Ingredients
- 4-5 lb pork shoulder/butt
- 1/2 tsp liquid smoke (optional, but makes a huge difference)
Rub Ingredients
- 1/4 cup paprika (50g)
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar (50g)
- 3 Tbsp kosher salt (35g)
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper (4g)
- 2 Tbsp granulated garlic powder (20g)
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes (4g)
Instructions
- Set sous vide water bath to 166F/74C.
- In small bowl, mix rub ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Mash out any clumps with a fork. Reserve half the rub to use at the end when finishing pork in oven.
- Cover all sides of pork generously with rub.
- Put liquid smoke in bottom of sous vide bag. Place pork in bag and vacuum seal.
- Fully submerge in sous vide bath and cook for 20-24 hours.
- 30 minutes before pulling pork out of sous vide, prepare an ice bath of equal parts water and ice in a large pot or bowl.
- After 20-24 hours, take pork out of sous vide and immediately place in ice bath.
- After 30 minutes in ice bath, pork can be placed in the fridge for up to a week, or freezer for 2-3 months. Or you can proceed to finish the pork now.
- Preheat oven to 300F/150C.
- Cut open sealed sous vide bag and, ideally, drain the cooking liquid and set aside. You don’t have to save the liquid, but it’s a delicious addition to the BBQ sauce.
- Pat pork dry. Too much moisture will prevent the exterior from developing the nice signature “bark” that you’ll find at the best BBQ restaurants.
- Sprinkle reserved rub evenly all around pork.
- Place pork on a wire rack on a baking sheet. Cook for 90 minutes.
- Break up the meat and prepare it for serving according to your preference. For “pulled pork,” use two forks to shred/pull the meat.
- I prefer “chopped pork,” which is a regional variation you’ll find in North Carolina. Break off a few pieces of the pork, ensuring to get a mix of pieces that contain interior meat and exterior bark. Place on large cutting board and chop the meat finely with a cleaver of chef’s knife.
- Once chopped finely, mix all the meat together so that there are fatty bits intermingling with lean bits and exterior bits with the aggressive bark flavor mixed with the less seasoned interior bits. This results in a great texture and flavor bomb.
- Taste the pork and then lightly add salt to all of it until it’s to your taste preference. Remember, you can always add more salt, but you can’t take salt away. So taste and adjust until it’s where you want it to be.
- Serve with rolls or Texas Toast for sandwiches, or serve on a plate with coleslaw, pickles and baked beans for an entree platter.
- Western Carolina BBQ Sauce recipe here. Eastern Carolina BBQ sauce recipe here. South Carolina Mustard Sauce recipe here.
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