Smoked Bone-In Pork Shoulder With Pineapple

Holy deliciousness. Smoke Kulua-style smoked bone in pork shoulder on the Traeger pellet grill with caramelized pineapples – low and slow! This easy smoker recipe can feed a crowd. And it has a perfectly balanced salty and sweet taste that everyone loves! Let’s make it… 

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Why this smoked bone in pork shoulder recipe is the best

• Simple seasonings.
• Easy spritzing tips.
• Add tasty sweetness with smoked pineapples as the pork cooks. 
• Two different smoker temperatures (at different points of the cook) ensures your bone in pork shoulder is tender, but cooks as quickly as possible without stall time. 
• Yummy leftovers! At the end of the post, see how to make smoked pineapple pulled pork sandwiches.
• New to smoked meats? See my step by step video for beginners (scroll to bottom of page). 

How long does it take to smoke bone in pork?

Plan for about 12 hours smoke time for 3-4 LB pork, despite what the internet says!

This bone in pork shoulder smoked initially at 250 degrees. When the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160 degrees F, I recommend cranking the smoker up to 300 or 350 degrees F so the meat continues cooking steadily. More on that later…

Personally, I find that you can’t follow the “90 minute a pound rule” because large chunks of meat take a while to smoke. 

There is also a “lag time” or “stalling time” which you’ll see I dive into in the FAQs at the bottom of this post. 

Basically, the temperature will be rising and rising, and it looks like your smoked pork is cooking just fine and steady, and then all of a sudden, it won’t get above a certain temperature. Dinner time will come, and you’ll have to find something else to eat if you haven’t raised the temperature of the smoker. 

Or maybe that’s just a personal problem. But that’s happened, times that I’ve forgotten to raise the temp of the smoker. Yup, at times the food was barely ready for bedtime and we ate it the next day.

So plan for 12 hours, and remember that leftover smoked pork is so tasty if you’re looking for a next-day meal. 

Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make this tasty dish.

For initial smoked pork shoulder time (unwrapped) 

• Pork shoulder, bone-in (pineapple smoked pork shoulder can also be made with pork labeled Boston Butt)
• BBQ seasoning (or any pork dry rub)

For spraying while smoking to keep it moist

• Vinegar apple cider (substitutions in recipe at bottom of the page)
• Water

For Kulua-style pork flavoring while wrapped in butcher’s paper

• Pineapple 
• Brown sugar 

Have a boneless pork shoulder to cook? See this recipe for smoked pulled pork shoulder. 

How to smoke bone in pork shoulder

Now I’ll walk you through it…

Quick look at this smoker recipe

1. Season bone in pork shoulder and smoke it on low with a pan of water in the smoker.
2. Spritz regularly with apple cider vinegar spray mixture. 
3. Remove pork shoulder and wrap it with pineapple and brown sugar (in butcher’s paper).
4. Smoke bone in pork shoulder at 300 degrees F (a higher temperature) until it’s tender and falls apart. 

Detailed recipe steps

1. Preheat Traeger Grills or Pitt Boss or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 250 degrees F. 
2. Season bone in pork shoulder with BBQ rub, massaging it in all over.
3. Smoke it. Also add a water pan to the smoker so it helps steam the bone in pork shoulder while it smokes. (I usually use a loaf pan or a small metal brownie pan and fill it with a couple inches of water. I set it to the side of the pork.)
4. Spritz bone in pork while it smokes. Add apple cider vinegar and water to a spray bottle. Spritz the top and sides of smoking bone in pork while it cooks, about once an hour. 
5. Remove pork shoulder from the smoker once it reaches degrees 150 – 170 degrees F. 
6. Preheat the smoker to 300-350 degrees F (I recommend increasing the temperature of the smoker at this point so you don’t run into stalling issues as the pork finishes cooking. Higher temperature means it smokes faster, and I don’t think much moisture is lost between 300 degrees F and 350.)
7. Wrap pork shoulder in butcher’s paper with pineapple and brown sugar. To do this, first spritz the butcher’s paper with some apple cider and water mixture. Then add 2 slices of pineapple, touching each other, to the center of the butcher’s paper. Add half the brown sugar on top of pineapple. Add bone in pork shoulder on top. Then top with remaining brown sugar, and finally, the top layer of pineapple rings. Wrap pork shoulder tightly, like a burrito.
8. Continue smoking bone in pork shoulder until done. I like to put an internal read thermometer inside of the pork while it smokes so I know when it reaches an internal temperature of 205 degrees F, which means it’s done cooking to pulled-pork-tender meat.
9. Rest pork about 20 minutes, or until it’s cool enough to handle and shred with two forks or shredding tools. (Sometimes we’ll pop the pork, still in the butcher’s paper, in a Yeti or cooler to keep warm until serving).

Smoked pineapple pulled pork sandwiches

Once you smoke a bone in pork shoulder, there are plenty of creative ways to enjoy it.

Make pulled pork pizza, pork tacos, breakfast tacos with scrambled eggs, or pile them in nice fluffy rolls to make pulled pork sandwiches. 

So dice up all that smoked pineapple from this recipe and add it to smoker pulled bone-in pork sandwiches for all the Hawaii vibes. ☀️

Don’t miss this recipe for smoked peaches…

See how to make 5 minute grilled pineapple slices…

See how smoke pineapple…

Easy Smoked Pork Recipes To Try

• Smoked bacon wrapped pork tenderloin
• Pellet smoker St. Louis ribs
• Smoked meatloaf wrapped in bacon
• Smoked bacon
• Pulled pork shoulder smoked
• Traeger smoked ham
• Smoked pork belly

FAQs 

See how to make sous vide pork shoulder if you want to cook it for a crazy amount of 24 hours or 48 hours.

More Tasty Grill + Smoker Recipes

• Smoked mac and cheese
• Smoked cream cheese
• Smoked brisket flat
• 321 ribs
• Beer can chicken on the smoker
• Smoked wings
• Smoked tomahawk steak
• Traeger tri tip
• Smoked turkey breast
• Smoked turkey legs
• Whole smoked turkey
• Smoked Traeger pizza
• Smoked onion rings
• Traeger smoked ham
• Smoked whole chicken
• Smoked jalapeno poppers
• Smoked corn on the cob
• Traeger beef ribs
• Smoked leg of lamb
• Smoked shrimp
• Roasted chicken
• Grilled chicken wings
• Grilled skirt steak
• Flank steak marinade
• Grilled potato wedges
• Smoked pulled pork
• Want more? See my lineup of easy smoker recipes

See this Traeger Flatrock grill review.

See my favorite smoker tools and seasonings in my Amazon Storefront.

Meat thermometer recommendations

Every home chef needs a reliable meat thermometer to cook food perfectly. 

On Sip Bite Go, you’ll often see me using:

1. Meater thermometer – a fancy wireless thermometer that connects to a phone app – gifted to me from a Traeger partnership.
2. ThermoPro digital thermometer – which has a wire that connects the thermometer to a display box outside the oven/grill. 

It’s like being psychic! The great thing about either of the thermometers above is that I don’t have to take the food out of the oven to know the temperature. 

How to use ‘em… What I do is stick the digital thermometer in steak, pork, chicken, whatever… Then put the food in the oven, on the smoker, or grill.

While the meat cooks, it reads the temperature so I know exactly what temp meat is as it’s cooking. Without having to take it out and check. It’s really difficult to overcook food when you know exactly what temp it is inside!

Why I wrote this recipe

First off, since our honeymoon in Maui, I’ve been a big fan of Kulua style pork.

Made with sweet caramelized pineapple in the smoker, this recipe is delicious and I want to eat it all the time. 

Second, I had one thing on my mind for Memorial Day smoking plans: pulled pork. 

We picked up this 3.5 lb bone in pork shoulder beauty, and set out to smoke it at 250 degrees F all day. We do many things to celebrate holidays and time together that involve BBQ menu food, fun, and family time. 

Since my family moved from PNW to Texas recently, and I gave myself about 6 months to settle in our new home, our pantry has not been organized. (I’ve been busy grilling ribeye, smoking mac and cheese, and taking in all the best restaurants in Plano).

Anyways, we wanted to make something a little different, and had a pineapple in the fruit bowl. So… we looked at each other and were like… 

Mmm 🤤 smoked bone in pulled pork with pineapple it is!

My husband and I tore up the pantry looking for our little spritzer bottle. Thank goodness we found it, because my husband has been wanting to use my hair tools to spritz! I do have a really cool water spritzer bottle for my hair he’s been eyeing. 

We got started much later in the day, so like any long smoker recipe, we stayed up til midnight waiting for this beauty to soak in all that pineapple and become fall apart tender. 

Are you a foodie, too?

Hey home chefs, hope that answers all your questions about smoking this pineapple and pork shoulder recipe. It’s so good, I hope you enjoy the heck out of it. 

Next, see this smoked cake. It is super simple fruit dessert cooked on the Traeger that has a nice smoky flavor.

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