We know how daunting the task of cooking several pounds of meat can be, so we created our Easy Pulled Pork recipe! The entire process takes anywhere from three to four hours, depending on the amount of meat you cook, but we’ve given you the ultimate steps to achieve the perfect pulled pork every time.
Slow-Cooked Pork
Use our cooking method to ensure the meat has been cooked long enough and that it can be easily shredded by fork or hand. You’ll first cook it covered to ensure a tender and moist meat, then uncovered at a higher temperature to achieve a crispy outer coating.
The internal temperature will be 190 degrees at its perfect level of cooked! We’ve honed in on the correct cooking times for 8-10 pound pork shoulders, but if yours is significantly larger or smaller, you’ll want to scale the cooking times accordingly.
Easy Pulled Pork Dry Rub
​
If you can’t tell from my face below, this Easy Pulled Pork has replaced Matthew as the love of my life. At this point, we had brined it overnight and then rubbed it down with a simple, yet flavorful seasoning mix. While brining is optional, it helps keep the meat moist, and when you’re cooking meat for over three hours, you don’t want to end up with dried out meat.
Oven Pulled Pork
We got this bad boy perfectly cooked and pulled after oven roasting it for four and a half hours. It was a long wait, but worth the end result. We opted to go with a brine and rub, but if you need a little sauce in your life our Low Carb BBQ Sauce would pair great with this beast of a meat. You could even go a little crazy and use our Low Carb Rolls to make pulled pork sandwiches!
See our list of the best keto side dishes for BBQ season for more inspiration!
Easy Pulled Pork
Ingredients:
Brine
- 9 lbs pork butt
- 1/2 cup Pink Himalayan Salt
- 2 tbsp liquid smoke
- Water Enough to cover pork!
Rub
- 1.5 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 2 tsp Paprika
- 4 tsp black pepper
- 3 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt
- 1/4 cup mustard
- 2 tsp liquid smoke
Instructions:
- The ingredients used above are for a 9lb pork butt. Cut pork butt in half and brine for 90 minutes or overnight (preferable) in plastic bags in the brine mixture (split).
- Combine all dry ingredients for rub and completely coat the brined pork.
- Combine liquid smoke and mustard and coat seasoned pork thoroughly.
- Place pork on baking sheet with rack (if you have one) and wrap very tightly with parchment paper and aluminum foil. Be sure to coat several times if necessary.
- Place in 325 degree oven for 3 hours.
- Take pork out of oven, unwrap completely and turn the oven up to 375 degrees.
- Place the unwrapped pork back into a 375 degree oven for an additional 90 minutes. Internal temp should be 190 degrees.
- Allow to cool before shredding. Enjoy!
Notes
Written by
Megha Barot
Megha has always been a passionate cook, but she took this to a new level after starting her keo journey in 2015. She loves creating new recipes and producing educational content for KetoConnect, which she co-founded in 2016 with Matt. Her passion for healthy eating and personal development continues to thrive. She's the proud mom of two awesome kids.
I was also confused by the wrapping. The cook time wasn’t long enough and it didn’t shred, so I will cook longer or try crockpot.
This was the first time I made something like this. So good.
I’m confused by all the right wrapping of the meat with both paper and foil… Did you ever try this recipe without wrapping? you can def bake/oven roast a roast for as long as this is, without the meat drying out. Curious.
you should try cooking the pork in acv. I use 2 cups of the left over juice after its cooked and mix in red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper and I used to use 2 tbsp. of brown sugar but you can use whatever sub you like. its prob my favorite thing I make. I am def going to give this a try
also I cook it in the crock pot on low for like 6 to 8 hrs.
If you have an Instant Pot, pulled pork couldn’t be easier – and it’s fast too. I have a batch cooking as I’m typing this. 🙂
I cut up the pork into large chunks (3-5 oz chunks). Don’t worry about the size too much since you’re just going to shred it later. Add the chunks into the Instapot with your seasonings, set it to pressure cook for 90 mins and turn it on. For seasonings, I usually just put in Hawaiian red sea salt and it comes out delicious. Next time, I’ll try the recipe from here as sounds great.
When the pork is done, grab some tongs, pull out the pork goodness and pop them in a bowl, then use the tongs to break up the chunks which are basically just falling apart anyway.
The pork shoulder I get from Costco is usually about 15 lbs so I will usually make about 3 separate batches. If you have a bigger Instant pot, you could probably do it in 2 batches.
Prior to starting my keto diet ~2 weeks ago, I used to discard whatever was left in the Instant Pot after cooking the pork. Now, though, I pour that tasty goodness into large coffee mugs, cover them, and pop them in the fridge. If I need a snack or more fat, I heat up a mug with a small squirt of Sriracha and it’s delicious. I usually get about 3-4 12 oz mugs per batch. Note – these mugs have quite a bit of fat on top, so be careful when reheating in a microwave otherwise it can make a mess in there. Heat it up slow on low/med temp and stir it a couple times – and make sure to have a cover on it just in case.
Wow, that was amazing! Made the recipe and was blessed with a TON of delicious pulled pork. I used my KitchenAid to help shred the meat. It was so tender but also had some delicious crispy bits on the outside. Thanks so much!
Are you using a 1/4 cup of yellow mustard?
Yes
Is it ok to smoke the pork butt instead of using the oven?
That sounds delicious
I want to make this for my husband! Does this reheat well?
Yes it reheats great! Store it in a sealed container in the fridge up to a week and it should be good to reheat 🙂
This looks so good! I wanted to cook this but my husband is allergic to mustard, do you have any recommendations for substitute ingredients or would the rub be ok without it?
Should be okay without it, might want to add a small amount of oil to add liquid to the rub.
What would the serving size be?
We made 24 servings. We don’t weigh/measure the serving size for this. Sorry.
Hi I only have a 4lb pork roast and no idea how to scale down this recipe and cooking time, any help would be immensely appreciated!
Cut everything in half, cook for the same amount of time.
Making this tomorrow! Just finished the brine, and the pork is in the fridge! Thank you guys for such awesome recipes. They’ve been very helpful for a keto-newbie like me.
Hi there!
Can’t wait to try this, my pork is about 3-4 lbs, it’s a baby butt. How long do you think I should cook it for? I assume I should cut the times that are recommended in half?
I’ve never cooked a pork in the oven! 😀 Thanks!
Hello! this looks like something my husband and I will love!
We want to start Keto in September… just wondering what the macros are per serving on this?
Thank you!
The macros are listed at the bottom of the blog post!
Did you use a pork shoulder with the bone? I’ve never cooked with pork shoulder before so I have no idea what I’m doing. I tried to cut mine in half and it didn’t really work out as planned so I’m sort of winging it. haha. Any tips are appreciated! (Btw, mine does have the bone in)
We got a Boston Butt or Pork Butt. It has a bone in it, but you can easily cut it in half and have the bone remaining in one of the sides and the other side not having any bone in it. It’s totally fine to just keep it whole also. Our pork butt was 9 lbs, so it would have taken to long to cook if we kept it whole. If you get a pork shoulder I would keep it whole as the bones are more centrally located in that.
Guy’s we do a dry rub as well and cook it all day in the crock pot with a little water in the bottom keeping it moist and tender! Can’t mess this one up, easy for the guy’s to do as well… Tears apart ND shreds nice and easy with 2 forks!
any idea how to do this recipe in a slow cooker?
Greg, we haven’t had a crock pot in some time so you would probably be best off to just look up a slow cooker recipe and adapt these ingredients to that.
Cooking it in a slow cooker is a moist heat method. Slow cooking in the oven is dry heat and will give you a difernt result. Slow cooker= softer meat. Oven cooked = moist inside and a nice crust on the outside.
Just a quick note to let you know I served this up with the bbq sauce and the other goodies at my dinner party and it went down an absolute blast! Everyone loved it! Thanks so much, you guys make the keto diet fun and innovative. Keep up the good work!! 😀
This recipe looks amazing! I’m having a dinner party in two weeks with me being the only keto eater. I’ve been fretting over what to cook for everyone. Not now though 😀 this pork, the bbq sauce, the keto rolls and the pigs in blankets recipe for finger snacks is going to be a winner! thank you so much for all the hard work you put into these recipes. 🙂