I have been BBQ’ing for a full year now and during these 12 months, I have smoked dozens of pork shoulders. I was doing them the same way for a while in order to get myself more confident with the process. In fact, you can find the recipe I used repeatedly here. Now that my comfort level is to the point that I no longer need to refer to a recipe, I’ve decided to experiment a little more with the Boston butts. The warmer time of year gets me thinking about tropical vacations and the fun meals that come along with them. One of my many sisters-in-law (I married into a family of eight siblings) has been wanting to get family together and have a backyard luau with kalua pork. I summoned the powers of cyberspace and looked up recipes I could use in the smoker and came across one from Harry Soo at www.slapyodaddybbq.com. I used the kalua pork recipe from his site and added some personal touches of my own.
For your reference, the term “kalua” means “cook in an underground oven.” Not to be confused with Kahlua, the sweet, coffee-flavored alcoholic beverage from Mexico. I’m sure you could incorporate Kahlua into your kalua, but I chose Worcestershire Sauce instead because I don’t like to party.
SMOKED KALUA PORK
Ingredients:
1 pork shoulder (Boston butt), about 7 lbs.
2 teaspoons Hawaiian red sea salt
2 Tablespoons chicken bullion
1/4 Cup of your favorite BBQ rub
1-2 banana leaf/leaves
Mopping Sauce:
1 13 oz. can crushed pineapple
1/4 Cup (or half stick) butter, melted
1/4 Cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoons apple juice
1 Tablespoon Teriyaki sauce
Wood: hickory, peach
Smoker temp: 275°F
Meat temp: 195-203°F
Time: nine hours (five unwrapped, four wrapped)
To begin, I started the night before to let the ingredients flavor up the shoulders a bit (note: don’t forget to rinse and pat dry the pork shoulders prior to seasoning). You can do this at least an hour before smoking, but I didn’t want to wake up earlier than I needed to I chose to do it this way. First, I like to apply the Worcestershire sauce to help the other ingredients stick. The Hawaiian red sea salt, chicken buillon, and your favorite rub can be mixed together and applied, but I put them on one at a time. Regarding these ingredients, Hawaiian red sea salt can be tough to find locally. That is, unless you live in the Aloha State. I was able to find this at an Asian market, as well as the banana leaf to be used later. If you have no luck finding it near you, there’s always Amazon. If you’re like me and don’t purchase chicken bullion much, if at all, then here’s a tip for you I learned from this experience: bullion doesn’t always come in cubes. You can buy it already in the powder form. If you buy it in cubes, then you have to beat it down into powder, which I did by placing in a plastic bag and pounding with a rolling pin. For the rub, I tried the Bacon BBQ rub from Meat Church. It was my first time using it and I loved the flavor when I sampled it at my local BBQ shop.
After seasoning, I placed both pork shoulders into a large bowl and let rest overnight (FYI- the recipe I am posting is for one pork shoulder).
I got my smoker going the next morning and got the temperature of 275°F. Some do it at a lower temp and have it cook longer, but I like the 275°F temp and keep it in there for about 5 hours for this first step. Usually with Kalua pork recipes, they call for mesquite wood to smoke with. Since I had no mesquite wood on me, I used hickory and then I also wanted to put some Peach wood in there for a little bit of a sweeter flavor. I let that go for five hours, spritzing with a mixture of apple juice and apple cider vinegar once an hour.
After five hours and the internal temperature at about 150°F, I removed from the smoker. Leading up to this, I lay down two layers of heavy duty foil first, then a banana leaf. The banana leaf is usually a difficult one to find, but I found mine locally at an Asian market, just like the Hawaiian red sea salt. Rinse the banana leaf put it down on the foil, and then get the pork shoulder and place it on the banana leaf for wrapping, but don’t wrap yet.
Now you want to get your mopping sauce (hopefully you thought ahead unlike me and have already put it together) and spread it all over the pork shoulder. If you forgot what the ingredients were, then check the picture below:
I didn’t use all of the sauce, but plenty enough. The melted butter, brown sugar, and crushed pineapple together made me want to eat this mixture by the spoonful, but I exercised restraint and added the other two ingredients for mixing. I improvised with the teriyaki sauce. It just seemed fitting that a Hawaiian dish but have some sort of Teriyaki flavoring to it.
I apply the sauce and the pork shoulder looks like a mess. That’s okay, because it’s supposed to happen. Now wrap up in the banana leaf. The pack I bought had some pretty long leaves and I used one to wrap it up. It didn’t cover the pork shoulder completely, but the foil will help keep things in place.
I’m still unsure how relevant the banana leaf is to the flavor. I do know it is tradition to have it in the recipe for wrapping purposes because the leaf can hold the heat and juices in. When I find out for sure, I’ll update this post with that info.
Now that the banana leaf has wrapped around the pork shoulder, I wrap the foil around it and then throw it in the oven at 275°F for four hours *GASP!* Yep, in the oven because 1) I don’t wanna mess with regulating the heat in my smoker for four hours and 2) the meat had already absorbed five hours of smoke and won’t be able to take in much more than that.
After four hours wrapped in the oven, the shoulder reaches 195°F, which is where pulling the pork gets to the point of easy shredding. I unwrap and let it sit for about 20 minutes so the juices build up.
Between 195-203°F, the internal temp of the pork becomes easier too shred, thus meaning less time it takes to do that and the sooner you can your guests can dig in!
Enjoy!
