Butts And Pulled Pork Chili

OldHoss · January 11, 2013, 02:24:39 PM

I started with 2 butts bone-in - one 5 pounds and the other almost 8. I rubbed them with the la Grille Applewood I just picked up and let it sit in the fridge for 2 days:

Dry rub:

The Applewood with some smoked paprika and la Grille Chipolte Mango added as well.

I used the new Xmas present to vacuum pack them:

I then injected with this mix....got it from a website that said it is Myron Mixon's....I altered it abit:

1 cup fresh mulled apple cider (this mulled cider is full of cinnamon and other spices....tastes way better than normal cider and has GOT to be good for the pig)
1/8 cup Worcestershire
1/8 cup white grape juice
1/8 cup light brown sugar
1 tbls olive oil
1.25 tbls fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tbls Buffalo Jalapeno Hot Sauce
1.25 tbls cider vinegar
1 tbls smoked salt

I then vacuum packed again and into the fridge overnight for about 15 hours or so.

The chili is my chance to use these new items:

I cold smoked the onions, shallots, jalapenos, red and cubano peppers for 2 hours in mesquite yesterday:

3 small shallots minced
1 large red bell pepper diced
1 large green cubano pepper diced
3 medium onions diced
4 smaller jalapenos minced
5 small cloves garlic through the press
2 cans unico red beans rinsed
1 can Mexican small red beans rinsed
1 large can san marazono tomatoes blended well with hand blender and then put through a strainer to remove all seeds
2 smaller cans roasted tomato chunks left in chunks
3 cups chicken stock
12 strips bacon cut in half lengthwise and into 1/5 inch strips up and down
1/4 cup minced cilantro
a little Habanero la Grille
alot Chili la Grille
a little Chipolte Mango La Grille
4-5 cups pulled pork cut up medium fine
1.5 cups italian strained tomatoes from the glass jar

I fried the bacon till crispy then fried the veggies in all the fat till soft. I will be adding pork that is pulled and cut up medium-fine tommorrow.

The smoker after 4 hours or so:

A closeup of the chili as I add more chili powder and flip the butts:

I am using a modified Bob Gibson mop on the butts:

1 and 3/4 cups cider vinegar
1/8 cup pepper (3/4 of this is cayenne with the remaing being a mix of the la Grille Habenero and Chipolte Mango dry mixes)
1/2 tbls salt
2 slices lemon

I am going with 7 hours of hickory and 2 hours of cherry smoke. After that I will transfer to inside with 1 butt in the crock pot and 1 in the oven. The 1 in the oven will be the big one and I will make a shallow bowl out of tin foil for it to sit in. I will start with a little apple cider and the remainder of the mop in the foil bowl and the crock pot. I will take juices collected in the smoker from the drip trays as well as all juices from the crock pot and oven and chill overnight....remove the fat and work it into the pork tommorrow. Lookin' forward to tommorrow I am I am.

EDIT:

After the smoking I move the butts inside. One is in the crock pot (it was too big so I had to cut off the top and shove it down the side to get the lid on) and the other is in a glass baking dish........this is alot easier and more efficient than a tin foil bowl:

I added some of the mulled apple cider as well as some white grape juice, cider vinegar, the remainder of the Gibson mop and some onion pieces to each cooking vessle. Total juices added was about 3/4 of a cup each with the balance being the apple cider and one small onion each too the butts. I have 3.5 to 4 cups of juices from the 2 drip trays in the smoker....I have this in the fridge already. It is full of fat and chunks of goo so I didn't want to toss it in with the butts. Maybe I'll skim the fat off in a couple hours and toss it in. The smell in the kitchen after a half hour of cooking there is devine. The last time I did pulled pork I found the smoke flavour was rather poor so I added 4 hours of smoke and used that smoked applewood rub. Hopefully I get what I am looking for here. If I taste this tommorrow and it is still shy of what I am after I am going to.....dare I say it.......add some liquid hickory smoke to the juice. If I do this I will start with water and add a small amount of the liquid smoke and then only to a small bowl of the pork. If I like what I taste I will doctor the whole batch. I also have some liquid apple smoke. I will probably do 2 bowls doctored....one of each type of smoke....and decide which if any I like.

I tried some pulled pork at a stand a few weeks ago - made in a 6 thousand dollar fridge type commercial electric smoker that burns chunks of wood. It was amazing....too amazing in fact because now I want to make barbecue that good too. I am not sure if I can do it with the Bradley? I can see myself obtaining a log burning unit...cut to the chase as it were.....if those chunks are good the whole log oughta be the bomb.

EDIT 2:

Okay. Internal on the 2 butts is about 172f. I tried a piece of the one in the crock pot...an outside piece. It is not smoky enough for me...not even close. Nine hours of smoke with most of it hickory and a rub containing powdered smoke to this result??? I would have thought I would have more smoke flavour forsure. I have added a mix of apple and hickory liquid smokes to each butt juice mix.....about 2 tablespoons each....a little less for the one in the crock pot as it is smaller. I also pulled the fat out the juices from the smoker and added it to each butt and covered the glass dish in the oven with aluminum foil. I want as much of that liquid smoke to get into the butt in the oven. I just watched my first episode of BBQ Pitmasters I picked up via a torrent. I want a pit too. The Bradley is good for salmon and beef jerky....and does do a descent job on prime rib but these butts just do not compare with the fella who used chunks. Hopefully this liquid smoke helps some. I am on the couch tonight waiting for these babies to finish up.

EDIT 3:

Internal temp on the crock pot butt was 197-205f - about 16.5 hours into the cook. I let it sit with the power off and the lid on for about an hour then pulled pieces out and shredded. I took the juice and strained out most of the fat, put the remainder through a strainer and put it all in the meat. The taste is good but not as smoky as I would have hoped. I ate a bowl with some Irresistable Maple Chipolte BBQ Sauce and it was tasty. I had a bottle of Tiger Sauce out and forgot to try some of it on the meat.....that is a good sign. The internal temp on the one in the oven is 182f - I took the tin foil off to promote a hard crust. There is about 3/4 of an inch of juice in the glass lasange tray. Now I am off to sleep.

EDIT 4:

Internal temp on the oven butt hit 195f at 4am - 19 hours into the cook:

I FTC'd it with a little juices from the lasange dish. apple cider and cider vinegar....about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup total juices:

I have the rest of the juices from the bottom in the fridge - total of about 4 cups or so:

I have left the butt FTC'd for 5 hours and just shredded it along with the crock pot butt......the bone in this FTC butt was pulled out almost clean straight off with my fingers. I will heat up the juices and meat after a nap and then do my final mix of the meat and doctor the chili with pork, juices and seasoning. Gonna eat good this afternoon folks.

The pulled pork after working much of the juices, 1.5 tbls liquid hickory smoke and a 4 to 5 tbls bbq sauce in:

The chili after adding some pork and spices:

Two things that came in handy on this cook.....Weber drip pans that fit lenthwise in the Bradley quite nice while still leaving room for the smoke to get around them. These are longer than normal meatloaf pans as well as being heavy duty so will last awhile I think. Cleanup was easier than with cheaper counterparts. I picked up a pack of 9 for 20 bucks:

In lifting up the big butt I did not want it fall apart so I thought to use this baby my Dad gave me years ago. It worked perfectly:

Dad loved cooking too....I certainly hope he is cooking where he is now.

Last EDIT:

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Butts And Pulled Pork Chili

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