.
Every hour mop this on the pork shoulder. This will help the shoulder to not dry out after 12 hours of cooking. Save some for later to put on the finished pulled pork.
Once the internal temperature of the pork shoulder reaches 195 take the pork off the spit and shred for the sandwiches. Top with some fresh cilantro and enjoy!!
