Smoked Cajun Carolina Pulled Pork - Southern BBQ Sauce Contest

Our second winning recipe in the Southern BBQ Sauce Bar-B-Que Locker Contest came from Lawrence VanZomeren with SOLA Tailgating.

Lawrence VanZomeren receives his Southern Bar-B-Que Locker from Jay Ducote

Here is Lawrence's recipe for Smoked Cajun Carolina Pulled Pork:


Smoked Cajun Carolina Pulled Pork
Prep:
The pork shoulder will start early Friday evening by being placed in brine.  The purpose for the brine is to seal the juices into the pork shoulder while it is on the smoker.  The recipe for the brine is
2 gallons distilled water
1.5 cups of molasses
1 cup of brown sugar
1.5 cups of salt (no iodine) or sea salt
1 cup of southern Bar-b-q seasoning salt
The brine and the pork shoulder will be kept refrigerated overnight for no less than 8 hours. I will use the process of smoking the shoulder to cook the meat. Once done brining I will dry the meat with paper towel and apply the Southern Cajun rub extremely heavy.

Cooking:
Once at the tailgate party I will fire up the smoker and get the wood chips smoking. The best way to cook the shoulder is to do it keep it smoky and cook it for a long time and at a low temperature.  I will use apple wood chips for the flavor.  Smoking the shoulder will last the first ¾ of the time and then it will just cook the last ¼ this all depends on my experiences and how I feel the shoulder is cooking up

After the meat is removed from the smoker it will sit and not be touched for 30min in a pan covered with tin foil.  After the resting period the pork will be pulled and the southern bar-b-q sauce will be added.  The flavors of the brown sugar in the brine and the brown sugar sauce will come together very nicely.  

The Cajun Carolina Pork Shoulder rests before getting pulled apart and mixed with sauce

Special thanks to Matherne's on Highland at Kenilworth for supplying the meat!