Best way to "pull" pork and chicken

[bsds71]

Hello!
I am currently smoking a whole chicken and pork butt in my gravity fed. I always have a hard time shredding/pulling the meat. I've tried forks, the claw looking things, and just using my fingers which is my preferred method. But how do I get the meat, esp. pork into chunks vs long stringy pieces?
Also, by the time it is shredded the meat has cooled down too much... Any tips on keeping it warm?
Thanks in advance!

 

[bigfurmn]

Heat resistant gloves and pull pork after about a 45 minute rest. I’ve been doing about 50lbs of it in shifts since Thursday. Use my hands to break it down and pull out big fat chunks. Then claws. If you want cubed or chopped just break into a few bigger pieces and chop it with a large knife. That will give you a more cubed set up compared to stringy.

 

[culpepersmoke]

^^^ what bigfurmn said. . Personally use one of those drill attachments but it won’t give you chunks.

 

[TNJAKE]

If chunks are what you want I'd pull the bone out and put the meat cleaver to work. Chop it to desired size. Also you could do plugs by separating the individual muscles and leaving them big

 

[noboundaries]

If it's hard to shred that tells me it needs to cook longer. Pork and chicken will shred at two different times.

 

[chopsaw]

If it's hard to shred that tells me it needs to cook longer.

I was thinking the same thing , and along with that you might find you won't need to chop it .

I always slide the bone out , and push straight down on it .
Finish the big stuff with tongs or forks .
I've never found a reason to rest a pork butt , other than it's to hot to pull .

 

[SmokinAl]

I use insulated gloves to pull with, but it sounds like as said above, you didn’t cook it long enough. I do the same as Chop, I pull the bone out & push down & just grab chunks of meat & shred it. This is when I separate any un-rendered fat. However it sounds like you like chopped better than pulled, so just chop it with a cleaver!
Al

 

[zwiller]

If it's hard to shred that tells me it needs to cook longer. Pork and chicken will shred at two different times.

+1. I need tongs to take mine off the smoker as it just falls apart. I breakdown into larger chunks and this guy took like 5-10m tops with a little tong/knife work. Resist the urge to take of smoker in fear of dry meat, it's actually the opposite. You want a full collagen breakdown. I usually pull 205-210F IT. Just went to nephew's grad party and local "pitmaster" did the PP. Oh man, he pulled much too soon. Sauce was decent and almost made up for it.

 

[cal1956]

i do a lot of pulled pork , and like the others said if its hard to seperate , it wasn't cooked long enought , i pull it as hot as my hands can stand it, i take out every tiny bit of fat i can find , it should not take more than15-20 minutes to pull an average size boston butt from start to finish

 

[DougE]

Like the others said, if it doesn't pull easily, it wasn't cooked long enough. Pork butt will literally fall apart if it has been cooked long enough. I cook til probe tender, wrap (if I didn't as part of the cook), and chuck it in a cooler for a few hours. When it's time to pull, I just pull off big chunks at first, since it will still be very hot, then break the larger chunks down smaller once they are cool enough to handle.

 

[3montes]

I just did three large butts for a grad party. I have developed a method which has never failed me. Smoke until 165 or 170 whenever the juices start to flow and then place in a foil pan with some liquid. I like to use beer and or apple juice. Continue to smoke uncovered until you get above 200 making sure to keep some liquid in the pan. I usually go to 205 to 208. Remove from smoker and cover the pan and butt with foil. Place in whatever you use for holding, cooler etc. I'm fortunate enough to have found two Cambro holding cabinets on Craigslist years ago and they are a game changer.

I put these butts in the Cambro about 9pm Thursday evening and didn't pull until Friday morning at 10am. They still probed at about 125. Literally fell apart when i slid the bone out. I took me maybe 40 minutes to work through all three but I'm pretty fussy about getting all the unrendered fat out. As you pull the meat will reabsorb all that rendered fat and liquid in the pan. You will never have dry pulled pork.

I will add I bought these butts at Sam's Club. Not much of a fat cap and even some meat exposed on top but nicely marbled. These were the highest yielding butts I have ever done. I didn't weigh the finished product to get exact numbers but I bet I got at least a 70% yield probably higher. I normally get around a 55% yield or so.