Saw this recipe from Jeff Phillips on smoking-meat.com. I’ve made burnt ends from Brisket, Chuck Roast, Pork Belly and hotdogs, but never thought to try a pork butt. However, after walking through Meijer yesterday and finding one on sale for under $2.00/pound, I bought the smallest $12 one they had. What could go wrong with that? NOTHING!
My approach is a bit different from Jeff’s. I rubbed it with an appropriate rub and let it sit out while the smoker came up to temp at 225F. Let it ride the grill for about 6 hours, doing nothing to it, until it got to 170F. Pulled it from the grill, let it rest for about an hour, then cut it into 1″ squares. Since I didn’t start this journey until mid-afternoon, I refrigerated it until the next morning.
Melted 1 stick of butter with about 1/4C of my favorite hot sauce. Tossed the nuggets with the butter, hit it with more rub, and returned them to the smoker at 225F for 7 hours, stirring every 60-90 minutes and adding more rub occasionally. Hit them with a nice slathering of BBQ sauce and let them go another 2 hours. Pulled the pan from the grill set it at an angle to run off the butter and fat that didn’t get absorbed, letting the whole thing rest for about 30 minutes. Turned the burnt ends into sandwiches with pickles and onions. The McRib ain’t got nothing on this!
My son and I both reflected that if we had not known better, we would have thought these were beef rather than pork. So much better and leaner than pork belly, as I trimmed the fat away before cubing the meat. Will not hesitate to do this again!