Smoked Pulled Pork is a delicious, simple dinner. Cooked on a Traeger grill or made in your crockpot, it is the best game day recipe!
I’m so excited to share this BBQ Pulled Pork recipe with you guys! This recipe is seriously so delicious, and easily one of our favorite things that we have made on our Traeger grill! Cooking on pellet grills gives your food that great smoke flavor with ease!
We absolutely love our Traeger grill and enjoy the flavor it gives to everything we cook on it. Even if you don’t have a Traeger, you can use another smoker/grill or cook this pulled pork in the crockpot or oven with just a few minutes of prep work required!
We want to thank Traeger for generously gifting us this grill. This post is not sponsored by them but the grill was a gift that we are certainly enjoying!
Ingredients
To make this recipe you’ll need:
- fresh ground coffee
- garlic powder, onion powder (I like to use garlic granules and onion granules which work well too)
- sea salt, black pepper (a coarse salt and pepper does well on a large piece of meat)
- paprika (use smoked paprika to give it added smokey flavor if cooking this in the oven/crock-pot)
- boneless pork butt (also known as pork shoulder, picnic shoulder or boston butt)
Substitutions
Pork: We used a boneless pork butt for this recipe but a bone in pork butt will work as well, your cook time will be extended so I would plan for a few extra hours of cook time. This recipe will also work on pork tenderloin, chuck roast, and even a boneless lamb roast! We also have a Healthy Pulled Pork recipe that uses pork tenderloins and a Slow Cooker Pulled Pork.
Spices: Feel free to use more or less of the spices in this recipe. If you don’t have one of the spices add a little bit more of the others to compensate. You can add smoked paprika and chili powder to give it a little extra smokey flavor if you are cooking this in the oven or crockpot.
BBQ Sauce: We love the tender salty flavor of plain smoked pulled pork but if you want to toss it with your favorite BBQ sauce and make a sandwich we love Lillies BBQ Sauce.
How to make Traeger Pulled Pork:
- Make your coffee bbq rub. Mix your spices together and set aside. The coffee grounds really bring this seasoning together with rest of the spices.
- Prepare your pork. I used Butcher Box’s Pork Butt. FYI- pork butt is a pretty fatty cut of meat, so if you’re looking for something leaner I’d go with a pork tenderloin.
- Trim a significant amount of fat off the pork butt and generously coat with your coffee BBQ rub, leave a small excess of fat on the exterior as this will create a nice bark and barrier to keep your meat tender on the smoker/grill.
- Preheat your smoker or oven to 250 degrees, I like to use apple or cherry pellets/wood chips for my pork but any kind will work well. Put the pork on your smoker, close the lid and set a timer for 3 hours. If you are cooking this in the oven you can simply place the pulled pork in an oven safe baking dish with a lid or tinfoil, bake it for 6 hours and let it rest for an additional hour after cooking is completed in the oven.
- At the 3 hour mark on your smoker you should have a really nice exterior bark on the pulled pork. At this time, you can wrap the pulled pork in tinfoil or use a heat safe baking dish and place the pork in that for 3 more hours. Once finished, let the pork butt rest for at least an hour before taking it out and pulling it.
The hardest part about this recipe is waiting! After 6 hours on the grill and an hour of resting the pork shoulder, this is what it looked like.
Like HELLO!! Do you see that caramelized bark on the edges?! OMG it is heavenly! (PS, if you make it in the crockpot you’re definitely not going to get that, but the flavor will still be there!
Alright, last but not least… Pull the pork + DIG IN! There is nothing better than leftover pulled pork sandwiches, this Traeger smoked pulled pork is a fantastic game day option for family and friends.
Tips for making this recipe:
- You can rub the pork in the coffee bbq rub up to a day in advance.
- Wrapping the pork in tinfoil or using a baking dish with a lid helps the meat fibers break down and the fat slowly melts into the meat as it coos over a long period of time, this helps you get fall apart tender pulled pork.
If you have a Traeger, you NEED to try this pulled pork recipe on it! And even if you don’t – toss this in the crockpot or oven for a yummy weeknight dinner! We hope you love it as much as we do!
What to serve with BBQ Pulled Pork:
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- Roasted Potatoes
- Crispy Smashed Potatoes
- Cornbread
- Healthy Green Beans Almondine
- For even more ideas, check out these Healthy Side Dishes
Other healthy grilling recipes:
Looking for other grilling recipes? Check out these 40+ Healthy Grilling Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy grilling cookbook.
Traeger Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ground coffee
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 3.5 lbs boneless pork butt
Instructions
For the Traeger:
- Make your coffee bbq rub. Mix your spices together and set aside. The coffee grounds really bring this seasoning together with rest of the spices.
- Prepare your pork. I used Butcher Box's Pork Butt. FYI- pork butt is a pretty fatty cut of meat, so if you're looking for something leaner I'd go with a pork tenderloin. Trim a significant amount of fat off the pork butt and generously coat with your coffee BBQ rub, leave a small excess of fat on the exterior as this will create a nice bark and barrier to keep your meat tender on the smoker/grill.
- Preheat your smoker or oven to 250 degrees, I like to use apple or cherry pellets/wood chips for my pork but any kind will work well. Put the pork on your smoker once preheated and close the lid. Set a timer for 3 hours.
- At the 3 hour mark on your smoker you should have a really nice exterior bark on the pulled pork. At this time, you can wrap the pulled pork in tinfoil or use a heat safe covered baking dish and place the pork in that for 3 more hours.
- The pork butt is finished when it hits an internal temperature of 200 degrees while wrapped, you can use an instant read thermometer to check this and insert right through the tinfoil to check or use the probes provided by Traeger. Let the pork butt rest for at least an hour before taking it out and pulling it. Serve with cornbread, veggies, and enjoy!
For the crockpot:
- Whisk together Coffee BBQ rub. Trim the fat off the pork butt to help make it leaner. Generously coat the pork in the coffee BBQ rub on all sides.
- Place the pork in the crockpot with 1/3 cup of water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until fork tender.
- Remove the pork from the crockpot + pull the pork until it is shredded. Take some of the excess cooking liquid from the crockpot and ladle over the pulled pork for some extra flavor. Serve alongside veggies + cornbread.
Barb Harris says
Could you make this with a pork loin? Just thinking about the fat. Thank you!!
The Clean Eating Couple says
I always include my recommended substitutions in the blog post: This recipe will also work on pork tenderloin. You’ll need to adjust the cook time. We also have a Healthy Pulled Pork recipe that uses pork tenderloins and a Slow Cooker Pulled Pork.
Terri says
I made this in the crockpot today and it was amazing! I’ve never tried a coffee rub because I thought it would be too strong, but it was so good. Thank you!
Ginnie says
I completely forgot to put this in the crockpot this morning. Can it be done in an instant pot? Any suggestions for how?
The Clean Eating Couple says
I’ve never tried to make this in an instant pot – you can google ‘instant pot pork butt’ and maybe find a comparable recipe but I can’t guarantee it will work – sorry!
Elizabeth says
Made this in our cast iron Dutch oven. Succulent pork shoulder. My husband said it best “it tastes like coffee smells, but has a smokey flavor too.”
Went ahead and made several batches of the rub to keep on hand.
Can’t wait to make this again.
The Clean Eating Couple says
So glad you liked it, Elizabeth!! This makes me so happy to hear!
Jessica says
How long did you cook it in the dutch oven?
Annette says
This was so good! Everyone in the family loved it. Very flavorful and the spice ingredients you always have on hand. I seared it on all sides and then put in the crock pot. I would love to use a BBQ for it eventually.
The Clean Eating Couple says
I’m SO glad you liked it, Annette! It definitely is perfect for a BBQ 🙂
Jeff Shft says
We shared this coffee BBQ pulled pork today. Everyone in the family loves it! Every bite burst with happiness, it’s like the heaven opened its gates. This is so good, so thumbs up!