Pulled Pork
Spice-rubbed pork shoulder slow-roasted until it shreds.
Ingredients
- 2000 g Pork shoulder
- 60 g Brown sugar
- 2 tbsp Smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp Garlic powder
- 1 tsp Cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 8 Burger buns (optional)
Method
- Heat the oven to 150°C (300°F); mix the rub of brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne, and salt.
- Coat the pork all over with the rub.
- Roast low and covered until the pork pulls apart easily, about 3.5 hours.
- Rest, then shred the pork with two forks.
- Pile onto buns to serve.
Tap “Start cooking” for live timers that flag what to get ahead on while something simmers.
About Pulled Pork
Pulled pork is a cornerstone of American barbecue, rooted especially in the Carolinas where a whole shoulder is cooked low and slow until the connective tissue melts and the meat gives up its structure entirely. This oven version trades the smoker for a covered dish but keeps the essential logic: a sugar-and-spice rub, a long stint at low heat, and enough patience for a tough, fatty cut to become tender. Pork shoulder is the right cut precisely because it's laced with fat and collagen that need hours to break down — you can't rush it, and you wouldn't want to.
The reward is deeply savory, faintly sweet meat that shreds into strands with two forks, the smoked paprika and brown sugar building a dark, mildly spiced crust while a whisper of cayenne keeps it from being one-note. Resting before you pull it lets the juices redistribute so the shreds stay moist rather than stringy. It's a crowd feeder by design — this batch serves eight — and the classic move is to pile it onto soft buns, ideally with a sharp slaw and a splash of sauce to cut the richness, making it ideal for a cookout, a game day, or any gathering where you'd rather cook once and feed many.
Pulled Pork: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Pulled Pork?
A serving has about 417 calories — 49.9g protein, 11.1g carbs, 18.5g fat, 1.6g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 49.9g of protein, roughly 48% of its calories.
Is Pulled Pork gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Burger buns. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.
How long does Pulled Pork take to make?
About 240 minutes start to finish, but only around 25 of those are hands-on — the rest is largely unattended cooking time you can step away from. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
Do I need every ingredient to make Pulled Pork?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out burger buns — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Pulled Pork make?
This recipe makes 8 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.