Serving Up {Pork}: Kalua Pork

Three years ago I was in charge of a family reunion in Las Vegas for my husbands family.  The second evening we turned our church gymnasium into a Hawaiian Luau complete with music, decorations and food.  The menu for the evening included spam musabi, macaroni salad, sticky rice and this recipe for Kalua Pork.

Cooking for 42 people gets tricky.  The fact that half of those 42 people were little bodies adds an additional amount of tricky into the equation.  I'll be honest, I tend to over prepare and over cook and the result is generally lots of leftovers.  Not the case with this recipe.  I cooked three 7-8 pound pork roasts and after the first round of people filling their plates I was horrified at the amount that was still remaining on the serving table.  I guess the meat required an actual tasting because before long most people were returning for seconds and not long after that I was asked if there was any more pork.  It had ALL been eaten!  All 20+ pounds.  Since that reunion I have had a number of family members ask for the recipe.  I love serving this recipe to a large group because it comes together so easily, requires so few ingredients and is always a hit with everyone.

KALUA PORK     
printable version

5 lb. pork roast
2 Tbs. course Hawaiian salt (if using a finer salt, reduce the salt to 1 Tbs)
¼ cup liquid smoke
¼ cup soy sauce
1 cup water
1 onion

Trim excess visible fat from the pork roast.  Sprinkle the salt over the roast and rub the salt into the pork.  Place the pork roast into a roasting bag. Peel and cut the onion in half; place into roasting bag with pork.
Mix together the liquid smoke, soy sauce and water; pour into the bag and seal as per directions for roasting bag. Place bag into a roasting pan and bake for 4-5 hours at 325 degrees.
When fully cooked the meat will pull away to shred easily.  Pour remaining gravy from bag over the shredded pork and allow the moisture to absorb into the meat.
Serve over sticky rice.