Daniel's Pulled Pork

Another Saturday night dinner has come and gone and even though Daniel was in charge of the pulled pork I still had to come up with a couple of side dishes. Fortunately for me my lovely MIL once again brought some of the family favorites. One of which is her fruit salad that is just awesome. Someday I will get the recipe from her and share it with everyone if she permits. Until then you will have to get by with Daniel's pulled pork recipe. Let us begin!

Ingredients:
Pork Shoulder Butt
Yellow Mustard
Rub of your choice (Daniel uses Mudflap Jones Seasoning)
Apple Juice
BBQ Sauce of your choice
Plastic Wrap
Aluminum Foil
Bath Towels (You'll see why :))
Digital Thermometer
Insulated Cooler
Finishing Sauce- Recipe Listed at the bottom

Directions:
1.) About 12 hours before you begin smoking your meat trim any extra fat from your meat. Next you will slather your meat with the yellow mustard. Be generous! You will end this step by generously sprinkling your dry rub on all sides of the meat.2.) Wrap your meat in the plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until you are ready for the smoking process.
3.) Start your smoker and get the temperature up to 225-240 degrees F. Daniel uses hickory chips in his smoker. Unwrap your meat and place into your smoker, fat side down. Once your meat has hit 100 degrees F, begin spraying it with your apple juice every hour. The sugars in the apple juice will caramelize and form the bark.
4.) Once your meat has reached 165 degrees F, you will need to double wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil. Spray the foil with some of your apple juice to help braise the meat while it is wrapped. Place your wrapped meat back into the smoker and continue cooking until the temperature has reached between 195-205 degrees F.
5.) Once your meat has reached the appropriate temperature take your meat off of the smoker, wrap it in several old bath towels and place it in an insulated cooler to allow it to rest and finish cooking for at least one hour. Daniel put our meat on at 11 o'clock last night and it came off at 12:30 this afternoon. Some meats cook quicker than others depending on the weather conditions outside. Just keep an eye on it and rely on your thermometer. 6.)With two forks begin pulling your meat. Daniel has rubber gloves that he uses when he is rubbing down the meat and he also uses them to pull the meat with his hands. Please be careful if you plan on pulling it apart with your hands because the meat is very hot. Daniel took our pork off of the smoker several hours before he pulled it and it was still steaming when he unwrapped it.7.) After you have finished pulling it you will use a finishing sauce. The recipe is listed below.

1 C. Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
1 Tsp. Cajun Seasoning
1 Tsp. Course Black Pepper
1 Tsp. Red Pepper Flakes

1.) On the stove warm up your apple cider vinegar, you want it warm enough to melt the sugar.
2.) Add the remaining ingredients to the warmed vinegar. Daniel stores his in a cheap clear bottle that you can find at Wal-Mart.
3.) Drizzle your finishing sauce on your pulled pork and mix well.

We usually have a selection of BBQ sauces for our guests. Some people like theirs hot like Daniel, others like it nice and mild like myself. We use regular white hamburger buns and tonight I splurged and we also had whole wheat buns, tried to be a little healthy.
For the sides I relied on one of my favorite sites, allrecipes.com. I chose to make coleslaw and cheesy potatoes. The potatoes were supposed to go in the crock pot but they just weren't cooking quick enough so I transferred them to a baking dish and stuck them in the oven for an hour at 375 degrees F. They probably could have stayed in a little longer, but someones Husband (Daniel) was starving so I had to go ahead and serve them up. I also did not use the butter in the dish because I felt it didn't need it. I did add a couple of cubes of Velveeta cheese to make it cheesier and creamier, this is part of why I did not use the butter. As far as the coleslaw goes it was really good, I omitted the poppy seeds because I didn't have any, and I have never had coleslaw with them in it. I sprinkled the top of the coleslaw with paprika for a bit of color and also because that's how my Grandma Murphy always did it. I didn't take pictures of any of these dishes because about the second they were pulled out of the refrigerator/oven the plates started flying and people began lining up. Didn't leave me much time to take pretty pictures. It helps to know that I am sure everyone reading this knows what coleslaw looks like and can pretty much imagine what the potatoes look like.

This pulled pork is by far the best I have ever eaten. It is so good, that my Dad who got back from a week long trip to Florida couldn't resist getting back into his truck after a long days worth of driving to get his pulled pork. Daniel swears by the finishing sauce as do all of his BBQ forum buddies. Do not be scared of the red pepper flakes in it as they do not add any heat to it. If you do not have a smoker, this pork is all the reason you need to buy one. Daniel bought his last Christmas for less than $100 and he uses it for everything. After he was finished with the meat today he made Atomic Buffalo Turds, the recipe will come tomorrow, but I will leave everyone guessing tonight what they could possibly be. Until then I bid you farewell!!