Butterflied Pork Butt: A Recipe for Fast Pulled Pork
Thermal thinking comes in clutch for this pork butt. Bonus: more flavor, too!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pork butt boneless, or deboned yourself
- 2 Tbsp binder optional
- 6–8 Tbsp BBQ rub
- Apple cider vinegar for spritzing
Instructions
Prepare and dry-brine the pork
- If you are using a bone-in pork butt, debone it. In either case, butterfly the pork butt by cutting along the seam already created by the deboning, rolling the pork out as you go until the whole thing is about 1–2” thick. Trim off any stray bits that may burn in the smoker.
- If using binder, rub it into the meat all over. Season the pork butt all over with BBQ rub, keeping one hand clean to touch the bottle and using one “meaty” hand to move the pork around. Place the pork on a sheet tray on a rack and place in the fridge, uncovered, overnight.
Cook the pork
- Using Billows and RFX GATEWAY, preheat your smoker to 250°F (121°C).
- Insert RFX MEAT up to the recommended insertion line in the thickest part of the pork. Set the high-temp alarm in the app to 160°F (71°C).
- Close up the smoker and cook until the alarm sounds, checking every so often and spritzing any parts that start to dry out with apple cider vinegar. Also, check for pooling liquid on top of the pork. If a pool forms, prop the meat up using a foil ball to drain it while it cooks. This should take about 2 hours.
- When the high-temp alarm sounds, your bark should be fairly well set. Spritz the pork and wrap it in foil. Re-insert RFX MEAT through the foil up to the recommended insertion line. Put the meat back on the smoker. Reset the MEAT high-temp alarm to 203°F. Cook. This should take about another 2 hours.
- When the alarm sounds on the pork, after about 2 hours, unwrap it and put it back on the smoker for the bark to re-set and get tacky. Brush it with something sticky-sweet if you want it to look lacquered and beautiful. Cook for 1 more hour.
- Probe the meat with your Thermapen ONE. The temperature will have dropped a great deal, but check for texture as much as temperature. If it still offers a little resistance in a few places, allow it to rest, wrapped, on the counter for 15–30 minutes.
- Shred that pork! It should be very easy to pull apart and shred.
- Serve on a bun with coleslaw, some potato salad, and pickles. Or any other way you want!