Traeger Pulled Pork

There’s nothing quite as delicious as a smoked pork shoulder hot off the Traeger. It is fall-apart tender, packed with flavor and one of the most versatile and satisfying things you can whip up on your Traeger. Cooked low and slow in the Traeger grill’s wood-fired smoke, file this recipe for Traeger pulled pork under ‘Traeger basics’ that you’ll cook over and over!

PERFECT PULLED PORK ON THE TRAEGER

There are so many tremendously delicious ways to use your Traeger grill to make amazing food for your family and friends. So many recipes are complicated, involved and of course end in delicious results. But it requires time and effort and on occasion that just won’t fly.

When we’re gearing up to feed a crowd (say, for a birthday party), one of the first things we add to the menu is pulled pork. It’s a big cut that feeds a good amount of people and doesn’t involve a lot of effort. Some scoring and seasoning, a long smoke bath and a shred at the end. You and your dinner guests will be thrilled with what’s for dinner.

WHY PULLED PORK IS SO TASTY

Pulled pork is a truly American food. Whether it’s for Carolina-style BBQ with tangy vinegary sauce, Texas-style served alongside slices of brisket or competition-style that is often found in the competitive BBQ circuit, the end result is often very similar and so dang tasty.

Pulled pork that has been smoked low-and-slow ends up with intense smoky flavor in every stringy shred of meat. The meat is moist and full of flavor, adapts really well to lots of different applications and super easy to make. The shredding process ensures that every piece of meat is doused in flavorful juices, which also preserves the moisture throughout the meat.

WHAT TYPE OF CUT TO USE FOR TRAEGER PULLED PORK

For Traeger pulled pork, you have a couple different options about what kind of meat to use. Regardless of which piece of meat you start with, you can end up with really flavorful and moist results because of the way you cook it. Below, I outline a few different pork cuts that make great Traeger pulled pork.

PORK SHOULDER VS PORK BUTT

Most commonly, pulled pork is made with pork shoulder or pork butt. The names are often used interchangeably, but there are a few distinct differences between the two.

• Pork shoulder is a triangular shaped piece of meat, often from the lower part of the pig’s leg. Pork shoulder is often sold with the skin-on (good for chicharrones, if you desire). Pork shoulder is generally a little more lean and can be a tougher cut of meat because it’s part of the pig’s leg that is used a lot.
• Pork butt comes from higher up in the pig’s leg, often including meat from the shoulder, neck and upper front leg. It’s not sold with skin attached and is a slightly fattier cut because it’s a less-exercised part of the pig. Because of that, it’s often more tender than a shoulder cut.

Personally, I prefer to make my pulled pork with the pork butt. The different parts of the animal (neck, leg and shoulder) makes for more varied texture, flavor and moisture that all blends together really well when shredded and combined.

BONE IN OR BONE OUT?

Whenever possible, I recommend making pulled pork on the Traeger with a bone-in piece of meat. This can be hard to find sometimes, because the pork butts sold at stores like Costco and Sam’s Club come bone-out. But the piece of bone in the center of the cut adds flavor. It also makes the meat cook a little more slowly (because of the mass in the center of the cut), which gives the entire roast more time to break down and be tender.

And one of my favorite parts of making pulled pork on the Traeger is the opportunity to pull the bone from the center of the roast when the cook is done. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a clean and impressive bone pull.

DON’T FORGET THE MONEY MUSCLE!

And another benefit of a bone-in pork butt is the money muscle at the end of the cook. It’s the piece of meat that is tucked inside the crook of the bone, and it’s always the most flavorful, moist and tender piece of the cut. You can certainly shred it into the meat for serving, or put it aside for your favorite diner (that might be yourself).

SEASONING FOR PULLED PORK

Both the pork shoulder and the pork butt are big cuts of meat– usually 4 pounds or more. They have significant surface area and are going to cook for a long time (see the next section). As a result, you should be generous in your seasoning before you put it on the Traeger.

Pick a seasoning that has strong flavors and a decent amount of salt. You want to coat the meat generously on all sides in order to establish a great bark on the meat. And don’t worry– when you go ahead and shred the meat, the intense seasoning on the exterior will be mixed in with the meat from the center (that doesn’t get directly seasoned) and the flavors will all balance out.

Here are some of my favorite pulled pork seasonings:

• My Smoke Junkie seasoning from Spiceology
• Traeger’s Pork and Poultry seasoning
• Meat Church’s Honey Hog seasoning

USING A BINDER FOR BETTER BARK

I definitely recommend using a binder when seasoning for pulled pork on the Traeger. Again, the large size of meat can take a lot of flavor and seasoning and I’ve found that a binder ensures the seasoning sticks and accelerates the ability to build a good bark on the meat.

Some binder ideas to consider:

• Mustard
• Hot sauce
• Mayonnaise
• BBQ sauce

SCORE YOUR MEAT

Before seasoning, I always like to score the meat quickly to give myself a little more surface area for the seasoning. Use a small sharp knife and make hash marks on the fat cap side of the meat. Then rub it with your chosen binder and season generously with the rub you select.

LET IT SWEAT

After you score and season the meat, be sure to give it at least 15 minutes on the cutting board or tray before putting it in the grill. This gives the meat the chance to sweat a bit– dissolving some of the salts and sugars in the seasoning which will soak into the meat. And the dissolved salts and sugars also start working to create a great bark, which is a key element of pulled pork success on the Traeger.

HOW LONG SHOULD PULLED PORK TAKE?

We have found that pulled pork on the Traeger is one of the few dishes we cook consistently that always takes different amounts of time. I think this mostly because each piece of pork butt or pork shoulder is different. Varying amounts of shoulder or neck meat, different sizes of bone in the center, sometimes they’re pretty cold when we put it on the grill, etc.

So when cooking pulled pork on the Traeger, we highly recommend using something like a Meater wireless thermometer to remotely monitor the cooking progress and customize the cook exactly to the piece of meat you’re cooking. By using a Meater, you get exact and and timely updates on the internal temperature AND a countdown timer that will help inform when the meat might be done.

Generally speaking, we budget at least 12 hours of smoking for a pork butt. Sometimes it takes 8 hours, and sometimes 15, but 12 seems to be about the average.

DON’T SKIP THE WRAP

It’s super important to wrap the meat part of the way through the cook to maintain a moist and flavorful end result. We like to use Traeger pink butcher paper, which looks great, is super versatile and porous enough to allow smoke to continue to meet the meat and steam to escape a bit from the wrap.

I recommend piecing two sheets of butcher paper together so you have an adequately wide piece of paper for wrapping. It’s much better to have too much paper than not enough when you’re wrapping your meat.

RESTING IS KEY TO SUCCESS

And when the Meater tells you that the pork is done cooking, be sure to give yourself at least 30 minutes (and more ideally, an hour) to let the meat rest. This gives the juices in the meat the chance to redistribute, for the carry-over cook to continue and for the meat to cool enough to handle it safely. You can leave it wrapped and covered in a kitchen towel on the counter or put the whole thing in a cooler for a longer rest. As long as you maintain a safe temperature, pulled pork can rest for up to 4 hours! I love using my Cambro insulated hot box for purposes like this!

HOW TO USE TRAEGER PULLED PORK

There are so many great ways to use pulled pork– the sky is the limit.

From a breakfast hash with potatoes and eggs to tacos in fresh tortillas and topped with guacamole, you can really use the pulled pork hot off your Traeger in any number of ways. We like to pile the meat on Kings Hawaiian slider rolls for easy party snacks, use it in sandwiches for grilled cheese or Cuban-inspired sandwiches, and we certainly make a lot of tacos, burritos and nachos in our house!

STORING LEFTOVER PULLED PORK

A little-known secret I have is that I think pulled pork from the Traeger is best and most flavorful when used as a leftover. There’s something about how the juices redistribute and the flavors intensify when you store it and then reheat the meat. I don’t say this about many foods– I’m not a big leftovers guy– but pulled pork stands apart.

To do so, use a vacuum sealer and package up smaller serving sizes in the bags. Freeze them and when you’re ready to use them, boil a pan of water deep enough to submerge the frozen meat in the bag. Add the frozen meat to the boiling water (still in the bag) and simmer for about 20 minutes until heated through. You won’t be disappointed!

PRIMARY INGREDIENTS

• Whole bone-in pork butt or pork shoulder
• A binder– like hot sauce, mustard or mayonnaise
• Seasoning– like my Smoke Junkie seasoning from Spiceology

WHY COOKING PULLED PORK ON THE TRAEGER WORKS 

Pulled pork on the Traeger is a fail-proof and delicious standard BBQ dish. It’s flavorful, adaptable, easy to cook and affordable. With a small amount of time and effort (and a lot of unmonitored smoking), you will end up with a really delicious pan of tender pulled pork that is perfect for all meals– breakfast to dinner.

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STEP-BY-STEP

• Defrost your pork shoulder or butt.
• Preheat your Traeger grill to 225*.
• While the grill heats, prepare the pork.
• Unwrap it and pat it dry with a paper towel.
• Using a sharp knife, score the surface of the pork (on the fat cap side) in a hash-mark.
• Rub the meat all over with the binder you’ve chosen.
• Then season the meat on all sides generously with your selected rub.
• Allow the meat to sweat for at least 15 minutes.
• Add a wireless thermometer to the meat and set it for pulled pork.
• Place the meat in the Traeger grill and cook for 4 or so hours.
• You want the internal temperature to reach 165* and the bark to be well-developed.
• When it reaches 165*, wrap the meat in butcher paper and place it in an aluminum pan back in the grill.
• Continue to cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 200-204*.
• You want a thermometer probe to slide into the meat with ease, like soft butter.
• Remove the pan from the grill and allow the meat to rest for at least 30 minutes.
• Using gloves, pull the meat into shreds and remove the bone.
• Toss the meat with the juices in the pan and serve your pulled pork hot.

ALTERNATE RECIPES/PRODUCT LINKS

Here are some pork recipes to try, too:

• Marinated Pork Loin
• Tangerine pork tenderloin
• Smoked country ribs
• Shredded pork belly

Products used in this cook:

• Traeger Timberline XL
• My Spiceology Smoke Junkie Seasoning

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