Pawleys Island Pulled Pork Recipe

Ryan Everhart, pitmaster at Carolina Charcoal Chicken and BBQ, shares with us his Pawley’s Island Pulled Pork, a recipe so good you won’t even think about using sauce.

Here is Ryan’s story:

“I have always been inspired to create great food.

“My grandfather was a cook in the Navy and that always inspired me growing up, and I always wanted to be like him. So I guess that is where my original passion for food has come from.

“I cook daily for my wife and 3 kids and family and friends whenever possible. My love for barbecue has slowly become an obsession since moving to SC about 4 years ago.

“I used to live in New Jersey,  just outside NYC for about a year for a job. I had to attend a lot of conferences out of town.

“So I decided I would pack up the family and head south to Hilton Head for a few days for an upcoming trip. When heading to the show, we stopped off of Interstate 95 and were starving.

“We were so tired of the same old stuff off 95: McDonald’s, Burger King, and Subway, so we decided to drive a few miles down the road and found a complete gem in my opinion in McCabe’s BBQ in Manning.

(Note: McCabe’s is one of our favorites as well. Love their whole hog pulled pork cooked over hardwoods.)

“It was an awesome experience to share with my family. I have always loved SC, but my wife and kids never had experienced the people or the food of this great state.

“Needless to say, the rest is history, and 4 months later we packed up everything and started our new lives in South Carolina.”

Using a bone-in Boston butt, your favorite dry rub, and a little…ok, well, a lot of patience, and you, too, can make Pawley’s Island Pulled Pork that’s so good you won’t need sauce.

Yet another South Carolina BBQ recipe to enjoy!

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Yield: 12 Servings

Pawleys Island Pulled Pork

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Tender, smokey, and juicy pulled pork using a Boston butt like you'll find on the SC coast.

Prep Time: 12 hours

Cook Time: 7 hours

Resting Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 21 hours

Ingredients

• 5 lb Boston butt, bone-in
• 1/4 cup dry rub of your choice
• 1/4 cup spicy brown mustard, or a horseradish-based mustard
• 1/4 cup apple juice, unfiltered, or fresh apple cider
• wood chips for smoking, Hickory and Applewood, soaked in water

Instructions

When doing my Pawleys Island Pulled Pork, I prefer a bone-in Boston Butt. The first step for me is adding the first layer of dry rub all over the pork butt. I like to massage the rub into the meat for a minute to make sure it gets a good rub down.

The butt gets wrapped in plastic wrap or goes into a freezer bag and heads to the fridge for a few hours or, ideally, overnight.

Soak your wood chips. I like to use a blend of Hickory and Applewood as my woods of choice for my pulled pork.

Start your smoker.

Then the next day you can pull out your Boston butt from the fridge. You want the meat to sit for a while to warm up. You don't want to put cold meat on a smoker.

Next, you will apply another layer of flavor. I like to use spicy brown mustard or even horseradish-based mustard as a glue. Then you apply a good amount of your dry rub again to coat the entire Boston butt.

By now your smoker should be at 225 degrees.

My cooking process is usually a 9-hour process. I cook at 225 for about 6-7 hours, applying soaked wood chips every 2 hours for a maximum of 3 times.

Around hour 5-6, the butt starts looking nice, and it is now time to wrap the butt. Pull it off the smoker, layout some aluminum foil, and add some liquid of your choice. I like to use unfiltered Apple juice or fresh Apple cider. Wrap the butt completely in foil and put it back on the smoker at 225 for about an hour to 90 minutes.

And now one of the most important steps: After an hour to 1.5 hr of being wrapped, pull the butt off the smoker and place it into a cooler to rest. Leave it wrapped in the foil, put it in a cooler, and cover the butt with a towel.

Next is the hard part: be patient!!!! Wait for at least 1 hr, or even 2.

The final step is to unwrap your masterpiece. The bone should simply slide right out cleanly. This means it is perfectly done. Use 2 forks to shred the meat. Once you have it pulled, I suggest one more light application of the dry rub and there you go.

There is no sauce needed. Pawleys Island Pulled Pork: it is moist and juicy and packed with flavor.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 260Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 4gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 113mgSodium: 182mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 1gSugar: 1gProtein: 36g

Want More Authentic SC BBQ Recipes?

Check out our SC BBQ Cookbook . Complete with over 150 pages of recipes from generations-old family cookbooks and today’s top pitmasters.