Leave it to the Professionals! Crock Pot Pulled Pork

From what I hear, there is quite an art to smoking a pork butt and it can be very complicated.

Things can get pretty darn argumentative when you get a roomful of BBQ enthusiasts talking about the best way to smoke their butts.

These people are SERIOUS about their method of smoking meat.

Hours and hours and hours go into smoking this divine substance.

So I’ve made a very serious decision. I’ve decided I’ll leave smoking meat to the professionals.

This crock-pot version takes just as long as it would to smoke it, but instead of standing by a smoker for hours on end, you can sleep, shop, watch TV, or sit back and watch your neighbor rubbing his eyes, cause the smoke from HIS smoker just blew in his face.

Time-frame:
The marinating time should be 12 hours minimum and the cooking time in the crockpot is about 7 hours.

So if you want to serve this for dinner around 5-ish, start marinating the night before, wake up, put the pork in crockpot, turn it on and come back 7 hours later.

We’re gonna sprinkle some sort of BBQ dry rub all over the pork shoulder.

There are literally thousands to choose from. Just find one that has salt and sugar as the first two ingredients.

I used Jim Baldridge’s Secret Seasonings just because that’s what hubby’s cousin uses and that’s all I had in the cabinet. But to Mr. Baldridge’s defense, it’s pretty incredible.

Don’t be afraid, take the seasoning and sprinkle it all over the pork. Rub it in really good with your hands. Don’t be sparse, you’re gonna want to cover the entire pork with the seasonings.

Place the pork in a large Ziploc bag, or if the pork is too large, then wrap it really well in plastic wrap.

Once wrapped, massage the pork so the spices get all pushed in the meat. This is the dirtiest part, at least we aren’t having to stand outside with all that smoke in our eyes.

Plop your pork in the fridge to marinate for a minimum of 12 hours.

Fast forward AT LEAST 12 hours.

Hopefully you have a 5 quart oval crock-pot. That is really the best size and shape for this recipe. Pour your apple juice in the bottom of the crockpot, place pork inside, put on the cover, set on low and let the butt do it’s thing.

After about 7 hours, take off the lid. Jab your fork into the pork and it should literally fall apart. If not, then it needs to cook for longer.

When finished cooking, carefully pull pork out of the juice and lay it on a cutting board.

Try to be sure you don’t pull alot of the liquid out with the pork. We don’t want the pork to be all juicy and wet. Discard liquid after the pork has been taken from the crockpot.

Let the pork cool for a few minutes and pull off any fatty pieces. Once it’s cooled a bit, get to “pulling” that pork. You can use two forks to pull all of the pork shreds apart.

Then pile a mound of this wonderment on top of a white hamburger bun, and top with your favorite BBQ sauce.

If you are in the mood for some delicious pulled pork but don’t want to make all those “how to smoke meat” decisions, you might wanna cook your pork like this.

And leave the smoking to the professionals.