Kalua Pork with Hawaiian Rice
Today, I'm making Kalua Pork with Hawaiian Rice. Kalua Pork is a traditional Hawaiian cooking technique where an entire pig is cooked in in an “underground oven” and the primary seasoning is Alaea sea salt. A hole is dug in the ground, a fire is started using Hawaiian mesquite wood and then the pig is covered in banana leaves and the covered.
It is quite common to eat Kalua pork at a luau. We are not digging a pit, but will make this tasty dish using our Gourmet Guru Kamado grill as a smoker. You can eaily make this on the Big Green Egg or other smoker.
Ingredients Kalua Pork
- 6.5 lb pork butt
- 3.5 tablespoons Alaea sea salt
- 2-3 Banana leaves
Ingredients Hawaiian Rice
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 1.5 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 1 1/4 cup diced pineapple
- 1.5 tablespoon Ponzu sauce
- ½ teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 chopped green onion
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Juice from ½ lime
- ½ teaspoon soy sauce
Procedure Kalua Pork
- Using a sharp knife, make slices in a cross-hatch pattern on the pork butt about ¼” deep.
- Rub the sea salt over the pork butt including down in the slits that you cut.
- Wrap the pork butt in banana leaves and secure with butcher’s twine.
- Heat the smoker to 250 degrees F, add some mesquite wood and place the pork butt on the smoker.
- Cook for 2 hours.
- Remove the pork butt from the smoker and wrap tightly in aluminum foil.
- Place the pork butt back on the smoker and cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 201 to 203 degrees F. This took 5 hours today.
- To prepare the rice, mix all ingredients in a pan over medium heat. Simmer for 5 – 7 minutes to remove the moisture from the pineapple.
- Remove the pork butt from the grill. You can let rest for 20 minutes and serve or wrap in a towel, place in a cooler and serve a few hours later.
For the step-by-step recipe, watch our video.
Disclosures Gourmet Guru Grill provided courtesy of Gourmet Guru Grills. Any opinions about the grill are my own.
