This is a Hawaiian-style pulled pork that doesn’t need a BBQ or fire pit, based on various recipes from local Maui residents. The pork itself is simply seasoned, braised, and pulled, paired with a sweet and acidic sauce.
Pork
- 2–3 kg bone-in pork shoulder
- 2 tbsp Bruce’s poultry and pork spice rub
- 2 tbsp Knorr chicken bouillon powder (the large jar, not packets or cubes)
- 2 tsp Hawaiian alaea salt (or coarse salt)
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp liquid smoke
- banana, taro, ti, or bamboo leaves, enough to wrap the shoulder (optional)
- found frozen at Asian markets like T&T
Rub the spice rub, bouillon, salt, Worcestershire, and liquid smoke over the pork shoulder. Wrap the shoulder in leaves, if using, then in foil. Let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes, or up to overnight.
Heat the oven to 165°C (325°F). Put the wrapped pork in a hotel pan, a Dutch oven, or any pan 5–10 cm (2–4 in) deep. Cook until the shoulder falls apart, 4–5 hours.
Unwrap the pork, saving all the accumulated liquid for the sauce. Pull out the larger pieces of fat and shred the meat. Reserve the fat for a future snack.
Sauce
- 50 g (¼ cup) golden brown sugar
- 1 (398 ml / 14 oz) can crushed pineapple, or a can of pineapple pieces, blended
- a 355 ml (12 oz) can works too
- 55 g (¼ cup) butter, melted
- 1 tbsp liquid smoke (optional)
- the liquid saved from the cooked pork
Combine the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and simmer until slightly reduced. Taste for salt and adjust with a little rub or sea salt.
To serve
The shredded pork, with the sauce spooned over.
Variations
Other cookers
Skip the oven and cook the wrapped shoulder another way: 4–5 hours on high in a slow cooker, about 50 minutes on high pressure in a pressure cooker, or 7–10 hours in a 120°C (250°F) oven. All of them should end with pork that falls apart.
Equipment
- Aluminum foil
Notes
- Sources: Slappyodaddybbq and Hawaii’s Pickle Lady.
- For a slow-cooker version finished with cabbage, see Kālua pig & cabbage.