Cooking smoked pulled pork butt low and slow on your backyard gas grill is easier than you think. With just a pork butt roast (AKA Boston butt), a dry rub, and wood chips, you can make juicy BBQ pulled pork with fantastic crusty bark and smoky flavor.
🐖Ingredients
Pork butt roast—AKA Boston butt
Dry Rub—brown sugar, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, kosher salt, black pepper OR dry rub of your choice
Wood chips for smoke
Jump To (scroll for more)
- 🐖Ingredients
- 👨🍳How to Cook and Smoke Pork Butt on a Gas Grill—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
- ⏲️How long to cook pork butt on a gas grill
- 👨🍳Ingredient variations and options
- 🐖Pulled Pork Recipes
- 🌡️What is the final internal temperature for pulled pork?
- 🔥Grill setup and smoking
- 🛒Grilling tools I recommend
- 🍴How to serve pulled pork
- ♨️How to reheat leftover pulled pork?
- ❄️Refregerating and freezing leftovers
- ❓FAQs
- What is "the stall," and what should I do?
- 🐖What is Pork Butt?
- 📖 Recipe
- Smoked Pulled Pork Butt on a Gas Grill
Featured Comment by EllenJ:
"Great recipe! Really. There are tons of recipes out there for gas grilled smoked pulled pork, many good ones. But yours hits ALL the marks, including illustrations and customizing suggestions. Thanks!"
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The best-pulled pork comes from pork butt, which is high in fat and connective tissue. Roast low and slow to melt the connective tissue, then add some smoke for juicy, tender meat that is heaven on earth.
Not everybody has a smoker, but we all deserve great smoked barbecued pulled pork. I smoke Boston butt on my gas grill, and you can too, with these easy step-by-step photo instructions.
Smoked pork butt is one of the "holy grails" of BBQ, along with BBQ Smoked Brisket and Grilled Baby Back Ribs.
👨🍳How to Cook and Smoke Pork Butt on a Gas Grill—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Mix pork butt rub or use the rub of your choice.
2. Apply the rub; if you have time, wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.
3. Set up your gas grill for indirect cooking at 250° with a drain pan. Add the meat to the indirect side over a drip pan.
4. Start your smoke. At least 1-2 hours, but more if you wish. I discussed this in the post below.
5. Cook at approximately 250° until 195°-200° minimum, but I prefer 200°-205°.—generally 6-8 hours.
6. Remove from the grill and wrap tightly in double sheets of aluminum foil and then towels for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
6. Hand shred with a couple of forks.
7. Best served freshly pulled.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏲️How long to cook pork butt on a gas grill
1 ½ to 2 hours per pound at 250° is a good estimate, so that a 4-pound pork butt will take about 6-8 hours. Smaller and bone-in pork butts tend to be a bit longer per pound since the cooking time is more related to thickness than weight.
If you maintain your temperature steady, it may take less time. The main tip to maintain consistent temp is to keep the grill hood closed as much as possible, and when opening, only open the minimum amount.
If you have a time-critical cook, do it the day before and reheat. Or do it early. Wrapping before shredding can take as little as 15 minutes or up to 4 hours wrapped well in an insulated cooler, giving you a big time buffer before shredding.
Always remember, you are cooking to a final internal temperature, not by time.
👨🍳Ingredient variations and options
Pork Butt Roast
Also known as Boston butt roast and sometimes called pork shoulder roast, which is incorrect and discussed below. I suggest using 4-5 pounds roast but use the size of your choice. Boneless or bone-in does not matter.
Boneless or bone-in pork butt will both work but bone-in will take a bit longer to cook since the bone will absorb some of the heat.
Pork butt dry rub
You can use the dry rub of your choice. I provided a simple version of my 8:3:1:1 BBQ Dry Rub, which uses brown sugar, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, kosher salt, and black pepper. You may also like my Memphis Dry Rub or Chipotle BBQ Dry Rub.
Wood chips
The type of your choice but hickory and apple are recommended.
🐖Pulled Pork Recipes
Oven Pulled Pork Butt
Oven Pulled Pork from pork butt is cooked in the oven low and slow. Our best-pulled pork recipe is tender and moist with delicious bark. Super easy, with almost no work—you rub, bake at 250° for 8 to 9 hours, shred, and eat.
Crock Pot Pulled Pork
This incredibly easy Crock Pot Pulled Pork recipe is made with pork butt (a.k.a. Boston butt). My method uses no liquid or searing—just a pork butt and a simple BBQ dry rub—add some liquid smoke if you want.
Check out the Pulled Pork Recipes without a Smoker roundup.
🌡️What is the final internal temperature for pulled pork?
I am going into this dangerous territory since there are many strong opinions. I go for 195°-200° minimum, but I much prefer 200°-205°. And I see 208° or 210° argued as the absolute best. Lower will be a bit moistier but a bit less tender, and higher is less moist but a bit more tender. I can't tell much difference. I'll take the middle ground.
Always check the internal temperature in multiple locations with an instant-read thermometer.
🔥Grill setup and smoking
- A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill
- How To Set Up Your Gas Grill for Smoking and Low and Slow Cooking including troubleshooting smoking issues.
Like most cooking, controlling the temperature is critical to success. You can use almost any grill, but it needs to be big enough for indirect cooking and able to control and maintain the temperature.
I find a gas grill easier to control at low temperatures than a pellet or charcoal grill, but use what you know and can control. With the charcoal grill, it will be harder to maintain an even cooking temperature.
A gas grill can use a lot of gas. If you are on a tank, start with a full one. It is always good to have a backup propane tank. If you run out of gas with no backup. Pop it in the oven at 250° until you reach your final temperature.
🔥Adding smoke
You need some method of adding wood smoke flavor. For years, I used a cast iron smoking box (link below). My grill now has a built-in smoking box, as do many.
You can make foil packages for smoking by adding a handful of wood chips to a one-foot square of foil seal the edges and poke 4-8 small holes in the top with a knife or fork.
I generally use hickory, but cherry, pecan, mesquite, and apple are commonly used.
🛒Grilling tools I recommend
For best results, you need a way to watch the temperature of the grill surface and the meat remotely so you don't keep opening the grill hood and dropping the grill temperature.
There are many fine products for monitoring temperature when cooking. Here are a few I suggest.
Notice: These links are affiliate links, meaning I make a small profit from your purchases. Your price is not affected by this commission. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.
Smoke™ by Thermoworks™
Thermapen™ One from Thermoworks™
Cast Iron Smoker Box
CDN Grill Surface Thermometer
🍴How to serve pulled pork
Assume about ⅓ pound per serving before cooking, making about ¼ pound of pulled pork. You want leftovers, and many people wish to have several sandwiches.
I tend not to do a lot of side dishes with pulled pork; it leaves more room for pork. Serve on hamburger buns with your favorite barbecue sauce, or just piles on a plate.
Typical side dishes are potato salad, chips, Macaroni Salad, Broccoli Salad, Microwave Corn on the Cob, Cornbread, or Convection Oven French Fries with frozen or fresh fries.
🥣Sauce suggestions
I suggest my homemade Memphis Barbecue Sauce. This sauce always disappears, and others are left untouched at parties. But use any sauce you love.
One quick reminder, do not reheat with BBQ sauce. The acid in it will destroy the texture of the meat.
♨️How to reheat leftover pulled pork?
Reheat on a sheet pan sprinkled with a sprinkle of water (don’t overdo it). Cover tightly with foil and into the oven at 250°-300° until hot—usually 30-45 minutes. I know that is not very exact, but you get the idea.
The time varies by how you shredded it and the amount on the tray. You can then turn the oven down (keep it covered) or transfer it to a crock pot on "keep warm" setting.
Never reheat with sauce applied—the acid will destroy the texture of pulled pork butt.
❄️Refregerating and freezing leftovers
Store leftovers in an airtight container refrigerated for 4 days or frozen for 4 months. If freezing allow the pork to cook completely then divide into approximately the amount you want per meal and seal tight in a Zip-lock bag flat.
❓FAQs
I don't, but you can add flavors and moisture with an injection. But pork butt is very moist, and I want it to taste like pork butt.
Trimming the fat pad does not matter other than decreasing the drainage. The tenderness and moisture of the final results come from melted connective tissue and internal fat, not the fat pad.
Likewise, fat pad up or down does not matter.
Tradition says yes, but most experts say not it is not needed. Some will say it prevents the wood from catching fire and that they smoke longer.
I have become convinced it doesn't matter, so I have removed that from the process.
What is "the stall," and what should I do?
Pork butts and beef brisket will hit a temperature "stall" when it starts to break down the connective tissue, and water comes out of cells and then evaporates from the surface, usually in the 160° range. It may last only minutes or hours. But the temperature will not move.
Think of it as the cooking energy melting the connective tissue (a good thing) and evaporating the water (not so good). You can prevent most of the evaporation by wrapping tightly. See the grill brisket recipe for more details about the stall and a "how-to" if interested.
What do I do about it? NOTHING, in my opinion, for the home grillers and smaller pork butts wrapping is not needed. It is a bigger problem with larger pork butts and whole briskets.
🐖What is Pork Butt?
Like many cuts of meat, there are several names for the same thing. Pork butt and Boston butt are the same cut. It is behind the neck and is part of a larger (primal) cut called the pork shoulder. The pork shoulder primal is divided into two smaller cuts, the pork butt (Boston butt) and the picnic shoulder. The term pork shoulder is incorrectly frequently used interchangeably with pork butt.
The pork butt is above the picnic shoulder in the pork shoulder primal cut. While the whole primal cut is well-marbled and tougher meat, the butt area has more connective tissue to melt and is the cut of choice for pulled pork and carnitas.
📖 Recipe
Smoked Pulled Pork Butt on a Gas Grill
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Ingredients
- 4-6 pounds Pork butt - boneless or bone-in
- 1 cup rub of your choice or my pork butt rub
- 3-4 cups wood chips - type of your choice
Pork butt rub - this makes just under one cup which is fine.
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Start with about a cup of the rub of your choice or my suggested rub.
- Apply the rub. If you have time, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least one hour or overnight.
- Set up your gas grill for indirect cooking with a drainage pan. Adjust the burners to get a steady 250°. Add the meat to the indirect side.
- Start your smoke. You can also apply smoke with a separate smoker box or an aluminum foil pouch with slots.
- Smoke for 1-2 hours or more. Cook at approximately 250° until 195°-200° minimum, but I prefer 200°-205°.—generally 6-8 hours.
- Remove from the grill and wrap tightly in double sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Wrap in towels for 30 minutes to 2 hours. You can extend this time by wrapping more and using a small insulated cooler—up to 3-4 hours.
- Hand shred with a couple of forks. The bone should come out clean. Best served freshly pulled.
Recipe Notes
Pro Notes:
- There are lots of tips in the full recipe post. If you are new to this, please read the post. And check the grill setup in How To Set Up Your Gas Grill for Smoking and Low and Slow Cooking.
- The estimated cooking time is 1 ½ to 2 hours per pound. But smaller pork butts tend to be longer than that. Bone-in also takes a bit longer.
- You must be able to monitor the grill surface temperature. Please do not try without it. You want 250° grill surface temperature. You also must be able to check the internal temperature of the meat.
- If you run out of gas, place it on a rimmed baking tray at 250° until you reach the final temperature.
- You can keep reapplying smoke, but 1 hour is good. I prefer hickory or apple chips.
- Do not keep opening the grill hood and interrupting the heat. It will take a lot longer to cook. When you must, only quickly open it a little way.
- Bone-in or boneless does not matter. And fat pad up or down does not matter.
- Use a rub of your choice. I provided a suggested rub. You may decrease the salt if you want. Many will add yellow mustard as a base on the pork before the rub.
- Done is 200°-205° internal temperature. Don't settle for under 190°.
- Do not shred immediately. Wrap with foil and let the fluid absorb for at least 15 minutes, but 1-2 hours is better.
- You can delay shedding to 3-4 hours by wrapping the foil-sealed butt in multiple towels and a small insulated cooler.
- Always shred it before it cools.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days, but I prefer two days since the texture seems to suffer. It will freeze well for 3-4 months.
- Reheating and serving are discussed in the post.
- Never reheat with sauce applied. The acid will destroy the texture.
- The most common errors are poor grill setup and smoking problems. Please see How To Set Up Your Gas Grill for Smoking and Low and Slow Cooking.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's Note: Originally Posted July 15, 2012. This recipe has been one of the more popular recipes on the site and was way overdue for a facelift. Photos have been re-edited with a few from other recipes to clarify things. Please enjoy learning how to cook pulled pork on your gas grill.
Bobby says
Started cooking at 5:30 pm with an 8.5 lb butt. Had my teenage daughter help to apply the rub about midnight last night (family time) and let it marinate 17 hours. Hope this is done between 8:00 and 9:00 am. Looking for about 10 family members to arrive about 1:00 pm tomorrow. Can't wait, but gives us time to prepare all the other stuff.
Heidi Barnard says
Hi Dan, I mixed up more if your rub than I needed for my 6.3 lb butt that I will cook tomorrow. Can you save the unused rub? So excited to try this in the gas grill tomorrow.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Heidi,
Welcome to the blog.
I'm sure you will enjoy your pork. Slow cooked pork butt is always great.
The extra rub is good for 3-4 months if sealed tightly with not much air. So I use a ziplock bag and force the air out. So I use it on things like pork tenderloin or country style ribs.
Dan
Pat says
How many propane tanks will I
Have to use ? It is a full tank and I have a 4 lb pork butt.
DrDan says
Hi Pat,
Welcome to the blog.
I have used a direct natural gas line for 20 years but before that had many propane grills. One tank should do it on most grills. Grills can consume gas at variable rates but your burners on low. But I always had a spare tank just in case.
This time of year, I usually do my oven version of this recipe.
Good luck with it.
Dan
Larry says
Tried this method last night. Result was over cooked and dried out. I think 250 is too hot. I had a 6.1 lb butt cooked to 194 after 11 hrs using the probes to monitor temps. The exterior meat was inedible and inside very dry. Will try again but keep temp between 200 and 225 and pull off at 190. Rub however was good.
Adrian Stasiuk says
Dr.
I was able to get the shoulder from Costco with no bone. Great fat and marbling though. Anything I should be aware of minus the bone.
DrDan says
Hi Adrian and welcome to the site.
The boneless and the bone-in cook approximately the same. I love the smoking on the grill but I also have an excellent oven recipe (super easy) and a very good crockpot recipe (the shame of cooking it in a crock pot).
Good luck with it.
Dan
Kristin M says
I didn't see your reply until after I started the process haha but I basically followed your recipe but with a few tweaks. Made the rub minus chili powder but added a bit more onion, garlic, s&p, cumin, and paprika and let it marinade overnight along with soaking hickory chips. Put it on the grill at 250°F for about 5.5 hours and let it rest for 15 mins. Shredded it dry and it's so good! I highly recommend trying a large loin this way.
Kristin M says
Forgot to say that we served it with a Kansas city style BBQ sauce and garlic aioli on the side. Served with roasted sweet potato cubes and skillet corn off the cob. Trust me on this one!
Kristin M says
I have a 5.5lb boneless loin roast, would the cooking time need adjusted bc its doesnt have a bone? Thanks!
DrDan says
Hi Kristin,
Don't do it. They are so totally different in cooking methods.
You can do shredded pork by brasing it or cut it into some very nice pork chops. See https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/category/pork-loin/ for some ideas.
Let me know if you have questions.
Dan
George Johnson says
Cooking mine now.. :) Just curious about something - The boiling point of water is 212 deg F.. So i'm assuming a continual steam bath.. Question is, did you have to keep adding water to the water tray due to evaporation? if so, did you boil before adding as to maintain the 250 deg F?
Thanks in advance!
- G
DrDan says
Hi George,
The water seems to last most or all the cooking time and helps with cleanup. No steam bath and I never replace it if it evaporates. The last cooking I was testing multiple thermometers so I know the surface temp was correct and it lasted the whole time, heat rises I guess. Also skipping it should have no effect.
Jay says
Well, here it is 1:30am Maryland time. Just finished giving my 4.5lb Pork Shoulder a good rub down, using Doc's recipe. Up at 7 and let the smoking begin. Hickory chips are bathing and the grill is marked for 250 . Have my electronic thermo. As long as the natural gas don't get shut off, I'm good to go! Premade some Eastern Carolina vinegar sauce to go with it. Will post follow up.
Frank says
Thanks for sharing. This was really great! My girlfriend and I ended up mixing the brown sugar sauce, same quantity : )
Rob says
I spent the day working around the yard, but not before following your process/recipe. I put a small 3.5 pounder on the grill at 11am, and it just hit 190 degrees at 6pm. I'm hungry! But it's going to get wrapped in foil and into the cooler til 8pm. I guess its steak tonight, and pulled pork tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
DrDan says
Cut the waiting time to 30 minutes and eat tonight...2 hours is traditional but I have been known to cheat...
Dan
Jason says
The pulled pork just looks so tasty! I can't wait to try that one myself, though the preparation is really loong! I kinda just want to skip on it and just go directly to eating. lol!
Chris says
That's how I started out smoking on my natural gas grill around 2002, but I never did a pork butt that way, just ribs.
Mary says
This looks amazing! That photo with the sauce is truly mouthwatering.
LocalDailySpecials.com says
Great tip on wrapping in the foil and putting in the cooler. Had pulled pork on the 4th of July made in a crock pot. Love that you used the grill
Melissa says
The preparation time is agonizing. I can't wait to eat it LOL.