Pulled pork is the most intoxicating of meats: savory, tender, tangy, and with a hint of smokiness. While most of us aren’t going to do the whole outdoor smoker thing, we would love to make it at home. With a pork butt or shoulder and just the smallest amount of liquid smoke and a great sauce, you can make delicious pulled pork in the oven. I love oven-pulled pork served with a Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad or a BLT Pasta Salad in the summer. In the winter try this with Macaroni and Cheese and Easy Homemade Cornbread.

And no matter what time of year, I like piling some Traditional Coleslaw right on top of the sandwich, along with some sliced pickles.

This is the best oven pulled pork I’ve ever had. Many years ago, I was helping my sister-in-law cook for a party when her restaurateur father, known to his grandchildren and the rest of the family as Nutzie, came in the door bearing several large aluminum containers of pulled pork. The lids came off, and the aroma almost made me weep with longing. I watched everyone pile this oven-cooked shredded pork onto rolls, took one little bite, then another, and fell right down the rabbit hole.

After several months of gently nudging Nutzie for his recipe, I finally got a scrap of paper with the following: “Pork loin (whole) or Pork loin bone in butt end. Roast in oven-covered pan ¼ way up w/water. Beef base broth, liquid smoke, S & P. 350 until falling apart. While warm, strip meat off bone/pull with fork. Add BBQ sauce to taste.”

Huh. Not a lot of detail, but enough to work with. My mission lay before me, and with great pleasure I decoded the recipe. I knew it was good when a friend from Kansas City (where they have, shall we say, firm opinions about barbecue) pronounced this pulled pork the real deal. That was all the praise this New York City girl who adapted a pulled-pork recipe from an Italian grandfather from Massachusetts needed.

Oven Pulled Pork: A slow braise in the oven results in perfectly tender pork. Toss with barbecue sauce, and you have the easiest pulled pork!

Ingredients

• Pork – You want to use a pork shoulder or a pork butt (which is, in fact, cut from the shoulder of the pig; it might also be labeled a Boston Butt). This cut is very tough but turns amazingly fall-apart tender when cooked low and slow. The ample amount of fat in this cut also contributes to very tender meat. If you can find a bone-in pork shoulder, grab that, but a boneless pork shoulder will work fine, too. Don’t be tempted to sub in a pork loin; it’s not fatty enough.
• Broth – Use either chicken or beef broth, but try to use low sodium so you can control the amount of salt in the recipe.
• Liquid smoke – Yes, this is a real thing, believe it or not — but it’s not some crazy science experiment. It’s a liquid seasoning meant to taste like that delicious wood-smoke flavor without actually involving any smoke or wood. A small amount is all you need.
• Barbecue sauce – Homemade or store-bought. Homemade barbecue sauce is one of those things many people don’t think to whip up, but once they do, the bottled stuff never looks quite the same.
• Cider vinegar – This adds welcome acidity to give your meat a nice zing after it’s done cooking. Add more to taste if you’d like (in North Carolina, the more vinegar the better!)
• Sliced soft rolls – Soft or toasted, for serving.
• Coleslaw and pickles – Optional, to serve.

How to Make Pulled Pork in the Oven

1. Preheat oven: Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Put pork in the oven: Place pork butt or pork shoulder in a large pot with a lid. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour broth around the pork until it covers about one-quarter of the meat. Add liquid smoke. Cover and put it in the oven.
3. Bake and shred: Bake pork until internal temperature registers 180 to 200 degrees on an instant-read thermometer and the meat is falling apart, 4 ½ to 5 ½ hours. Use a fork to pull at pork, and make sure it comes apart easily. Remove the pork butt from the oven and let it sit in the pot for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from pot, and discard bone and cooking liquid. Cut fatty parts off of the meat, then use two forks or your fingers to shred meat into small pieces. Place shredded pork in a large bowl.

4. Mix pork with BBQ sauce and vinegar: Warm barbecue sauce in a small pot over medium heat. Mix shredded meat with barbecue sauce and vinegar until evenly coated. Taste. If pork could use a bit more zing, add more vinegar to taste. Season with additional salt and pepper.
5. Make it into rolls: Pile pulled pork onto rolls or serve it plain, with coleslaw and pickles. Some Pico de Gallo would be good, too.

How to Pull Pork

1. Let the meat sit: After the meat is cooked, leave it to sit for a nice chunk of time (20 minutes plus) to reclaim its juices.
2. Pull apart into hunks: Pull the meat apart into hunks. You may want to use rubber gloves for this step since the meat will still be pretty hot. You can also use two forks.
3. Get rid of the things you don’t want: Toss the bone and any fatty bits.
4. Shred: Shred the meat with two forks or your fingers as finely or as chunkily as you like. Toss shredded pork with barbecue sauce (homemade or store-bought), more bracing than most, with a good amount of vinegar, which nicely counterbalances the seriously unctuous pork.

FAQs

How Much Pulled Pork Per Person

One pound of cooked pulled pork serves about 3 people. But the thing to keep in mind is that pork loses volume when it’s cooked and also when it’s pulled and you remove any gristle, skin, and extra fat. So, an 8-pound pork shoulder will result in 4 pounds of pulled pork, which will feed 12 people.

Raw Pork Shoulder	Cooked and Pulled Pork	Servings
10-pound pork shoulder	5 pounds pulled pork	15 people
9-pound pork shoulder	4 1/2 pounds pulled pork	13 people
8-pound pork shoulder	4 pounds pulled pork	12 people
7-pound pork shoulder	3 1/2 pounds pulled pork	10 people
6-pound pork shoulder	3 pounds pulled pork	9 people
5-pound pork shoulder	2 1/2 pounds pulled pork	8 people
4-pound pork shoulder	2 pounds pulled pork	6 people
3-pound pork shoulder	1 1/2 pounds pulled pork	4 people

Pro Cooking Tips

• Pork butt doesn’t take kindly to blasts of high heat, so don’t think you can cheat by turning up the heat and reducing the cooking time. This will yield an unpleasantly tough hunk of meat. Definitely not worth all of your work and patience.
• The pork is braised at 300 degrees (don’t even bother looking at it until at least 4 ½ hours have passed; you will just be wasting your time) until it reaches an internal temperature of 190 to 200 degrees, or as my bbq pal Elizabeth Karmel says “until the bone slips right out, clean as a whistle.” This temperature will allow the pork to become very tender and shred easily.

Leftovers, Storage and Reheating

Leftover sauced pulled pork can be reheated as-is in a pot over medium-low heat. You can also reheat it in a baking pan covered with aluminum foil in a 300-degree oven. Pile it into fresh sandwiches later in the week, or make pulled pork quesadillas.

If you can keep some of the pork un-sauced, you have more options. Un-sauced pulled pork — also known as shredded, slow-cooked pork — can be used in loads of ways: tacos, enchiladas, casseroles, burritos. Or add some to a grain bowl or a pasta salad.

What to Serve With Pulled Pork

Spicy Cole Slaw

Classic Macaroni Salad

Creamy Blue Cheese and Bacon Coleslaw

More Pork Recipes

• Easy Fall-Apart Roasted Pork Shoulder
• Pan-Fried Pork Chops
• Pork Carnitas
• Milk-Braised Pork
• Easy Korean Pork Chops