How to Smoke a Pork Butt / Shoulder

In this instructable, I'll show you my method for smoking a pork butt / shoulder. This method is extremely simple and makes smoked pork just the way I like it: soft on the inside with a crusty, well-flavored bark on the outside.

Best of all, this is truly a recipe where you do the prep work and walk away. No fussing with it! No spraying, no basting, no wrapping in aluminum halfway through, no pans with water on the smoker to cause accidents. Just a piece of meat, some dry rub, some yellow mustard, a probe thermometer and a smoker.

Don't have a smoker but want to give this a try? Check out my instructable and learn how to make perfect pulled pork in the oven.

Keep reading and I'll share all my tips and tricks for amazing smoked pulled pork.

P.S. Want to try making homemade BBQ sauce? I've got recipes for that too:

• Mustard BBQ Sauce
• BBQ Sauce

Here’s everything you’ll need!

• A bone-in pork butt / shoulder, 3 pounds minimum. (Depending on where you're located, it will be labeled "butt" or "shoulder" - they're both the same. I'm using a smaller roast cut from a whole pork butt here.)
• Dry rub (Buy it or make it! Here's my recipe.)
• Yellow mustard
• Aluminum foil
• Kitchen towel (One that you won't mind getting stained)
• Smoker set to 225 F + wood pellets/chips
• Probe thermometer
• Time. Most estimates say to allow for 2 hours of cook time per pound. An 8 pound pork butt may take 16 hours to cook or even longer, depending on environmental factors.

And that’s it! It’s very simple.

Regarding the cook temp, you can really choose any temperature from 225-275 F.

Clean the grate and drip tray thoroughly. You’re about to be running your smoker for several hours, so you don’t want leftover food and fat burning the whole time. :)

Make sure your drip bucket (or whatever container you use!) is empty and ready to accept lots or pork fat.

Once it’s all cleaned and prepped, preheat the smoker to 225 degrees F.

A warning about smoker placement:

If the wind is blowing badly and your smoker is in its path it will increase your cook time. I live at 8500 feet and have no wind break on the porch where I use my smoker. The temperature would drop to the high 190s F and then go up to 250-260 F as the smoker tried to correct it. The more wind a smoker is in, the more the temperature will fluctuate, meaning smoking might take longer. This tiny piece of meat took me 11 hours thanks to the terrible weather (wind and rain!) on the day I documented. 🙈

Unwrap your pork butt and dry it off with paper towels.

Trim the Fat Cap

Depending on the size of your pork butt, you might have a big ol fat cap on it! If it's absolutely covered in fat, I recommend trimming some of it away so that the dry rub can penetrate the meat. Make sure you leave a decent amount of it, though. That fat is going to help keep the meat nice and juicy. (I have a more in depth discussion of fat caps + photos in this instructable on Step 2.)

This tiny cut of the butt didn't need to be trimmed so we're blazing right past that!

Apply Yellow Mustard

Yellow mustard makes a nice tangy base for dry rubs to stick to! Squirt it on the pork and rub it in all over.

Apply the Dry Rub

You'll need 1/4 cup to 1 cup of dry rub, depending on the size of your pork butt. Pour it over and pat it on. Make sure every piece of the meat is covered!

Woohoo! And now we're ready to get smoking.

Once your smoker has reached 225 F, you can place the pork inside.

Center the pork on the smoker, fat side up.

Insert the probe for the thermometer into the center of the thickest part of the pork butt, being sure to avoid any bones. (If you place it next to or touching the bone, it will give you readings from the bone. The bone increases in temperature very rapidly compared to the meat. Don't want that!)

Set the desired temperature on the probe thermometer and turn on the alarm if it has one. 190-200 F is the temperature we're shooting for so we know the pork will be perfectly cooked and pull-able after resting.

(I set mine for 202 F for reasons I am unsure of. 😂 I'm actually going to wind up pulling this off the smoker at 198 F)

And now it's time to wait!

Try to avoid opening the smoker, the more you open it the more it has to fight to keep the temperature regulated. (I checked it every few hours only because I was worried about the terrible weather we were having and how it was affecting the cook. Also I needed pictures.)

Here are some details about my cook time:

• The meat: 2.65 pounds, bone-in cut of a pork butt
• Put in smoker at 9:00 am @ 225 degrees
• Got stuck in the 150s for a couple hours around lunch
• 3:40pm: 171 degrees F
• 8:10pm: hit 198 degrees F!
• Used 1 1/2 hoppers of wood pellets
• About 11 hours of smoking time

Typically, the temperature will climb quickly at first and then come to a complete standstill for a while. You might be tempted to play with the temperature, but don't! Let the pork butt do its thing.

The time has come and your pork butt has reached the magic 190-200 F range! Now we need to let it rest. Resting allows the proteins to relax and reabsorb some of the liquid that was displaced while cooking.

Wrap the pork butt in two layers of aluminum foil. Then wrap it in a kitchen towel (might want to use an old ugly one, just in case!) and let it hang out on a cutting board.

Let your pork butt rest for at least 30 minutes, or an hour if you're able!

Once the pork has rested it's ready to be shredded! We ate it as pulled pork sandwiches, in mac & cheese, and on top of rice and veggies bowls. It's great in all sorts of quick meals.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! Please share a photo if you make it. :D

Curious about reheating? Here's how I handle it (excerpt from my pulled pork recipe):

For the best presentation (and to keep the meat the most moist, in my opinion) it's best to store the pork butt whole in the fridge, wrapped in aluminum foil. Then put it in a roasting pan (still wrapped in the foil) in a 300-350 F oven until it reaches 150 F+ internal temp. I just pop the probe in it and let it go.

I brought a pork butt and a half into the Instructables office to feed everyone, and reheated them that way. I let them get to 170 F because I wanted to make sure the fat and connective tissues got nice and soft again. :D

If you do shred the pork, it's always best to go with a low and slow approach in reheating it. Either spritz it with a little water and cover it in aluminum foil and pop it into a low oven, or microwave at 20-30% power in the microwave until warm. You can also store the pork in a little barbecue sauce or pan drippings to help it out.