Best 2 North Carolina Pulled Pork Barbecue Recipes

NORTH CAROLINA PULLED-PORK BARBECUE

Steps:

• Bring vinegar to a boil with sugar, red-pepper flakes, 2 tsp salt, and 1 Tbsp pepper in a small nonreactive saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then cool. Set aside 2 cups vinegar sauce to serve with sandwiches.
• While sauce cools, score pork skin in a crosshatch pattern with a sharp knife (forming 1-inch diamonds), cutting through skin and fat but not into meat. Pat meat dry and rub all over with 1 Tbsp each of salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before grilling.
• Prepare grill for indirect-heat cooking over low heat, leaving space in middle for disposable roasting pan.
• When coals have cooled to about 300°F (45 minutes to 1 hour; when most coals will have burned out), put disposable roasting pan on bottom rack of grill between the 2 remaining mounds of coals, then fill pan halfway with water. Add a couple of handfuls of unlit charcoal to each charcoal mound, then put grill rack on so hinges are over coals.
• Oil grill rack, then put pork, skin side up, on rack above roasting pan. Grill pork, with lid ajar (for air, so coals remain lit), basting meat with sauce and turning over every 30 minutes (to maintain a temperature of 250 to 275°F, add a couple of handfuls of coals to each side about every 30 minutes), until fork-tender (a meat fork should insert easily) and an instant-read thermometer inserted 2 inches into center of meat (avoid bone) registers 190°F, 7 to 8 hours total.
• Transfer pork to a cutting board. If skin is not crisp, cut it off with at least 1/4 inch fat attached (cut any large pieces into bite-size ones) and roast, fat side down, in a 4-sided sheet pan in a 350°F oven until crisp, 15 to 20 minutes.
• When meat is cool enough to handle, shred it using 2 forks. Transfer to a bowl.
• Serve pork, cracklings, and coleslaw together on buns. Serve reserved vinegar sauce on the side.

NORTH CAROLINA-STYLE PULLED PORK BARBECUE

Steps:

• Prepare the barbecue sauce the day before cooking the meat.
• Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
• In a large (6- to 8- quart) ovenproof casserole or flameproof roasting pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add meat, and brown on all sides, about 8 minutes a side. Remove meat and wipe out casserole.
• Place a rack in the bottom of the casserole. Put the meat on the rack, and cover with 2 1/2 cups barbecue sauce. Cover and cook for about 4 hours, basting occasionally, until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the meat reaches 150 to 180 degrees. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.
• Gently heat remaining barbecue sauce. When meat is cool enough to handle, trim and discard fat. Shred meat coarsely by hand, or pull it with two forks. Put shredded meat in a large bowl, and toss with warmed sauce. Serve on rolls or slices of white bread, with coleslaw and bread-and-butter pickles on the side.