Apple-Juice Brined Pulled Pork with Homemade Coleslaw
In today's recipe I'll show you how to make apple-juice brined pulled pork on the pit barrel cooker using a picnic shoulder. We will also make a homemade coleslaw.
We’ll start by brining the picnic shoulder in apple juice overnight, then inject the picnic shoulder with the apple juice brine. Finally, apply our barbecue seasoning, smoke in the Pit Barrel Cooker and pull the pork.
Brine Ingredients
- 5 cups water
- 10 cups apple juice
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons peppercorns
Other Ingredients
- 6-8 lb picnic shoulder
- Pork Candy Maple Sugar Bourbon BBQ Rub
- 1 cup apple juice
- I Like Pig Butts BBQ Sauce
Coleslaw Ingredients
- 5 cups cabbage mix
- ¼ cup red onion
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
Recipe adapted from Apple Juice Brined Pulled Pork with Slaw at Traeger.com
Recipe Instructions
- Mix all the brine ingredients together in a big pot.
- Place the picnic shoulder in the brine, cover and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, remove the picnic shoulder from the brine and pat dry with paper towels.
- Score a diamond pattern in the fat cap of the picnic shoulder, approximately 2” wide.
- Inject the picnic shoulder about every 2 inches with the brine.
- Sprinkle all sides with the BBQ rub.
- Insert 2 hooks in the picnic shoulder and hang in the Pit Barrel Cooker along with your favorite wood chunks. The Pit Barrel Cooker temperature today was around 300 degrees.
- When the pork gets to the color you want remove from the cooker, place in a disposable aluminum pan, add 1 cup of apple juice and cover with foil. Place back on the Pit Barrel Cooker. For this cook, it was 4 hours and 150 degrees.
- Continue cooking the picnic shoulder until it reaches 202 degrees. For this cook, it took 8.75 hours.
Cook Time
- 25 hour 105 degrees
- 3 hours 135 degrees
- 4 hours 150 degrees
- 6 hours 181 degrees
- 7 hours 196 degrees
- 8 hours 199 degrees
- 75 hours 202 degrees
For the step-by-step recipe instructions, watch our video.
