Ice Chest Pork

We were talking about grilling and BBQ last week at work and my boss mentioned he had some Ice-Chest Pork. Right after he said that his expression changed as he relived the meal.

You know the look, when your head tilts back and your eyes close slightly, you say Ooooo, that was so good, nodding for emphasis. Well now I need to know what Ice-Chest Pork is and how it’s prepared. My boss loves BBQ and grilled meats so, for him to give that sort of reaction, I know it’s good.

It is. As a matter of fact it’s so good we may never have a pork roast grilled any other way.

Here is a photo of the shredded pork with baked beans and cheese grits.



Sadly, I did not document the process with photos but you can imagine it all as I describe it. Super simple.

If you want to use wood chucks for the smoke, soak a good handful in water an hour before you prepare your charcoal. We used Applewood chunks.

Using your choice of dry rub, get this onto the roast prior while the charcoal is burning. Doug always uses charcoal but I know you could do this with a gas grill too.

Using indirect heat, place the roast on the grill and cover, keeping the temperature at 300 degrees. Let it cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours, depending on how large your roast is.

After 2 hours, wrap the roast in foil, a good sturdy foil or wrap it a few times with thin foil. We didn’t have a good sturdy foil on hand so we had to wrap it several times.
Place it back on the grill, cover, add more charcoal is necessary, and cook another hour and a half.


Here comes the part with the ice chest. If you have a cooler or ice chest the roast will fit inside snuggly, that’s the one you want to use. Wrap the roast (with the foil on) in towels. I used a beach towel and wrapped it snuggly. Place it inside the cooler and let sit for hours. There isn't any ice involved - you are just using the chest.

Doug started the grill at 10 and was done by 1:30. This was a 4 pound roast. After 1:30 the roast went in the cooler and we ate it at 6:00 that same evening. It was still warm when he took the foil off.

Amazingly tender, shredded with forks.

As I said, we may never cook one again without using this method, it’s wonderful.

A shout out to my boss for turning us on to Ice Chest Pork! I will most certainly get photos of this, step-by-step, next time we have it.