David’s 10 Steps To Smoking A Pork Butt

Following David’s 10 steps to smoking a pork butt will result in perfectly cooked meat that’s tender, moist, and juicy.

Follow David’s smoked pork butt recipe, and you will have perfectly cooked meat that’s tender, moist, and juicy. Yes, a slow-smoking a pork butt is a hell of a time investment, but well worth the wait once you wrap your lips around some of that pork.

What is Pork A Pork Butt?

There are two large pork roasts within the shoulder of a pig.

1. Boston Butt (Pork butt): The shoulder’s upper part is meatier with less bone.
2. Picnic Shoulder: The lower part of the shoulder, which is the pig’s foreleg. Just above the hock. This portion has a large bone in the center with less meat.

Despite the name “butt,” a pork butt comes from the upper portion of a pig’s shoulder. This sub-primal cut is the thicker section of the shoulder that includes part of the neck, shoulder blade, and the upper portion of the front leg.

Because this portion of the leg does not get as much use as the lower part of the leg, it has more marbling and lots of connective tissue, making it relatively tough. This shoulder roast is well suited for long slow-cooks such as smoking or braising.

STILL CONFUSED? Read our article, Pork Shoulder Vs. Pork Butt for an in-depth breakdown of these two cuts of meat, how each cooks, and which is better.

David’s 10 Steps To Smoking A Pork Butt

What’s Needed:

The three main components or this pork recipe are the meat, the rub, and the sauce.

• Pork: 1 pork butt preferably with the bone-in (about 5-9 a pound roast)
• Pork Rub: we use our All-Purpose Pork Rub, but use whatever spice rub you like.
• BBQ Sauce: Use your favorite barbecue sauce – ours is a secret… made of butter, ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, sugar, salt pepper, and chipotle peppers. We also have another recipe if you are interested. You can find it HERE.

Equipment David Uses

• Water Smoker or Charcoal Grill
• A bag of Hickory Wood Chunks
• Grilling gloves
• Charcoal
• Charcoal chimney
• Water
• Tongs
• Meat Thermometer
• Injector
• Heavy-Duty Aluminum Foil

#1 Prep The Pork For The Smoker

A pork butt is a hunk of meat laced with flavorful fat and connective tissue. Start with a butt in the 5-pound range, which is just the right size to fit any smoker or grill.

1. Trim the pork to leave at least a ¼-inch cap of fat. (Any less, and the pork will dry out; any more, and the fat will prevent the rub from seasoning the meat.)
2. Rinse the meat under cold running water and blot dry with paper towels.
3. Combine all the ingredients for the rub in a small bowl (make sure to work out any clumps from the brown sugar for even distribution) and stir to mix.
4. Rub onto the meat on all sides.

If you have time, wrap the pork in plastic wrap and let it cure in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or as long as overnight. Smoking a pork butt right away is okay, but sitting in the fridge for several hours allows the rub to penetrate the meat.

#2 Prep The Smoker Or Grill

Smoking is a form of indirect cooking and usually takes place over a period of hours over low temperatures.

Preheat the grill or smoker to 225-250 degrees F. To maintain this low temperature, use only half as much charcoal as usual. (A half chimney-full.) When the coals are ashed over and white, toss 2-3 wood chunks onto the coals and close the lid.

Using a charcoal grill, set it up for indirect heat with a drip pan with water directly underneath the meat to stabilize the temperature.

#3 Smoking the Pork Butt

• Place the pork butt onto the hot grate over the drip pan, fat side up, and cover the grill.
• Bring the temperature up to 225 degrees F, using the vents to regulate the temperature. Knowing the temperature in your grill is crucial, so purchase a digital BBQ thermometer if your grill doesn’t have a temperature gauge. We use and recommend Thermoworks’s Smoke™.
• You will need to add fresh coals and more wood chunks to each side of the grill every hour for at least the first 4 hours.

#4 Low And Slow

• Check the grill’s temperature every hour, staying as close to 225 degrees F as possible. Resist the temptation to open the lid.
• Only open the charcoal door or the lid if you need to add more charcoal or soaked wood chips to maintain temperature and smoke.
• After 4 hours, check the temperature of the meat to see where it is and get an idea of how much more time it will need to smoke.

#5 Test For Doneness

Smoke the pork butt until a dark “bark” (outside crust) forms and the internal temp is about 190 degrees F, about 5 hours; use a meat instant-read meat thermometer to test for doneness. Take readings in at least three of the thickest areas.

#6 Never Mind The Stall

When the pork’s internal temperature reaches about 165 degrees F, the surface evaporation causes the meat’s internal temperature to plateau. Pitmasters call this “the stall.” Don’t panic. It will pass. Just wait out the stall. The ideal temperature of a properly smoked pork butt is 190 to 195 degrees F.

The internal temperature of the pork can increase by 10 degrees even after it’s been removed from the grill, so keep that in mind. For example, if the internal temperature is 190 degrees F when you take it off the grill, it may rise to an optimal 200 degrees F, perfect!

#7 Saucing the Meat (optional)

Start basting the meat with a warm barbecue sauce using a brush or mop for the last 1 ½ hours at about 180 degrees F. Then mop it every 30 minutes after that.

It’s okay to be messy with it. Just slather it down and cover it back up.

If you opt out of barbecue sauce, you may want to consider wrapping the pork in butcher paper or aluminum foil after you get the color bark you want. Wrapping the meat will keep it from darkening and becoming black from the smoke.

#8 Injecting The Pork With Sauce (optional)

David prefers injecting his meat with barbecue sauce during the last hour of smoking. Rubs and sauce sit on the meat’s surface and penetrate only a few millimeters into the meat. Injecting gets the flavor to the center of the food in seconds with the push of a plunger. 

Injectors look like oversize hypodermic needles. Don’t waste your time with plastic injectors. They don’t last. Instead, find a stainless steel injector. They typically come with a 2 to 4-ounce capacity—enough for almost anything you slap on your smoker or grill.

To inject the meat, you may need to pour your barbecue sauce into a narrow container so you can suck the sauce up inside the needle. Once the injector is full of sauce, that is where all the fun begins!

NOTE: Brushing and injecting the pork with barbecue sauce is completely optional. If you opt to sauce the pork, warm the sauce up before brushing and injecting the pork butt so the temperature will not go down on the meat.

How To Inject the Sauce Into the Pork:

• Insert the needle and go all the way to the center. Press the plunger slowly and ease the needle out.
• Insert the needle again about every 1 ½-inches apart and leave behind about 1 ounce of sauce per pound.
• Some sauce will almost always follow the needle out of the hole, but if it comes spurting out like it hit an artery, use less pressure.
• You want to avoid pockets of liquid and have the sauce evenly distributed inside the meat. He usually injects it when he brushes sauce on the outside, but only once or twice.

#9 Resting The Pork (not optional)

When the pork is about to fall apart and dripping with BBQ sauce, remove the meat from the smoker or grill and rest as you would with grilled or roasted meats.

Allowing the pork to rest before chopping or serving it relaxes the meat fibers; moisture driven out of the meat is redistributed and reabsorbed by some dissolved proteins.

Rested meat holds on to more of its natural juices. This also keeps your cutting board from flooding with meat juices when you slice it into the pork. A good 15 to 20-minute rest should do under loosely tented foil.

#10 Slice Or Shred And Serve

Perfectly cooked meat should be moist and juicy. If you wish, drizzle some BBQ sauce and serve slices of flat fanned out like a deck of cards or shred it to make pulled pork.

What to Do With Pork Butt

You can serve it sliced on a plate with barbecue sauce or shred it with a fork to serve on pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw. You can also serve it in tacos or burritos.

What to Serve With Smoked Pork

We served the pork with some Hash Brown Potato Casserole and grilled cabbage, but your favorite side dish will go along perfectly.

Unless David throws on a burger or something, I’m vegetarian for the night. I’m not too fond of smoked pork, and I am okay with that. As long as David’s happy, I’m happy. And that man is happy when he is grilling or smoking meat!

This blog post has been updated on December 7, 2022.

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