We love North Carolina style pulled pork. This is a tangy version of BBQ that features a spicy vinegar sauce. Traditionally this is cooked for hours on a smoker. However, visiting friends in North Carolina we found a way to do this in the oven. We took is a step further and created this version of sous vide North Carolina pulled pork.

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Fun Diego Family loves smoking food on our Big Green Egg. One of our favorite items to cook is North Carolina style pulled pork. However, recently we moved and our Big Green Egg was in storage. This led us to try a version of sous vide North Carolina pulled pork.

Cole Cooks: Big Green Egg North Carolina Pulled Pork

The Big Green Egg is perfect for cooking North Carolina pulled pork. We add our rub and use our classic North Carolina vinegar sauce. This recipe is easy to prepare but it does take an entire day of cooking. Go To Recipe Much of my family is from North Carolina and I attended the University […]

In our trips to North Carolina we had seen family and friends cook a delicious pulled pork in the oven. This is an overnight cooking process that has the advantage of not having to tend a live smoker. We took things a step further and added sous vide to the method.

A huge attraction of our sous vide North Carolina pulled pork (and pulled pork in general) is that it is both easy AND very inexpensive. At Costco we were able to buy a 16 pound boneless pork shoulder for $24. We only needed 6 pounds for our recipe so we put the rest in the freezer. This comes to less than a dollar a serving (figure half a pound per person).

We have developed our own rub for Carolina pulled pork but really this is only a guidance. Feel free to experiment with your own rub combinations.

The main issue with sous vide pulled pork is what temperature to cook the pork at. With North Carolina pulled pork you are generally cooking the meat to a temperature of 200 degrees. When cooking sous vide you do not want to cook at a temperature that high.

This article has a great guide to temperatures for cooking pork shoulder. Basically the temperatures range from 135 degrees for a rare chop like pork up to 176 degrees for really fall apart pork. With Carolina pulled pork you want it fall apart and we settled on a sous vide cooking temperature of 170 degrees.

You can buy sous vide bags fairly cheap online. Note some say they are reusable but I would never reuse a bag after doing this recipe.

Sous vide North Carolina pulled pork is still along process. The pork should cook for at least 16 hours and up to 24 hours. However, this is entirely hands off. The day before you mix the rub. Add the pork to the sous vide and walk away. The only thing you should do is every few hours add some water to make sure the pork remains submerged. Overnight you are likely to get significant evaporation.

The next day the only thing you need to do is remove the pork from the sous vide bath and cook in the oven for an hour and a half at 300 degrees. At this point the pork is easy to shred. We like to add in our North Carolina BBQ Vinegar sauce to the meat but you can always have people add their own. We love this vinegar sauce but will admit it scares some people off. This is especially true of those who grew up with a sweet BBQ sauce.

This recipe is very flexible. You can try different rubs. You can also adjust the amount of liquid smoke. The liquid smoke could be doubled if you really like the smoke flavor. This also does not have to be North Carolina-style BBQ. You can easily add your own favorite BBQ sauce. I know our son has a sweeter BBQ sauce he uses.

We like to serve this with our version of North Carolina coleslaw. This is a tangy coleslaw that uses the vinegar BBQ sauce instead of mayonnaise.

For more sous vide recipes go here.

Top 10 Sous Vide Recipes

Sous vide is a cooking technique that has hit the mainstream in recent years. We love this technique because it allows you to perfectly cook meat. This is our regularly updated list of our top sous vide recipes. Overview of Sous Vide For an overview of sous vide and the equipment you need be sure […]

Sous Vide North Carolina Pulled Pork

Dave Cole

This is a version of North Carolina Pulled Pork BBQ that is cooked in a sous vide bath and finished in the oven. This is great for when you do not have the time or resources to cook the pork in an outdoor smoker.

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Equipment

Sous Vide Cooker

Ingredients

6 lbs boneless pork shoulder
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 cup North Carolina BBQ vinegar sauce optional, see recipe

Instructions

The day before cooking mix rub ingredients in small bowl. Set sous vide to 170 degrees. Add rub to pork on all sides. Place pork in large sous vide bag and add liquid smoke. Seal bag and add pork. Cook in sous vide bath for 16 to 24 hours.
The next day preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet or oven pan with aluminum foil. If available you can also use a wire rack.
Remove pork from sous vide bath and place on baking sheet. Cook at 300 degrees for an hour and a half.
Remove pork from oven and shred using two forks. Add one cup of Carolina vinegar BBQ sauce and serve.

Notes

This can work as a method for other types of pulled pork. Simply use different rubs and sauces to change the BBQ style. You can also add less or more liquid smoke. This recipe has a fairly mild smoke flavor.

Keyword BBQ, Big Green Egg, North Carolina BBQ, Pulled Pork, Sous Vide

Check out our Sous Vide Cooking Guide

Sous Vide Cooking Guide

Sous vide is a cooking technique that has hit the mainstream in recent years. We love this technique because it allows you to perfectly cook meat. This is our guide to getting started with sous vide cooking. Overview The idea behind sous vide is that you heat food in a water bath to the exact […]

Check out more of our Favorite Sous Vide Recipes

Top 10 Sous Vide Recipes

Cole Cooks: Sous Vide North Carolina Pulled Pork Recipe

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