Oven-Style Kalua Pork or Pig
The mother of all invention is need. Having retired after a lifetime in Hawaii and moving to Arizona, I had to figure out how to make the foods that we were familiar with. With Kalua Pig, think of an uber moist, tender, juicy, salty, smoky pulled Pork, but WAY BETTER. This dish freezes beautifully. I normally make at least a 3-4 pound Pork Butt for us two; portion it all off as ½ cup per serving, pack & freeze.
INGREDIENTS
Nutrition- 1 -8lb pork butt
- 1 -4tablespoon course sea salt
- 3⁄4 - 6tablespoon liquid smoke
- banana leaf, enough to cover the meat
DIRECTIONS
- Each Pork Butt weighs in differently. For each pound of Pork use: ½ tablespoons Salt & ¾ tablespoons Liquid smoke (I use Hawaiian Salt and the Mesquite Flavor liquid Smoke, that tastes more like the real thing).
- Pre-heat the oven to 500?.
- Rub the Liquid Smoke all over the meat and then sprinkle evenly with the Sea Salt .
- Wrap the meat, Burrito style, in your leaves and then in Heavy Duty Foil.
- Place in a baking pan/dish and cover tightly with more foil.
- In it goes to the oven for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325?.
- Bake for an additional 3 ½ hours.
- Allow to cool, unwrap and discard the foil and leaves (save any juices).
- Shred the meat how you like, either by hand or using two forks, combining it with those lovely juices.
- Serve warm, the way we do in Hawaii, with steamed White (or Brown) Rice. MMM! ONO!
- **Cook's Note: Banana Leaves can be found in Ethnic markets in the freezer section. Of course, if you're lucky enough to find Green (not multi-colored) Ti Leaves, that would make it truer to the Imu-Cooked (underground pit-oven) Kalua Pig.