Carolina Pulled Pork with Lexington Red Sauce

Sorry I'm just now posting this - week got away from me but anyways here's what I did...

Menu: Carolina Pulled Pork with Lexington Red Sauce on hamburger buns with store bought potato salad

Carolina Pulled Pork with Lexington Red Sauce

Ingredients:
Pork:
8 hickory wood chunks (about 4 pounds)
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (I just used brown sugar)
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (5-pound) bone-in pork shoulder (Boston butt)
1 cup cider vinegar
2 1/4 cups water, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon canola oil
Cooking spray

Sauce:
1 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1. To prepare pork, soak wood chunks in water about 16 hours; drain. (Nix this if you're doing the crockpot)

2. Combine turbinado sugar and next 4 ingredients (through ground red pepper); reserve 2 tablespoons sugar mixture. Rub half of the remaining sugar mixture onto pork. Place in a large zip-top plastic bag; seal and refrigerate pork overnight.

3. Remove pork from refrigerator; let stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Rub remaining half of sugar mixture onto pork.

4. Place the pork in the crockpot and combine reserved 2 tablespoons sugar mixture, 1 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup water, 1 teaspoon salt, and oil in a small saucepan; add this to the crockpot OR cook over low heat 10 minutes or until sugar dissolves.

5. Skip this step if crockpot cooking: Remove grill rack; set aside. Prepare grill for indirect grilling, heating one side to medium-low and leaving one side with no heat. Maintain temperature at 225°. Pierce bottom of a disposable aluminum foil pan several times with the tip of a knife. Place pan on heated side of grill; add half of wood chunks to pan. Place another disposable aluminum foil pan (do not pierce pan) on unheated side of grill. Pour remaining 2 cups water in pan. Coat grill rack with cooking spray; place on grill. Place pork on grill rack over foil pan on the unheated side. Close lid, and cook for 4 1/2 hours or until a thermometer registers 170°, gently brushing pork with vinegar mixture every hour (avoid brushing off sugar mixture). Add additional wood chunks halfway during cooking time. Discard any remaining vinegar mixture. Preheat oven to 250°. Remove pork from grill. Wrap pork in several layers of aluminum foil, and place in a baking pan. Bake at 250° for 2 hours or until a thermometer registers 195°. Remove from oven. Let stand, still wrapped, for 1 hour or until pork easily pulls apart. Unwrap pork; trim and discard fat. Shred pork with 2 forks.

6. To prepare sauce, combine 1 cup vinegar and remaining ingredients in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1 1/4 cups (about 5 minutes). Serve sauce warm or at room temperature with pork.

7. After your pork has cooked, shred it and take 1/2 of the meat and seat aside for Thursday night's Fajitas. Then mix with the bbq sauce and serve!
   

I served this on hamburger buns with store bought potato salad. Super yummy