Editor’s pick
Chopped Pork Shoulder
Low and slow over charcoal until it pulls apart, brown bark full of flavor, and a spicy tomato vinegar bite that has you reaching for the slaw and a sweet dessert.
Recipe to cook
Smoked & Wrapped Chopped Pork Shoulder, Lexington-Style
Same shoulder, same hickory fire, with a butcher-paper wrap once the bark has set. You give up a little crust and get back two hours and a more forgiving finish. It is how most working pits get a shoulder ready for the lunch rush.
8 hrsCook Time
250°FPit Temp
Hickory, with oak to stretch itWood
203°FTarget Internal
MediumDifficulty
Gather
Ingredients
Everything you need, whichever way you cook it.
- 8–9 lb bone-in pork shoulder (Boston butt)
- Kosher salt (for the dry brine)
- 1/4 cup yellow mustard (binder)
- 1/2 cup Smoke City Pork Rub
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp cayenne
- 1 cup apple juice (spritz)
- Sandwich rolls, for serving
Before the pit
Prep
Start this the night before — the dry brine and the smoker both reward patience.
Dry-brine the shoulder with kosher salt at least 12 hours ahead, uncovered on a rack in the fridge.
Coat it in mustard, then pack on the rub until the surface disappears.
Pull it out an hour before the cook to take the chill off.
Through the stall, on schedule
The Cook
Smoke it naked until the bark is set and the color is where you want it, then wrap and let the paper finish the job. The wrap does not make it better; it makes it predictable.
Trim and season exactly as for the Smoked cook: fat cap down to a quarter inch, loose flaps off, bone in, rub worked into every crease, and an overnight rest in the fridge if you have the time.
Run the pit at 250°F with clean, thin smoke and set the shoulder fat side up with a leave-in probe in the thickest part, away from the bone. Feed the fire small and often. The first five hours are the Smoked cook, step for step.
Judge the bark, not the clock. Somewhere around 160°F to 170°F internal, when the rub has fused into a crust that does not smear and the color is a deep mahogany, it is ready to wrap. If it is still pale, wait; the paper will not fix a bark that never formed.
[Wrap](method:wrap) it tight in two sheets of pink butcher paper, fat side up, seams folded underneath so its own weight holds them closed. Paper breathes where foil steams, so the bark softens but does not turn to mush. Put the probe back through the paper into the same spot.
Return it to the pit and let it climb. Wrapped, the shoulder will move through the stall in an hour or so instead of two or three. You can push the pit to 275°F here without hurting anything if you are behind.
Probe for feel through the paper starting at 198°F. Pull it when the probe slides in with no resistance and the bone moves freely, usually 200°F to 205°F. Leave it in the paper.
Rest it in the paper, at least 45 minutes and up to two hours in a dry cooler. Then open it over a pan; there will be a good cup of juice in the paper, and you want it.
Pull the bone and chop on a board with a cleaver, folding the softened bark through the pile, to a coarse mince with visible pieces. Fold in a few spoonfuls of the paper juices as you go.
Dip and serve. Toss the chopped pork with warm Lexington dip until it is moist but not wet, then serve with more dip and red slaw. Because the wrap keeps more moisture in, go lighter on the dip than you would for the Smoked cook and adjust at the table.
Bring it home
Finish & Serve
Pull it, sauce it light, and let people build their own plate.
Pull the pork with two forks or gloved hands, working the bark and rendered fat back through as you go.
Serve on rolls with a splash of vinegar sauce, or plain if the bark speaks for itself.
In this cook
Techniques & Methods
Every technique this cook uses — tap one to learn it.
- Smokeintermediate
Gear for this cook
Wrapped Setup
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