Barbecued Pork Shoulder on a Gas Grill

Fall apart tender and smoky, barbecued pork shoulder, cooked low and slow on a 2-burner gas grill.

Barbecue. There is nothing better than a good pork shoulder roasted “low and slow” as they say, over wood smoke. The long cooking time and low temperature ensure a succulent roast.

And the smoke?

Well the smoke is the whole point of barbecuing in the first place, otherwise you could just as easily use a slow cooker.

The thing is, to do this right, you really need a smoker, or a barbecue with a separate box for wood chips. I don’t have either. I may get a smoker at some point, but at the moment, I do have a perfectly functional 2-burner gas grill.

The good news is that you can indeed achieve a pretty decent barbecue with your grill, if you watch the temperature and keep up the smoke. It just takes a big more finagling and a lot more attention.

I’ve barbecued a half dozen pork shoulders on my grill over the last few weeks, just to get the method solid. What follows is the approach I used to get the best results.

I found this grill method works best with a 4 pound Boston butt shoulder roast, instead of an 8 pound picnic shoulder roast. With an 8 pound roast you are basically getting up really early in the morning to hopefully have the meat done by dinner time.

With a 4 pound roast, or two 4 pound roasts cooked at the same time, the whole timing of the barbecue is more manageable.

The meat requires several hours of smoking to get infused sufficiently with smoke flavor. After that, it’s just easier to finish, wrapped in foil, in a 300° oven.

It’s hard to maintain a consistent low temperature on a grill, gas or charcoal. Wrapping in foil in the oven helps to capture all of the juices and rendered fat from the last hour or so of cooking.

With a good rub, and a long smoke, barbecue sauce isn’t really necessary. But do feel free to add some of your favorite barbecue sauce at the end, when you’ve pulled the pork apart.

Any experienced grill barbecuers out there? I’d love to hear your tips for perfecting barbecued pork shoulder on a grill.

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