Jalapeno lime pork butt

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pepsiman

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2017
13
10
Nebraska
Throwing out a question for everyone... has anyone done any injected butts with jalapeno? I have tried an overnight brine with jalapeno, lime, salt, garlic and a little sugar but had pretty disappointing results. Smoked with apple wood. Meat was good but there was barely a tinge of jalapeno heat and really only in the outer 1/4 inch of the butt. So...
I am thinking about pureeing my same brine ingredients and injecting. I have never injected a butt before... I am on the side of not necessary! But I really want to infuse some flavor into it.
Has anyone done this? Any thoughts?
 
I don't know what it is about butts, but I've pretty much thrown everything at them and in them from fruit juice to rum.  They seem to have some kind of magical power to neutralize just about any flavor you put inside them except salt.  Outside?  That's a whole different story, and the bark holds the flavors nicely. 

I've started adding flavor profiles at the end of a butt smoke instead of the beginning.  You could make up some kind of jalapeno finishing sauce that complements your rub. I've done it with cherries and tropical fruit, using flavored balsamic vinegars.  It doesn't take much.  Don't see any reason why it wouldn't work with jalapenos.     
 
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My family is Puerto Rican, we don't inject but we do "stab" or penetrate the pork or the picnic cut with very deep holes and then shove in our traditional mix sofrito, oil and garlic powder mixed up. It definitely gets IN the meat so I would only assume a rough chop of jalepenos would do the trick. 

In a pork shoulder we probably stab and make about 12-20 big holes and all the meat does come out heavily flavored, maybe the oil helps it get in tissue more.
 
Thanks for all the input and ideas, planning on smoking tomorrow so will let you know what happens!
 
Where do you buy an injector at? I look to find one on the street corner in Detroit.. but they all look small..


Lol.. kidding.. but seriously, I never saw an injector at the grocery stores.. Wal-Mart? What section?
 
Got mine at Walmart...only 88¢! Used it twice and it hasn't broke so I figure I got my money's worth!
 
So I finally got around to experimenting with this. I pureed 4 jalapenos, 6 limes (peeled), 6 garlic cloves, a couple tsp of sugar and just enough water to make it an injectable liquid. Injected and then let sit for an hour the rubbed. I tweaked my normal rub a bit for this one...no chili powder and heavier on the black pepper and garlic. Rubbed and out to start the fire!
 
Ok, looks like the rest of the pics came through.  I was having some fire issues!  It has been so horrible humid here in Nebraska the last week I think was my problem getting some good coals going.  I usually use lump charcoal but ended up firing up some regular briquettes to get the show on the road.  Finally stabilized at 250 and some good blue smoke going, so closing the lid and I will post some more pics in a few hours.  Using maple wood chips.
 
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