This is a great recipe for those who like roast pork, and for guys who can't cook or who dislike cooking. The total prep time for the Kalua Pig is about 20 minutes, and it's hard to screw up the recipe since it's very simple. The bonus, once the pig is in the oven, You have lots of time to sit around drinking beers while the pig cooks.
First you need:
Kalua pig.
An inauthentic (but still good) recipe.
4-5 lb. pork loin or shoulder
2 tablespoons Wright’s hickory smoke seasoning
2 tablespoons Hawaiian red salt or sea salt
Note: You can use more smoke and salt, most recipes do, but this is better balanced in flavor to my taste buds using less salt and smoke.
Equal amounts of chicken broth and water combined, about 12 oz
3 whole medium size bananas or several banana leaves
4 bay leaves
Foil to cover the pan
Stab the pork with a fork or knife all over so the salt and smoke will penetrate the meat. The deeper you stab, the more flavorful the pork will become. Thoroughly rub the meat with the hickory smoke and then the salt, coating evenly as possible. Put the bay leaves on top of the pork, then wrap the pork in banana leaves. Cover the pan tightly with foil and place in a 325 degree preheated oven. Cook for about 45 to 60 minutes per pound of meat. For a 4lb pork butt, about 3 to 4 hours.
If you have no banana leaves, place the meat in a roasting pan and top with the whole bananas with a couple bay leaves under the bananas and a couple under the roast and cook as above.
About half way through cooking time, add about 1” of the combined chicken broth and water to the bottom of the pan. Recover tightly with foil and continue cooking. When done, the meat should fall apart easily when prodded with a fork.
Throw out the bananas and shred the meat with two forks and pour in the remaining combined chicken broth and water. Let the meat rest and soak up some of the added liquid. Then serve with rice on top of steamed cabbage, make sure you add some of the liquid to each serving, making sure to cover the cabbage.
You can do this recipe with chicken breasts, or a turkey breast as well. Reduce the cooking time to about 40 minutes per pound of meat, and to keep the meat moist, you can add a bit of olive oil or bacon fat to the broth in the pan.
You can also insert cloves of garlic into the meat prior to cooking. I prefer not to do this, but if you want to, go for it.
--
Kalua Pig fried rice
8 oz of Kalua pig
About 3 cups of left over rice
1 shredded carrot
4 to 8 oz. of roughly shredded cabbage, more if you like veggies.
1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon mirin
2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce.
1/8 tspn white pepper
3-4 eggs - scramble the eggs with 2 teaspoons of soy and 1 teaspoon of mirin added before scrambling, rough chop into bite size pieces and set aside for later addition to the fried rice.
1/8 to 1/4 tspn Sesame Oil
Heat the frying pan and add the olive oil, wait until the oil is starting to smoke in the pan. Add the rice breaking up clumps. Then add 2-3 tablspoons of soy sauce and 1tblspn mirin, and stir until the rice is pretty uniform in color and the rice has absorbed the liquid. Taste and season with more soy or mirin if needed, you can also use a bit of vegetable broth to deepen the flavor.
Add the cabbage and carrots, mixing so the rice will not burn, until the cabbage is wilted. Add in the pig and heat well. Add the egg. Now, create a 2-3” space in the middle of the pan and sprinkle in the white pepper. Watch out, it will smoke and make you cough! When the pepper is smoking pretty heavily, mix well to combine the pepper with the rice. This will create a nice smoky background in the fried rice. Add the sesame oil and stir well. Serve for breakfast with some bacon (for those craving more fat), and some diced fruit.