As a lover of great smoked meats, I’m always looking for ways to try new flavors. It was also a great excuse to use my marinade injector.
I love making pulled pork, because the meat is pretty idiot-proof and is usually very reasonable at the register. Typically, I apply the rub the day before, but because I used the injector, I did everything all at once.
Start with the meat, rinse it off with cold water and pat it dry with paper towels. I went to GFS and bought a set of bussing bins which I use for meat prep. They are pretty cheap and work great!
Using the marinade injector, I put about an ounce of Cherry Dr. Pepper every two inches in the roast.
I used the soda that oozed out to wet the outside of the meat to help the rub stick better. The rub I used was a St. Louis Rib rub, but you can use whatever you like.
Once the rub had set, I put the meat in a Bradley rack and got the smoker ready.
I usually put a disposable pie tin in the top of the drip pan and use that for my moisture. I used more of the Cherry Dr. Pepper to help keep the air moist in the smoker.
In keeping with the theme, I used Cherry wood in the smoker.
I started prepping at about midnight, put the meat in the smoker around 1:30am, and got up every two hours to add more wood to the smoker. After about 11 hours, the meat was at approximately 160°, so I took the roast out and wrapped in it foil. Then I put it back in for another five hours, and let it get up to about 200°-205°. That’s the magic temp for fall-apart meat.
I’m a firm believer that if the meat is done well, it doesn’t need sauce. The sauce should enhance the flavor, not BE the flavor. To me that’s the sure sign that a BBQ joint is low rent, the sauce doesn’t come on the side. I had made some Jack Daniels BBQ sauce earlier this month that we used on the pork.
It was delicious.
