Easy Pork Butt with Pit Barrel Cooker

This is for you backyard bbq folk that want an easier & faster way to cook a pork butt.

I HIGHLY recommend you up your backyard bbq space with a Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC) - link is HERE.

This is a super easy way of smoking meat that will make for the best BBQ you ever had - guaranteed! You can even grill with it as I have many times = a grill and smoker all in one. The PBC’s design is one that makes smoking meat easy for you to intuitively move from your Weber grill to this so that you expand your grilling skills. 

I took an 8lb pork butt and cut it in half and worked my knife around a bit of the shoulder bone - easy to do. 

Once I cut it in half - I  put some rub on it and you can find that HERE on Amazon. 

If you watch videos of guys putting rub on their ribs, butt’s and other protein - they are liberal with it and coat it so you can hardly see the meat - I do NOT do this as I want this to accent the protein and have smoke flavor the meat more so than a rub. This is a nice accent to go along with smoke and whatever you use to add to the pork on your plate or on a sandwich. 

So - apply this sparingly and it will be enough to add seasoning to the outside that will create a bark - a flavor bomb that is created by smoke, seasoning and a bit of moisture. You will see it on the photos as your read this - its what you are after for a pork butt. 

Here is the butt - cut in half and seasoned up and I let this sit on the counter for about 45 minutes to ‘temper’ so that it is not freezing cold going on the smoker. It gets to room temp a bit faster when it is cut in half. 

I set up my PBC and wait about 15 minutes for the coals to get going, temp the pit and add some Hickory wood chunks. Temping the pit is just letting it do its thing and be ready - I dont put food in the pit right at the start of it as the briquettes or lump coal has an off flavor at that first start up - so, I like to wait about 15 minutes. 

Hickory - from my research - is classic North Caroling BBQ wood for most pork. You can use cherry, oak or apple if you have it - or a combo. I am falling in love with hickory. Just add a couple chunks onto the coal basket at the bottom of the PBC. 

 With the PBC you can hook meat up and hang it - or you can use one of the grates they give you (another hinged grate is separate) and for this cook I used the grate as I do not want to worry about the meat falling off the hooks. I use hooks for chicken and the best ribs I have ever had - but for these butts I want security of mind - on the grate they go. 

After 1 hour I spray them down with a mix of water, pineapple juice and apple cider vinegar in a spray bottle you can find HERE on Amazon - I have never seen another BBQ pit guy (or lady) use this spray bottle and it is PERFECT for keeping moisture on your protein. As you spray the meat it keeps it moist AND helps attract smoke = flavor! 

 

Spray bottle with a fine mist:

After 3 hours I got my instant read temp gauge and it reads 180 or even 190 - these are cooking quick and that is fine - I took the butts off and put them into a foil pan, put foil on the pan and back into the pit for 2 more hours.

Once in the foil pan - I checked after 1 hour and waited - then I checked another 30 minutes and used my intuition with sight, feel and smell - I got temp reads of 205 or even 210. Some people freak out at this temp read being too high, but not me as I am safer with intuition based cooking - I took them off the PBC and put into a towel lined cooler. I put a towel at the bottom of the cooler, put in the foil pan and put another towel on top of the foil and closed it up for 2 hours.

I just left them in the cooler - you can put them in an oven with no heat on - wrap the foil pan in towels - or leave them on the counter for 1-2 hours (2 hours was best) and it was steaming when I opened the foil up. 

They came out perfect.

I like my pork in chunks - keeps moisture in. AND that juice is all flavor so I dip my chunks in that. 

I also like the darker bits of pork more so than the lighter pieces - kind of like chicken thighs vs breast meat....I like thighs better. 

That bark looks dark in the photo - its really nice in person...better yet to take a bit of that bark and put it on a sandwich with some dark sections of the butt and put it on a roll for a sandwich - of which I did with homemade slaw on the side. 

First time making slaw and it was ok....too much mayo first round so it was good but I will adjust that next time. Recipe for sides like this will be in the future. 

I hope you consider getting a PBC - it will put that one bite smile on your families face with how good it is. Check it out HERE. Guaranteed your food will be way better than you can get at most bbq places....its that good. 

Yup - you can get the PBC on Amazon but it is a bit more in price and what I appreciate is supporting another veteran with the owner of PBC - so, check it out on that website (also an affiliate link to support Embrace The Flame BBQ) - and I do thank you for your support.  

If you want to see some videos of this and other cooks check out Embrace The Flame BBQ Facebook page HERE.  I will have upcoming YouTube videos as well soon. 

Let me know if you get a PBC - so we can chat about how happy you are making your friends and family with this pit and the food it makes, as this is what Embrace The Flame BBQ is all about - family, food and creating great memories with each other. 

For now, 
Scott Musgrave