The best pulled pork at the grocery store is cooked low and slow by someone with more time on their hands than you. I started seeing more and more pre-cooked, pre-packaged pulled pork and the grocery store and, as a big fan of pretty much all smoked meats (shout out to Bludso’s BBQ here in L.A.), I was extremely curious whether any of it is any good. I was very pleasantly surprised.
How we found and cooked the pulled pork for our taste test
I bought pretty much every tray of frozen or refrigerated pulled pork I could find at our local grocery stores, including Trader Joe’s pulled pork and Kirkland pulled pork from Costco. Most of these can be cooked in either the oven or microwave, but I went with the microwave to embrace the convenience factor (as should you). It’s kind of crazy that you can have piping hot pulled pork in just a few minutes. Pretty much everything about being alive in 2025 sucks, except for that.
What we were looking for in the best pulled pork
We tried both sauced and unsauced pulled pork. Either way, we wanted the meat to come in nice big chunks with visible pieces of crusty bark, too. A little fat is okay, but you should be able to fork this stuff onto a hamburger bun and eat it without picking through it for the good bits. A lot of the pulled pork we tried was completely pulverized—just some sad shreds swimming in sauce. Honestly, it’s disrespectful to pigs. I should also note that we performed this taste test over the course of several days so we could rest assured all the leftovers would be claimed by our coworkers. No pork waste!
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- Kingsford Pulled Pork with a Sweet & Smoky Kansas City Style BBQ Sauce
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So I guess Kingsford makes food? I gotta say I wasn’t expecting a lot from this pulled pork but I was pleasantly surprised. Nice one, charcoal briquette brand! The pork comes in big hunks in a sweet and smoky sauce. Some of the hunks are a bit tough and fatty, but the fat genuinely contributes flavor and we like that. And big hunks are preferable to those pathetic shreds, even if the chunks of meat are a little fibrous. The sauce is sweet and a little tomatoey. This is a surprisingly good product. And it heats in three minutes in the microwave. My colleague Justine Sterling described the sauce as apple-cidery and, yeah, it is a little fruity. We like! It’s not the very best pulled pork if you like it pre-sauced, but it’s way better than a lot of other brands we tried.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Trader Joe’s Hardwood Smoked Pulled Pork
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Spoiler: Kirkland pulled pork is in a league of its own, but if you aren’t a Costco member, Trader Joe’s makes the best pulled pork that comes unsauced. Some taste testers also appreciated that it tastes less salty than the Kirkland pulled pork, but that also means it’s a little less flavorful. Before you heat it, TJ’s pulled pork looks dreadfully fatty. Seriously, when you take the plastic pouch out of the box, it’s basically white with fat—that’s good because it dries out a lot after being microwaved for three minutes. Still, it’s good. You get those nice big chunks of meat with plenty of charred, smoky bark. This is much better than a lot of the pre-sauced stuff—and you can really choose your own adventure with this. (If you’re picking up a sauce at TJ’s, we’re partial to their Carolina Gold Barbecue Sauce.)
Credit: Merc / Trader Joe’s
- Marketside Smoked & Seasoned Pulled Pork in BBQ Sauce
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Attention Walmart shoppers: This pulled pork rules. Yes, you have to really love a sweet, tangy BBQ sauce, because the meat is very heavily sauced. BUT you can still taste pork, which I can’t say for some of the other very saucy brands we tried. In other sauced varieties, the pork was much shreddier, so it really lost its consistency and chew—it kind of just turned into meat slime. Marketside still has some nice chunks of smoked meat in the mix along with the shreds, and everything has chew. It really is stunning that the smoky flavor of the pork still comes through. And personally I like this BBQ sauce. If I went to a BBQ and someone served me a sandwich loaded with this meat, sweet pickles, and some creamy coleslaw, I would be STOKED. (And we happen to really like Walmart’s Homestyle coleslaw, too.) It’s the best grocery store pulled pork if you’re willing to forgo making your own sauce decisions.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Kirkland Smoked Pulled Pork
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I kind of freaked out when I tried Kirkland pulled pork. Look how happy I was. This stuff is INTENSELY smoked, but wow, it is flavorful. If you got this at a BBQ restaurant, I think you’d be like, wow, this is a REALLY GOOD BBQ restaurant. Maybe the smoke would be too intense for some people? I’m not sure, but it blew me away. Rich hickory smoke flavor that makes you feel like you’re eating outside in the summertime. It’s a smokiness that transports you. The meat is tender and comes in nice big pieces. This is so simple and I can’t believe you can just cook it in the microwave. Mark my words: This will win a Sporked award this year.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
Best Sauced (Runner Up)
Best Unsauced (Runner-Up)
Best Sauced
Best of the Best
Other pulled pork we tried: Jack Daniels Pulled Pork, Lloyds Pulled Pork, Kroger Pulled Pork, Home Bake Pulled Pork
