Southern Kitchen – Coffee Rubbed Southern Pulled Pork

I’ve been working on great pulled pork recipe that would be easy to do at home that doesn’t involve a crockpot.  Not that a crockpot can’t make pulled pork, but I wanted pulled pork that also had texture; a bark on the outside almost as if it had been smoked.  To get this Boston Butt right I needed to do it in the oven, and I needed the perfect dry rub.  Which got me thinking, why not try a Coffee Dry Rubbed Boston Butt for a little cool weather pulled pork action?

You may remember a while back a certain review we did about Maple Bacon Morning Coffee.  Well I had a lot of it left over, because it honestly wasn’t all that drinkable but it does make an inspiring base for a dry rub.  The coffee does very interesting things in the dry rub, first it helps to create a bark and crust adding a nice texture to the outside of the pork as it cooks; and secondly it builds an amazing smoky flavor and character into the meat that is a great substitute when you are roasting a boston butt in the oven and not out over a pit or smoker.  Mixing the coffee with brown sugar and other dry rub spices you get this great classic sweet spicy character quick and easy right out of the oven.

One other aspect to this, non-crockpot ,pulled pork is working out how to cook a pork butt low and slow in the oven.  There are lots of different ways to cook a pig.  What I’ve found to work best for me, is to start my pork shoulder/butt in a dutch oven with the lid on.  Then depending on the size of the meat, about half-way through the cooking time remove  the lid from the dutch oven so that the crust can start forming on the pork.  Leaving the lid on the dutch oven traps more of the heat and steam so the meat is cooking faster, but also steaming in its own juices keeping it nice and moist.  Then taking the lid off later you allow it to finish cooking, and a bark to form on the outside and a crust to form all nice and crispy from the dry rub.  I’ll cover the sweet bourbon and reduced apple BBQ sauce in another post. Stay Hungry Y’all!

-The Hungry Southerner

Coffee Rubber Boston Butt Pulled Pork

Coffee Based Dry Rub

• 1/3 Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tbs onion powder
• 1/2 tbs garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp  ground red pepper flake
• pinch cayenne pepper
• pinch dried thyme
• 3 tbs finely ground dark roasted coffee

Boston Butt Pulled Pork

Preheat your oven to 25o degrees, use your pizza stone in your oven to help regulate the temp .  Apply a liberal coat of yellow mustard to your 4 to 5 pound boston butt. Then apply your dry rub thoroughly using your hands making sure you have good coverage.  Place your boston butt in your dutch oven and insert your thermometer probe, and cover with the lid and place in the oven.  It will take about an hour to an hour and a half per pound to cook your boston butt looking to reach an internal temperature of 190 degrees.  Remember to remove the dutch oven lid at the half way point to ensure that you form a nice crust on your boston butt.  Once you’ve reached the target internal temperature remove the boston butt allow the meat to rest for 15 minutes or longer and then simply pull the meat apart with your fingers. Enjoy.