Slow Cooker Barbecue

Yea, technically its not barbecue if its not smoked. Slow cookers are more accessible and require less attention.

Here is my recipe that usually gets rave reviews. Its loosely based off of Alton Brown's pulled pork in the "Q" episode. Feel free to share yours too.

Meat
5-8 lb boston butt

Brine
3/4 cup molasses
12 oz pickling salt
2 quarts water
1/2 bottle Shealy's Bar-B-Que Vinegar and Pepper sauce.

Place boston butt and liquid into a container. Make sure the meat is submerged. Refrigerate for 8-12 hours.

The Rub
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp corriander
1tsp cumin
1tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbl onion powder
1 tbl chili powder
1 tbl paprika

After 8-12 hours, remove the butt from the brine. Pat dry and evenly coat with the rub. Place the butt in the already warmed slow cooker on high. Add about a bottle of Shealy's Bar-B-Que Vinegar and Pepper sauce, or enough to cover half of the butt. Add in a few dashes of liquid smoke.

After 2 hours, reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Cook for about 8 hours. Keep the temperature around 205F-210F.

Remove pork from the cooker. Discard liquid. Rest the meat until it is cool enough to pull. Return pulled pork to slow cooker. Add Shealy's or favorite sauce to taste.

Sounds delicious. I'll definitely have to try that. I'm not familiar with the barbecue sauce you mentioned, would any carolina-style sauce work?

Yea, its a vinegar based NC style sauce. Anything like that would work. Even apple cider vinegar, a little tomato paste and some chili flakes would work in a pinch.

First off, shame on you for using a slow cooker. I thought you were from the Carolinas!

Secondly, I recently bought an inexpensive smoker from Kmart, (it was on clearance for 20.00, normally 80.00) so I thought I would share my way of smoking butts.

Use a chimney starter and a bag of wood CHUNKS (I prefer apple and these can be bought at your local Lowes/Home Depot/Ace Hardware or a higher end BBQ store) and a pork butt (shoulder).

The day before the event, make a dry rub with equal amounts of:

Paprika
Smoked Papricka
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Brown sugar

a pinch of Salt and Pepper

Rub your butt with the dry rub, and let it set in your fridge overnight.

At 6:00 am in the morning take out your butt and let it rest on the counter, meanwhile, put the wood chunks in the chimney with 2 sheets of black and white newspaper underneath it and light it. After about 10 minutes or so, put the ash covered wood chunks in the charcoal pan and carefully set in the bottom of the grill. Put your butt on the grill (this should be about 6:20am now).

You will need to maintain the grill to be about 225 to 240 degrees by opening and closing any vents you have, or propping the lid open a very little bit.

About two hours later, quickly add about 7 to 8 more chunks of wood to your fire and walk away, repeat about every two hours until your butt is approx 155 degrees.


As a side note, I recently made two butts for a camping trip with about 30 other people, I made one with the recipe above and another using the Alton Brown method. Upon tasting the Alton method, it seemed too salty. What I ended up doing was, after pulling both butts, I mixed them together and it came out wonderful. Just for what it's worth, I think both methods are great if used independantly then mixed together.

AACJ said:

As a side note, I recently made two butts for a camping trip with about 30 other people, I made one with the recipe above and another using the Alton Brown method. Upon tasting the Alton method, it seemed too salty. What I ended up doing was, after pulling both butts, I mixed them together and it came out wonderful. Just for what it's worth, I think both methods are great if used independantly then mixed together.

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I was kind of afraid of it coming out too salty after the brine. I didn't seem to have a problem but I can see it happening.

Slow cooker pork can come out great, and have a taste that you can't get by other methods.

You can take your Boston butt (or shoulder) and cook it very simply by rubbing Worcestershire sauce all over it. Then pack on the brown sugar until no more will stick too it. Place it in the slow cooker and pour about a cup of apple juice around it, being careful not to wash off the rub. Then let is cook all day until it's done.

Once it's done you can remove the bone and then tear it into shreds with a couple of forks. Push the meat down into the juice and it's ready to serve.