Sliced Pork Butt: The Faster Alternative to Pulled Pork
Don’t you mean pulled pork? No, we don’t. Sliced BBQ park needs your attention—read on to find out why!
Brisket is glorious. Hot links are a treasure. Pulled pork sandwiches are always welcome on the plate, especially next to a mound of smoky, spice-crusted ribs. But here’s the thing: by late summer, barbecue starts feeling like a greatest hits album on repeat.
That’s why we’re making the case for this sliced smoked pork shoulder. Think of it as a lesser-known cousin of pulled pork. And if you’re wondering how to cook sliced pork shoulder, it’s virtually identical: smoke it low and slow, then take it off the heat a bit earlier.
This way, the meat stays juicy but firm enough to slice without falling apart. Those slabs of pork are perfect piled onto a sandwich, still warm from the smoker or cold the next day, and love nothing more than a swipe of mustard or a handful of pickles.
With a few of our chef-trusted temperature tools, this simple tweak transforms a familiar cut and cooking method into something entirely new. If you’re a fan of pulled pork (and who isn’t?), you’ll probably fall for this sliced version just as hard.
Get the tools for this cook here:
Why Try Sliced Pork Shoulder Instead of Pulled Pork?
Pulled pork gets all the love, with good reason. Smoked past 200°F, it melts into tender shreds. But that high temperature also means a long cooking time—often 10 hours or more. And that incredibly soft texture just won’t hold together when carved.
Sliced pork butt flips the script. By smoking a deboned, rolled-and-tied roast to about 175°F (79°C), you break down enough collagen to make it tender—without losing its structure.
The result:
- Moist, smoky meat with enough bite to slice cleanly
- Ready in more than 6 hours less time than pulled pork
- Perfect hot or cold on sandwiches
Smoked Pork Shoulder, Sliced
Sliced BBQ pork is, in essence, a pork roast that you cook in the smoker, but made of pork shoulder. The main difference between this and pulled pork is temperature. There, we aim lower than usual.
- Pulled pork: Typically smoked to 203°F (95°C). By then, most of the collagen and connective tissue has turned into gelatin. This breaks down the muscle so much that it nearly collapses.
- Sliced pork: Smoked to a lower 175°F (79°C). This still renders much of the fat and softens the meat, but leaves enough structure intact to carve juicy slices that hold together. This is the one we’re using here!
Smoke® (or RFX™ Wireless) keeps an eye on the roast during cooking. Both use a leave-in probe that sends alerts to your smart device* as it gets close to your target temperature. Meanwhile, Billows®, our BBQ control fan, keeps your smoker steady with automatic airflow adjustments.
When your pork is close to done, Thermapen® ONE lets you check different parts of the meat quickly. This helps you ensure that everything cooks perfectly, so you don’t accidentally overcook it into pulled pork.
*Note: You’ll need a Smoke® Gateway to connect Smoke to Wi-Fi and get remote alerts.
How to Tie Pork Butt for Even Slices
When you debone a pork butt, you’re left with an irregular piece of meat full of flaps and thin edges. That’s not ideal for smoking—especially when you want neat slices instead of pulled strands. Tying it up solves two significant problems:
- It creates a tight, uniform shape that cooks evenly from edge to center
- It eliminates thin, exposed bits that would otherwise overcook
To tie a deboned pork shoulder, use butcher’s twine to secure the roast crosswise along its length, spacing the knots about an inch apart. Imagine wrapping a series of snug loops around the roast, like cinching up a rolled sleeping bag, to create a firm, even cylinder.
Why Inject Pork Butt Before Smoking?
Injecting is one of the best ways to keep large cuts like pork butt juicy and flavorful all the way through. It involves using a meat injector—a syringe-like tool—to push a seasoned liquid deep into the muscle. This helps the meat stay moist during long hours on the smoker and infuses it with extra flavor from the inside out.
Use your favorite BBQ injection recipe. This could be a simple mix of apple juice and spices, or something richer with broth and butter. Inject evenly across the roast so every bite benefits.
Serving Ideas: Hot and Cold Sliced BBQ Pork
Pork shoulder slices give you the rich, smoky flavor you want from pulled pork with a satisfying bite that stays together. Try them:
- On a soft roll with BBQ sauce and pickles
- Layered into a Cuban with ham and Swiss
- Served cold on white bread with a drizzle of chili sauce
slightly different mouthfeel—tender yet structured—awaits in hours less time than traditional pulled pork. For more pork sliced shoulder recipes, just treat it like that leftover Christmas ham.
Traditional pulled pork is always an adventure—waiting to see how the bark develops, how the muscle fibers soften, what the smoke is like. But if you want to mix things up a little, sliced smoked pork is one way to shake up your BBQ routine! With a lower critical temperature, measured by Smoke and verified by Thermapen®, you save time and ensure you have meat that will be tender and done correctly every time. So slice up some pork butt and enjoy!
BBQ Sliced Pork Shoulder Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pork butt Boston butt, pork shoulder, deboned
- 3 Tbsp mustard
- 6 Tbsp BBQ rub
- ½–1 C BBQ injection use your favorite
- ⅓ C apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ oz hot sauce
Instructions
- Heat your smoker to 250°F (121°C). If you're using Billows BBQ Control Fan with your RFX, now's the time to hook it up to keep your pit-temps rock steady the whole cook.
- Tie the butt at roughly 1” intervals to create a tight, uniform roast.
- Season the meat: Rub the roast all over with mustard. This acts as a binder for the rub and has little impact on the final flavor. Coat the roast in BBQ rub.
- Inject the pork butt with your favorite BBQ injection. Work it evenly into the pork, pushing moisture and flavor deep inside.
- Combine vinegar and hot sauce in a spray bottle or a bowl for later application.
- Probe the roast with your Smoke's probe, or use RFX MEAT to track the temperature wirelessly on your phone.
- Set up your Smoke 2-channel Alarm Thermometer along with Smoke Gateway or your RFX MEAT with a high alarm at 175°F (79°C) for the meat probe. For the air probe, set the high alarm to 275°F (135°C) and the low alarm to 225°F (107°C).
- Place the meat in the smoker. Smoke the pork butt for 2 hours then spritz it and apply another light coat of rub.
- Continue to smoke! When your meat alarm sounds, check the temp with your Thermapen ONE to verify. If you see any internal temperatures below 175°F (79°C), continue to cook until it is done.
- Rest, slice, and enjoy: Let the pork rest for at least 30 minutes so the juices redistribute. Then slice thickly against the grain. Or, wrap it loosely in foil and chill overnight to nail thin sliced pork shoulder. Gently reheat slices in their juices with a splash of water.
This sounds GREAT! Pulled Pork gets old…often texture leftover can be mushy and rarely want to eat much after babysitting all day. Plus Im from KC and growing up never saw pulled pork but always bbq pork sandwiches…Cant wait to try! Thanks!!!
Hayduke,
I hope you like it as much as I did! it’s a great way to change it up. Maybe yours will be as good as Arthur Bryant’s?!?
I’ve been doing sliced Pork butt on Green Mountain smoker for years… love it ! Usually serve with mashed taters an gravy along with grilled veggies. Yum !
Pedro,
Sounds great! Do you use brown or cream gravy for that?
Usually brown gravy. Normally smoke 3-4 10 lb’ers an slice for Wed eve Church suppers.
Pedro,
Good to know!
Not necessarily so. I often take the 7 bone out and tie it but not so I get slices. There are plenty of large tubes that can be sliced and of course you have the money muscle that are there even if you don’t bone and tie. But certainly bone and tie will yield more slices, but even if you pull some of the shoulder you’ll still have plenty to slice if you pull/separate by hand.
I used this great recipe as a ‘suggestion’ and did it like this:
1) Soaked pork in 2Qts of water mixed with 1/3C of Kosher salt (1 Day)
2) Rinsed pork, deboned, tied up, and rubbed with McCormicks Applewood Rub, a 1/4tsp of Cumin, and some salt (drat forgot to use the mustard!)
3) Wrapped in plastic wrap and back in fridge (1 Day)
4) Put on Rotisserie, on gas grill, and dropped a Chunk of hickory between the flavorizer bars
5) Set temp at 250, and checked it 5 hours later when it was 178F (Thanks to Mk4 Thermapen)
6) Rested 30 minutes under foil, sliced, and received the “Best Pork you have ever done!” award from family members. (Grin!)
Bill,
Sounds great!
Don’t do pork shoulders like this but been doing pork loin this way for years. Love it!
I followed these directions and smoke it on Recteq 590. After 9 hours I was getting 150 internal temp. Couldn’t wait to reach 175. Took it out and it was really good and soft. But I wonder why after 9 hours I got only 150 internal temp. What I was doing wrong?
It is possible that your pork started its stall while the innermost part was at that low temperature. It would stay there for a long, long time if that were the case. Initial temp can have an effect, too. I’m not sure of anything else, but you might want to call our customer care team and ask for one of our culinary experts who can better diagnose the problem live over the phone. They’re great and very helpful.
Hey Martin, Dave from Western Canada here. Thanks for the coaching on the pork shoulder. We seasoned it with our own favourites – Blackened Saskatchewan from Traeger and Back Eddie’s which is a northern Canada origins combo – and put it on the Traeger monitored by the Smoke with WiFi. Put it on at 250 F, got the Smoke working on the Wifi, and then went out and played golf. Checked on it once on the golf course – it was 167 F and then finished the round. Left the golf course when the meat was at 173 F, and then 20 min later it was just a little over 175. Dropped the Traeger temp to 205 and left it there for a while. Cooked some asparagus on the Traeger and my wife had made an outstanding Orzo in the oven. Rested the meat for 30 min during the asparagus cook. Bottom line the pork was incredible. And what enormous value. The 6.5 lb roast was purchased at the Calgary Costco for about $21. You can’t beat this value. Thanks for this post on the blog – very helpful. I read the learning section faithfully and I think this is the best cooking blog on food that is out there. Great combination of food science, flavour and technology. Keep up the great work.
so if it stall at 150 and u want the mark of 175 cant u use foil and wrap it up for the next 175 deg. then
If you’re stalling at 150°F, yes, you could wrap to get up to temp, but the slower process gives it time to dissolve the collagen. That dissolution is a product of time as well as temperature.
Delicious recipe and friends and family loved it!!! I would absolutely make this again and I love the detailed steps and pictures. What size of meat did you use in this recipe? I smoked a 6lb pork shoulder but after 11hrs, it only reached 165 degrees. We pulled it off the smoker as it was getting late, but it turned out amazing!
I don’t remember now what size that one was, but I suspect it was on the order of 4-5 lb.
I love this recipe
Hi do you have a printable version of this recipe? I really want to try it!
I changed the format of the recipe so there is now a print button on it! Look at the recipe card box and you’ll find a print button where there was none before.
I bought a boneless 7 lb pork shoulder do I need to soak this before seasoning and what about the fat cap just score it or trim it down a little. Thanks
No, you don’t need to soak it, and the fatcap is a personal choice. I think scoring it and keeping it is a great idea!
Sadly I don’t have a smoker (family doesn’t care for the taste) I know, Get a new family.!!
So I’ve been using a 22qt electric roaster for about 10 years.
(We all prefer sliced to pulled.)
BUT, If that’s not bad enough…..
Myself, one of my daughters, and granddaughters are Nightshade intolerant.!!!
I’ve gotten pretty good at converting BBQ recipes to;
No Nightshades and so I usually serve Sweet Baby Rays BBQ and Honey Mustard Sauce on the side.
Finally to my Question ❓❓❓
Would you be interested in taking on the challenge of tweaking this recipe to eliminate all Nightshades. ❓❓❓❓
Oh, no problem! The only nightshades here might occur in the BBQ rub, possibly the injection, and the hot sauce. To get them out of the rub, get a good quality SPOGOS (salt, popper, onion, garlic, spices) that has no paprika. If you look for a white-colored rub, you’ll be on the right track. But if you can’t find one, mix equal parts by volume kosher salt and 16-mesh black pepper, then add about 1/16th part ground cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder. That’s a rough starting point—look in any good BBQ book for a rub recipe and omit the nightshades from it for something more exact.
The same goes for the injection—find a good one in a reputable book (Cool Smoke by Tuffy Stone comes to mind) and omit nightshades. Or try something like this: 2 C apple juice, 1 C water, 3/4 C apple cider vinegar, salt until it tastes “salted” but not briney. Mix to combine and dissolve the salt.
Then there is the hot sauce in the spritz. You can just omit it! If you want something that still has some flavor and bite to it, you might consider juicing some ginger and mixing that juice with your vinegar.
I hope that helps!
This recipe has been on there sight for a while, I’ve been doing this for at least three years. I typically do two Butts on my Weber Smokey Mountain and do this on my Weber Platinum on indirect heat (low and slow). I have friends who like the sliced better, can’t blame them, it’s delicious. Glad you reintroduced this great recipe.
And I’m glad you like it!