This Boston butt begins with an overnight dry rub marinade, then cooks low and slow in your oven, producing a roasted exterior crusting with a beautifully tender pork. It's perfect to pull for sandwiches, or to use in other recipes like Piggy Mac, hot pork dips and pulled pork spaghetti.

Oven Roasted Pulled Pork

I reckon nothing makes a proQ'er crazier than home cook versions of pulled pork. Can't blame them really. A quality, authentic wood-smoked pulled pork takes a lot of time, love and attention. The finished product is certainly worthy of praise.

I'm pretty sure that I can speak for many of us home cooks when I say we would gladly take a plate of delicious pulled pork and burnt ends that someone slaved over and carefully monitored in a wood fired smoker all day long. We would be ultra-thrilled, but for us home cooks, as the saying goes ain't nobody got time (or patience) for that!

Okay, well some of you might. But I do not.

Just a quick reminder.... this is a blog, not just a "recipe site," and yes, there is a difference! I want to first thank all of you who have supported my work over the years, but if you aren't interested in the chit chat, info, photos, tips and such in a post, as always, you'll find the complete recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll down to the bottom of the post!

Now... as home cooks go, we also love those oven baked, fall off the bone ribs we make too, which also drives proQ'ers nuts and they will promptly let us know that "fall off the bone" means they are overcooked.

Well... if that's an overcooked rib, don't undercook mine!

Fall off the bone, oven cooked ribs are flavorful and tender and delicious and just the way I, and many of you, love them.

So, all that to say I have a double whammy here because I am preparing this Boston Butt for pulled pork... in the oven!

Now, obviously, you aren't going to get that lovely smoke ring, or smokey flavor, but it's nicely roasted, first with a short-term higher heat and then reduced to a low and slow temperature for several hours, so it's perfect for cold weather cooking to help warm up the house. 

As far as pulled pork, I do love trying different "home cook" methods for sure.

1. The first pulled pork I ever published was this one, "The Easiest (Cheater) Pulled Pork Ever, No Kidding." Honestly, I was skeptical about it myself, but it turned out remarkably well, though it is sure to make a lot of people crazy because of the method!
2. I was never a big slow cooker user, but the next version I did was a Carolina-Style in the crockpot. It's different from what I am accustomed to, but it too was delicious and so easy!
3. That was followed by another slow cooker version cooked with onion and a great sauce.
4. Yet another slow cooker recipe followed that, this one a simple three ingredient pulled pork, because it's typically made with a pork roast, barbecue sauce and most often, either Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper or root beer.
5. And, the most recently published version was with the Instant Pot one of the best modern appliances out there!

This roasted pulled pork is also a great version to put up in the freezer for future sandwiches, piggy mac, hot barbecue dip and BBQ-Sketti.

Here's how to make my Oven Roasted Pulled Pork, and heads up, it's preferable that you apply the rub and allow the meat to marinate overnight, so plan ahead!

We're going to start off with a simple rub. Brown sugar, paprika, onion and garlic powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, black pepper, thyme.

I've got this nice 5-pound fresh, Boston butt pork roast, but a pork shoulder works nicely too. Put it into a non-reactive dish (like glass) that you can stick in your fridge.

Combine all of the rub ingredients.

Apply the rub all over.

Refrigerate uncovered for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight. Remove from refrigerator and let roast rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F, or whatever the highest cooking temperature is on your oven (but not the broiler folks!). Transfer roast to a heavy-duty foil or metal roasting pan or other baker that can withstand high heat and cook uncovered for 20 minutes. (I admit I was pushing it with this glass dish!)

Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

Carefully cover roast with foil, and continue cooking, covered, for about 5 hours, or until it registers 195 degrees F on an instant read thermometer. An in-oven thermometer is excellent. To test, stick a large meat fork in the roast and twist. If it easily pulls, it's ready! Prepare sauce and set aside to cool while the butt is cooking.

Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes. Pull meat while still warm and douse with half of the sauce, reserving the remainder for dressing the meat on individual servings. A good pair of heat-resistant BBQ gloves are a handy tool to have.

For more of my favorite pork recipes, check out this collection on my Pinterest page!






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Posted by DeepSouthDish.com on January 28, 2023

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