Get the recipe on the website for PULLED PORK
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Smoking meat (or other foods) essentially is to allow the smoke to permeate into the meat and thus cook it. That is why you want to go and low and slow on the heat part of it.
You don't need a fancy contraption to do this, in fact you can do this on a REGULAR charcoal grill to get that smokey flavor. The trick is to surround the meat with the coals and cook indirect (where the meat is not setting on top of the coals, but removed from direct contact)
You can add wood chips to your coals as well. The whole point here is to make sure that your heavy duty disposable tin will not only FIT inside your grill (remove grill grates) but that there will also be enough room to get coals to circle it. You will need 2 of these heavy duty pans, one to put the meat in, and the other to cover it, allowing just a pinch of it to get some of that smoke inside.
INGREDIENTS:
3-6 lb Pork Should or Butt (preferably with bone in)
Salt and Pepper
1/4 to 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 liter (2-3 cans) Dr Pepper (NOT Diet!!)
NOTE: Only use a Pork Shoulder or Pork Butt. DO NOT use a Pork Tenderloin. Why you may ask? Because in the Shoulder/Butt there is marbled fat, that helps to cook and moisten up the tendons. You don't get that in a trimmed Pork Loin. STICK WITH WHAT WORKS -- Pork Shoulder or Pork Butt.
A lot of times these are HUGE. I always ask the butcher to cut it into half, giving me two 3-6 lbs of meat. I smoke one, freeze the other for a later time. So before I even purchase it, I make sure that there is someone who can cut this in half for me. It fits better in the grill as well, and doesn't take FOREVER to cook.
DIRECTIONS:
Use only a HEAVY DUTY disposable pan. You need the strength of this so it's not flimsy with all the weight. You will be removing the pan with the meat and liquid in it a few times while smoking on the charcoal grill...so you do need a heavy duty disposable tin.
Salt and Pepper all sides of the meat. In the pan, mix some Dr Pepper with the Brown Sugar. Put the meat in the pan, add Dr Pepper till it reaches about half way up. Save the rest of the Dr Pepper as you may need it later.
Put the empty pan (what will be the lid) in the center of the grill, put charcoal around it (about 2 inches deep). You will NOT need the grill grate, so set aside. Add the fluid. Remove the lid, replace with meat/Dr Pepper mixture. Light the coals.
When the flame dies down, put the other pan as a lid to cover it, leaving it somewhat open to receive the smoke. Cover with the grill lid as well.
VENTS:
If you have a smoke stack, have it wide open to start. If not, open the top vent all the way on your grill lid.Initially you're going to need oxygen to hit those coals in the beginning so have your side or bottom vents almost all the way open. As the coals heat up, you can somewhat close all the vents so most of the smoke from the charcoals is swirling about inside your closed grill but you're still getting oxygen inside for the coals. You want this smoke.
What you DON'T want is the internal temperature of your grill go go over 270*F. Try to aim for a steady temp of 220 or so.
If you notice that your temperature is climbing too high, with oven mits, carefully remove the pan, and let the coals burn down a bit.
It's important that you check the temperature AND the condition of your coals every 15 minutes or so. After about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, remove the pan and carefully flip the meat over to the other side. Add more Dr Pepper if the liquid is dissipating; you want the Dr Pepper to basically always be half way up the meat. At this point let the coals burn down if they are almost kapoot, then add some more coals and fluid, replace meat pan and relight it.
A 3lb Shoulder/Butt will cook faster than a 6 lb...essentially it will take anywhere from 4-6 hours. At some point you will have to add more coals. Remove meat, let the existing coals turn to ashes, add more coals, then more fluid and replace the meat. Light the coals up again before covering and repeating this whole process.
The whole point is to always have at least the bare minimum of charcoal and the most smoke. You keep this smoke INSIDE the covered grill to swirl around and do it's magic.
You'll know that the meat is done as it will have shrunk by about 1/3rd, and you can "pull" the meat away in strands very easily. Let the meat rest for about 20 minutes, remove to cutting board or platter and with forks, begin to "pull" the meat away.
Now if you're going to be making POZOLE (a pork and hominy type of soup), save a good portion of the pulled Pork and set aside.
You can discard the bone and any large pieces of fat, as well as the Dr Pepper liquid.
Put the pulled Pork into the lid of the pan, mix in some BBQ sauce. Replace grill grates close to the charcoal, and reheat the pulled BBQ Pork till hot.
Serve in buns.
You can make a bunch of these and wrap tightly up in waxed paper, and refrigerate, then microwave for a minute or so IN the waxed paper and serve hot.
THE OVEN METHOD:
Salt and Pepper all sides of the meat, mix some Dr Pepper in with Brown Sugar, put the meat in a ROASTING pan that has a lid (you can wrap tin foil around the pan if you don't have a lid). Add Dr Pepper till it's half way up and bake 240 or 270*F for 4-6 hours; flipping it over half way through the cooking process adding more Dr Pepper if needed.
It's a quick recipe to put together, it's the low and slow and length of time that it takes to cook that makes it SPECTACULAR!!
Get the recipe on the website for PULLED PORK
