Lately, it seems that I can’t look at pork butt in the grocery store, without thinking of Hawaii. There are a few dishes that remind me of the Aloha State. Kalua Pork is top on my list. Well, so is Poke, but it involves raw fish, so I’ll leave that alone! When I realized I could come pretty close to the flavor of Kalua Pork, without digging a hole to cook a pig for a day, then I was all in. I used an Instant Pot Pressure Cooker to cook the pig parts, but you could use the oven or slow cooker. My mouth is watering just thinking about how delicious this dish is. If you have leftovers, fry the pork to get some crispy edges.
As you can see from the picture, we had a bit of a feast that day. I made roasted butternut squash, using a similar method as Roasted Potatoes. Plus, we had macaroni and cheese, and the cabbage cooked in pork juice. For an extra Hawaiian food adventure, make Hawaiian Potato and Macaroni Salad.
Click here,for the slow cooker version, and click here, for the oven version of Kalua Pork.
Ingredients
- 4 lb boneless pork butt
- 1 1/2 TBSP coarse sea salt (Hawaiian and Himalayan are both good)
- 4-6 slices of bacon
- 1 cup water
- 6 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 TBSP smoke flavor
- Banana leaves* (optional but really good)
- Soy sauce, tamari, liquid aminos, and/or worchestershire
- 1 cabbage cut into 6 wedges
Instructions
- Slice the pork into about two 2 lb pieces. Salt well and set aside.
- In an electric pressure cooker, use the sauté function to cook the bacon. When the bacon is cooked, but not crispy, remove and add water to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Turn cooker off.
- Then stir in garlic, and smoke flavor.
- Lay a section of banana leaf to completely cover the bottom of the cooker. Place pork and bacon on top of leaf, and cover with another banana leaf.
- Place the lid on the cooker and pressure cook for 90 min. Let the pressure release naturally The pork should shred apart easily. Remove pork and banana leaves.
- Place cabbage in cooker. Sprinkle with a little soy or tamari. Place the lid on the cooker and pressure cook for 5 min. Use natural release for very tender cabbage.
- I also sprinkled the shredded pork with a little tamari and liquid aminos. Make sure to keep tasting, so you don't over-salt!
- *Banana leaves are available at Latin or Mexican grocery stores, sometimes fresh, sometimes frozen. You could also use Ti (pronounced tea) leaves. Most florists have these.
- Note: I did smoke the pork for a short time, before putting it in the pressure cooker, but it's not necessary.