Smoked Pork Shoulder - LGCM Dev

Smoked Pork Shoulder

Smoking a pork shoulder (aka a Pork Butt!) at home is an all day affair that pays off with some of the most delicious BBQ pulled pork you’ll ever have! While this recipe takes a long time to cook, preparation is simple and only a few ingredients are needed. When you are selecting a pork shoulder to smoke, you have several choices. We are using a boneless shoulder roast for demonstration because it’s easier to pull, but for larger sizes you can also use a bone in pork shoulder. The pork will shrink about 30% while smoking, and we recommend selecting a shoulder with a finished weight after shrinking of about 1/3# per person being served. So, for 10 people, you’d want a 3.33# finished weight roast, plus the 33% shrink would mean you want to start with a 5# roast. To get the starting weight, just divide the desired end weight by .7. Do you have any questions or tips to share? Post them in the comments below!

Smoked Pork Shoulder

Smoking a pork shoulder (aka a Pork Butt!) at home is an all day affair that pays off with some of the most delicious BBQ pulled pork you’ll ever have! While this recipe takes a long time to cook, preparation is simple and only a few ingredients a...

Author
Lake Geneva Country Meats
Prep Time
20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 LGCM Boneless Pork Shoulder Roast (bone-in works too – just remove bone after smoking)
  • Yellow Mustard
  • Custom Culinary Pork BBQ Spice (or similar BBQ seasoning)
  • BBQ Sauce

Directions

  1. We trim the shoulders up for you and net them so that they stick together while smoking and you don’t have to trim any excess fat. If you purchase whole, untrimmed shoulders, trim off excess fat (you don’t want much more than 1/8″-1/4″ of fat on the outside) and tie the roast together with butcher’s twine.
  2. Rub the outside of the pork shoulder with a thin layer of mustard. This will help the seasoning and smoke adhere to the meat, it doesn’t change the flavor. Generously season the outside of the meat with the Pork BBQ Spice and rub into the meat.
  3. Preheat your smoker to 250°F and set it up for indirect heat with smoke. We used hickory chunks on our Big Green Egg.
  4. Place your pork shoulder in your smoker and cook at 250°F for 10-12 hours until the internal temperature of the meat is 200-205ºF. Add charcoal or smoke chips as necessary and make sure the smoker stays at 250°. The Big Green Egg does a great job of maintaining heat without needing extra charcoal during the whole cook!
  5. Once the meat reaches 200-205°F, remove from the cooker and let cool. Once the meat is cool enough to touch, remove the netting and start shredding the meat with two forks. After shredding, stir in BBQ sauce to your taste preference and make sandwiches. Enjoy!
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