Our Traeger pork shoulder recipe creates a delicious smoked pork shoulder with a deep flavor and dark, crisp bark on the crust. The pork shoulder is infused with a citrus marinade which helps gives the meat an incredible flavor! This simple smoked pork recipe is the best way to make a pork shoulder in a Traeger smoker (or any pellet grill), and the recipe is incredibly easy, too!
Ingredients Injection Marinade – 1 cup orange juice – 1/2 cup lemon juice – 1/4 cup brown sugar – 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce – 2 tablespoons olive oil – 2 teaspoons salt – 3 to 5 dashes of Tabasco sauce For the Pork Shoulder – 1 bone-in pork shoulder 8 to 10 pounds – 4 tablespoons yellow mustard – 1/2 cup dry rub
Combine the marinade ingredients, trim the pork shoulder and inject the marinade in several places. Discard any marinade that leaks out.
Pat the pork dry with paper towels and slather it with mustard. (If you don’t dry it first, the mustard won’t stick).
Coat the pork with a dry rub, then cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. You can go straight to the smoker if you are in a hurry but if you have time, let it sit in all the flavors from the marinade, mustard, and dry rub.
Place the pork shoulder on a pre-heated grill grate and stick a meat probe thermometer in the thickest part of the meat. Make sure the probe does not touch the bone.
Optional step: Eventually, the internal temperature will reach a stall, and it feels like you will never finish the smoke for pulled pork. If you want to push it through the stall faster, wrap it in either butcher paper or aluminum foil.
A citrus marinade gets injected into the pork shoulder and gives the meat a delicious flavor. Keeping a low temperature on the Traeger grill lets the pork shoulder develop a deep smoky flavor and delicious, dark bark on the crust. The pellet grill makes it easy to maintain a constant and accurate temperature.