Southern-Style Smoked Pork Loin Recipe

Smoked pork is a big favorite with most lovers of southern food, and hubby and I make it quite often. I usually include it in my Thanksgiving recipes. We enjoy a variety of pork cuts on our meat smoker, including pork shoulders, fresh and cured hams, spareribs, baby back ribs, pork tenderloins, pork chops, pork steaks, and bone-in pork loins. I do any seasoning that’s required, which might include a marinade, a wet rub, or a dry rub. Johnny is in charge of the actual smoking. He uses a Brinkmann electric smoker for the job. With electric smokers, there’s little mess or bother, so the job is really easy. The results are practically foolproof, too, and they’re mouthwatering! Hang with me, and I’ll share our process for how to cook pork loin on a bbq smoker. I suggest, however, that you make the BBQ rub recipe your own. If you don’t like one of the spices I use, leave it off. If I haven’t used one of your favorite herbs or spices in my wet rub, add it! We like to use a bone-in pork loin for this smoked pork recipe because I love the section of baby back ribs attached to the roast. In fact, that’s my favorite part. Another reason we prefer a bone-in loin roast is because of the price. The one we enjoyed today was just $1.69 per pound.

Holle’s Southern-Style Smoked Pork Loin recipe

What you’ll need:

Bone-in pork loin

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 tablespoon Lawry’s garlic salt

1 tablespoon paprika

2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons Louisiana hot sauce

1 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pecan wood

Apple juice

Molasses

Directions: Rinse pork loin and pat dry. Combine vinegar, oil, garlic salt, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, hot sauce, cayenne, and cinnamon in a small bowl. This will serve as the bbq rub, and it’s a wet rub, obviously. The apple cider vinegar will help the spices to soak into the meat more. Rub the BBQ rub all over the meat. Place the rubbed pork loin in a shallow baking pan and cover it loosely with plastic food wrap. Leave the meat in the fridge overnight.

Take your pecan chips, pecan twigs, or pecan chunks and place them in a small bucket. Add enough water and apple juice – a half and half mixture – to cover the wood. Put a heavy plate on the wood to keep it under water/apple juice. Allow the pecan wood to soak for several hours or overnight.

When you’re ready to start the meat smoker, fill the water pan and place the pecan wood on the burner. Plug in the bbq smoker and let it heat for about 30 minutes.

Remove the pork loin from the fridge and drizzle it with molasses. Rub the molasses all over the meat. Place the pork on the top rack of the meat smoker, fat side-down, with the rib bones up. Close the smoker lid and go find something else to do.

After six hours, check the water pan and the wood supply. Add more if needed. Close the smoker lid again and go find something else to entertain yourself for about 5-6 more hours. The pork loin should be done by then.

Remove the meat from the BBQ smoker and allow it to rest at room temperature for about 15-20 minutes before carving. If you’re the one doing the slicing, be sure to cut off and hide a section of ribs for yourself!

This pork loin recipe is one of our faves! It’s so good, that you might not even want to use any kind of sauce on the smoked pork. If you do, try a sweet and tangy tomato-based BBQ sauce, a mustard-based BBQ sauce, a vinegar-based sauce, or sweet-and-sour sauce.