Overnight Pulled Pork, plus Maggie’s Favorite BBQ Sauce

As of May 17, 2021, approximately 1,304,684 U.S. service men and women have died defending freedom since 1775. That number is approximate (at least in part) because we only have round-number estimates for the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. This Memorial Day (and every day), I think we should all pause and remember what the holiday is all about.

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and I don’t know what you usually eat on Memorial Day, but we eat barbecue.

We have a number of perfectly good barbecue places around, of course. But I can cook a whole holiday dinner for what I pay the barbecue joint for a couple of pounds of pulled pork. Then there was the year I ordered barbecue a week ahead from a place 20 minutes away, sent somebody to pick it up the day before, and at dinnertime discovered they had neglected to send us any sauce. It was not a good look.

Now I have an easier way, and it’s one that appeals to my need to control all the variables. I do a Boston butt in the oven, low and slow, overnight. I’m here, it’s here, I’m never caught without sauce, and I always have plenty of money left for sides, beverages, and other incidentals, but especially for beverages.

Yes, of course you can do a Boston butt on a smoker, and I even have one. What I don’t have is someone who knows how to use the smoker properly, nor do I have the patience to figure it out–let alone babysit a smoking hunk of pork–myself. This overnight routine is an adjustment, though, at least it was for me. I am a super-heavy sleeper, and the first time I cooked a Boston butt overnight I woke up at 2 a.m. I wandered through the house for a while wondering if the house was on fire and, if so, why did it smell so good? I swear it was at least 10 minutes before I figured it out.

I love this method. It’s easy. There’s no fire to tend. The heat is reliable. The results are predictable. Oh, and the resulting pulled pork is excellent. Did you hear the part about it being easy? Well, it is.


And really, the Overnight Pulled Pork isn’t so much a recipe as a method, but I’ve also included the recipe for the rub I like to use. You can use any rub that suits you, but the one below makes me happy. (You’ve seen it before in the Bacon-Wrapped Drumsticks post.) Plus, I’ll tell you how we doctor up Sweet Baby Ray’s original bottled barbecue sauce to make Maggie’s Favorite BBQ Sauce. I spent several years hunting for a fantastic recipe for a righteous barbecue sauce from scratch, and it was an expensive hobby. I finally decided I’d rather be doing nearly anything else. This un-recipe makes a good all-purpose sauce, and if you store it in a clean jar it will last several weeks in the fridge.

Summer’s on!