Smoked Pork Shoulder

Ingredients:

1 3-pound boneless pork shoulder

1/2 cups Light Brown Sugar

1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 teaspoons black pepper

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Approximately 2 cups soaked hickory wood chips

Step One:

Remove the pork shoulder from the refrigerator and let it warm up to room temperature for approximately 15 minutes.  During that time mix the remaining ingredients, save for the wood chips, in a container.

Step Two:

Place the pork shoulder on a cutting board. Generously rub the mixture onto the meat pressing it in as you go. The mixture is called a dry rub because what your doing is rubbing it onto the meat.  Place the rubbed pork into a container. Lid the container and place it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours. The
pork can also be plastic wrapped and then placed in the container.

Step Three:

Soak the wood chips for 30 to 45 minutes. Heat the smoker, and once it is ready add 1/5 of the wood chips, you’ll need to replace the wood chips once an hour or so. In the order of preference there are three types of smokers that can be used for this preparation: charcoal (offset, vertical with a water pan), gas (propane or natural gas), and Electric.  

If using charcoal, then you’ll need to monitor the smoker to ensure against flare-ups or fading temperatures. There are other smoking methods such as pit smoking (think Hawaiian luau) or cold smoking (think gravlax), but they are not particularly well suited for this recipe. Ensure the thermometer on the smoker reaches 225 degrees and not much higher.  A hallmark of smoking is slow and low.  Since shoulder is a working part of the pig, it is tougher than the loin so if cooked too fast at high temperatures it becomes too tough to eat.

Step Four:

Place the pork in the smoker. Smoke the pork 4-6 hours. The internal temperature should be around 165 it is done.  The pork will have a shiny crust from the sugar and internally there should be a pink ring around the pork. The result will be tender, moist, and flavorful. 

Note:  If you want to have a smokey flavor, but do not have 5-6 hours to monitor a smoker, then you can smoke the meat for 2 hours and then finish it the oven or a crock pot set to 225 degrees for the remaining 3-4 hours. The result will be good.  A lot of restaurants actually use this method, and it works well.