Kalua Pork
Pork shoulder rubbed with coarse Hawaiian salt and liquid smoke, wrapped in banana leaf and cooked for eight hours until it shreds into strands.
Photograph credit: MyPlate gov Cultural Food (20241025-USDA-FNS-UNK-0042) by USDAgov · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Build the Meal Around Kalua Pork
- Steamed rice and macaroni salad
- Lomi lomi salmon
- A cold lager
How to Make Kalua Pork
Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.
-
Pierce the pork all over with a sharp knife, about 20 times, going in 3 cm.
-
Rub the salt into every surface, working it into the cuts.
-
Rub the liquid smoke all over the joint.
-
If using banana leaves, pass them briefly over a flame or dip them in boiling water to make them pliable.
-
Wrap the pork completely in the leaves, then wrap the parcel tightly in two layers of foil.
-
Sit it in a deep roasting tin with the water in the bottom.
-
Cook at 140°C / 285°F fan for 7 to 8 hours. There is nothing to check and nothing to do; do not open it.
-
It is ready when a fork twists in the meat with no resistance and the bone pulls out clean.
-
Rest the sealed parcel for 30 minutes.
-
Open it over the tin so no juice is lost, shred the pork with two forks, and toss it through all the collected juices.
-
Serve with rice and macaroni salad (optional). Some cooks fold in shredded cabbage wilted in the hot juices.
Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Choosing rice.
Something wrong or unclear in this recipe? Report a problem with this recipe.
Worth Knowing Before You Cook
Salt, smoke, pork. Adding anything else makes it a different dish.
Wrap tightly. All the moisture has to stay in the parcel.
Toss the shredded meat through the juices, every drop of them.
Leftovers
Refrigerate up to 4 days in its juices and freeze 3 months.
Kalua Pork: Your Questions Answered
How long does Kalua Pork take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and 7 hours to 8 hours of cooking, plus 30 minutes of resting, so allow 7 hours 45 minutes to 8 hours 45 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 8.
Nutrition per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Gluten-free when served without the macaroni salad.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
You Might Also Like
More Hawaiian cooking and dinner ideas from Weekly Delight.
Hawaiian Lau Lau
Pork shoulder and salmon wrapped in spinach and foil, then steamed for four hours until the meat is meltingly soft.
Cozido a Portuguesa
A Portuguese boiled dinner of beef, pork, sausages, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and rice, simmered for 2 hours 30…
Lahanodolmades
Cabbage leaves rolled around a minced meat and rice filling and simmered in an egg and lemon sauce, in 1 hour 40…
Gołąbki
Cabbage leaves rolled around pork, beef and rice, then braised in tomato until the leaves are soft enough to cut…
.jpg){kind=link}
Pork Katsu
Pork loin cutlets coated in flour, egg and panko and shallow fried for 4 minutes a side, sliced and served with…
Puerto Rican Pasteles
Parcels of grated green banana and plantain dough filled with seasoned pork, wrapped in banana leaf and parchment…