How to Smoke a Boston Butt in an Electric Smoker

Is pork or boston butt your favourite smoked meat but you can’t eat it as often as you would like because of its complex smoking recipe? Or are you a party host who plans to master smoking boston butts and earn cheers with their cuisine? Whatever the case is, know that you have stumbled upon the right place and will leave this site only after learning and perfecting your boston butts.

Here, our main emphasis will be on smoking Boston butt using an electric smoker. Any user of this smoking machine knows exactly how complex it can be to use if you are not aware of its equipment and usage. For this very reason, we have compiled the most comprehensive guide for you that will require your minimum effort and produce finger-licking smoked Boston butt.

If you don’t have an electric smoker, then take a look at my guide to the best electric smokers

What ingredients to do you need?

Let us start by discussing the ingredients needed to smoke Boston butt in an electric smoker. This can be divided into three separate sections, the injection liquid, spice rub, and Boston butt itself.

Ingredients required for making:

1. Injection Liquid

  • Large size syringe
  • Half cup spice rub
  • Half cup unsalted butter
  • One-fourth of apple cider vinegar
  • Half spoon white pepper
  • Half spoon ground cumin
  • Two cups apple cider
  • One-fourth cup brown sugar

2. Spice Rub

  • Two teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • Two tablespoons garlic powder
  • Half cup brown sugar
  • One-fourth kosher salt
  • One-fourth grounded black pepper
  • Three tablespoons sweet paprika
  • Two tablespoons chili powder

3. Boston Butt

For this step, other than the essentials of electric smoker including water and drip trays and wood chips, you need about eight pounds of pork butt, apple juice and mustard.

Step 1: Preparing the Boston Butt

Start preparing your boston butt by chopping off any additional fat or silver skin from your meat. You can save these trimmings to be used as stock as well. Next, prepare your injection liquid using all the ingredients mentioned above and mixing them well. Add some spice rub into it and let it simmer inside your saucepan.

As soon as your liquid has cooled down, inject it in your pork using a large size syringe and clean up any spilled droplets. Now, pat your pork’s skin and massage it with yellow mustard until it is completely covered. This will act as an adhesive for the spices and caramelize your meat’s flavour.

Then, rub you spice mix on the pork without missing any part. Once done, place your prepared pork on a baking tray and coat it with plastic. Let it rest like this in the fridge overnight and move on to the next step as soon as you wake up from your beauty sleep.

Don’t forget to check out our guide: How to Smoke a Brisket in an Electric Smoker

Step 2: Preparing your Smoker

Take your pork out of the fridge the next morning and set it out until it reaches room temperature. While this is happening, soak your wood chips in boiling water and turn your electric smoker on. Set the temperature to 225 degrees and let your smoker heat up. Once it has reached this value, insert the wood chips in the tray and close the smoker’s door.

Wait for another minute before starting smoking your Boston butt. Remember to add a meat thermometer to keep an eye on your pork temperature and place the baking tray inside the smoker. Let your smoker work its magic now and spray it with apple juice and water from time to time.

Continue doing this until the meat temperature reads 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, take the tray out and place the pork inside an aluminum baking pan, filled with an inch of apple juice and water. Cover it with aluminum foil and then place it inside the smoker again to let it heat up to 195 degrees.

Step 3: Serving your Boston Butt

Take your boston butt out now and wrap it in a clean towel to place it in an iceless cooler. Let it rest there for another hour to relax and give your meat a tender and juicy, scrumptious feel.

Finally, take the pan out, extract its bones and shred the pork with the remaining liquids. Serve your Boston butt with a hamburger bun or rolls as a side and taste it beforehand and make any changes to its seasoning if needed!

Final Thoughts

And just like that, your deliciously smoked boston butt is ready! We hope that this easy to follow guide makes smoking pork in an electric smoker highly convenient for you and leave your guests delighted with the food and your feasts! Do tell us your reviews and experience after trying this recipe.

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