BBQ Pork Butt
I’ve had the BBQ book Peace love and Barbecue for some time now and haven’t dedicated myself to its content nearly enough. Today, the 4th of July 2006, I have. There is a recipe for pork butt included in this book that has garnered so much attention and picked up a few awards around the BBQ circuit that I had to give it a try.
I am speaking of Big Bob Gibson’s championship pork shoulder recipe.
I followed the recipe to the letter, except for the fact that I used pork butt instead of shoulder, and have found the results to be fantastic. I wouldn’t usually post a recipe from a book on this site, but his method is the worse kept secret in the world of barbecue. It can be found all over the Internet and on television.
PrintBig Bob Gibson’s BBQ pork butt recipe
Ingredients
Here is The BBQ Pork Butt Recipe:
Equipment
- Smoker or BBQ that you can set up for indirect cooking
- BBQ fuel (a bag of charcoal in my case)
- A couple of handfuls of wood chunks of your choice. Hickory works well.
- An injector
- Heavy duty aluminum foil
- A thermometer
- Rubber gloves
The meat
- 1 or two 13 lb pork butts
The injection marinade
- 3/4 cup apple juice
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup kosher salt finely ground
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire
BBQ rub
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup paprika
- 1/3 cup garlic salt
- 1/3 cup kosher salt
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon oregano leaves
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
The day before your BBQ
-
Mix your ingredients: First off your going to want to get your marinade and rub prepared. I like to do it before I start working with raw pork butts. Mix all ingredients for the marinade together and refrigerate. Mix all for BBQ rub ingredients and set aside.
- Trim your meat: First, you are going to want to trim your pork butt and rid it of any excessive fat. Leave about a 1/8″ layer of fat on top. The trimming of the fat doesn’t have to be perfect and can be a little less.
- Inject the marinade into each butt as much as you can. I insert the needle at half-inch intervals slowly releasing the marinade into the flesh as it is removed. Once you’re done injecting the meat, sprinkle the rub generously over each pork butt. Be sure to cover all surfaces. Save about a 1/4 cup of rub for adding to the pork as you pull it. It helps bring out some of the flavors. Let the butts sit refrigerated for at least a few hours.
The Day of cooking
- Get your smoker ready: Be sure that your grills are clean and your ashes emptied from your previous BBQ. Light your fuel, add some wood chunks, fill your water pan (if you have one), and let your smoker get to the temperature. Adjust your smoker vents accordingly.
- Time to cook your meat: You might want to get your meat out of the fridge/cooler before putting it in the smoker. Once your cooker has gotten to temperature, and the initial smoke has subsided, add your meat to the grill. Insert your thermometers so that you can check your temperatures throughout the cook. I can take from 10-13 hours to get these butts to 195f, so be patient. You can wrap them in aluminum foil halfway through, and it will speed up the cook times. It’s also a good idea to wrap them in foil if you don’t intend to serve them right away. Wrapped twice in aluminum foil and stored in a small cooler, the butts will stay hot for a few hours.
- Serve that meat: Get them out of the smoker when the internal temperature reaches 195f and let them rest for about 15 minutes. Put on your gloves and start to shred it (pull it). It’s best to shred your pork in a deep pan or bowl. Add some of the reserved BBQ rubs to enhance the flavor and mix it in. Put some meat in a bun with a little of your favorite BBQ sauce. Add a little coleslaw if you wish and enjoy.
