Craving Hawaiian flavors? This Easy Kalua Pork with Cabbage is made right in your oven! Using just 6 simple ingredients like Hawaiian red salt and liquid smoke, you get that authentic smoky, tender flavor without the underground pit. A perfect set-it-and-forget-it Dutch oven dinner for busy weeknights!
Take your tastebuds to Hawaii with this Easy Kalua Pork With Cabbage Recipe For The Oven!
Here you'll learn how easy it is to replicate the delicious taste of salty and smoky Kalua pork in your own home using your oven.
Combine it with cabbage which gets added toward the end of cooking. The cabbage becomes tender and then wilts into the rendered pork fat completely soaking it up.
One bite and you won't be able to stop raving about this dish!
Let me begin by telling you how Kalua pork is traditionally made!
Jump to:
What Is Traditional Kalua Pork?
Traditional Hawaiian kalua pig is cooked in an imu, an underground pit lined with mesquite wood and hot lava rocks. A whole pig seasoned with Hawaiian red salt steams and smokes for hours until the meat is achingly tender.
The entire pig is usually wrapped in banana leaves or Hawaiian ti leaves.
To seal the oven, the pig is covered with more leaves, wet burlap, and a final layer of soil to make the pit airtight. It steams and smokes for 8 to 12 hours.
The smoke from the wood and ti leaves gives the pork an intensely smoky flavor, while the long, slow heat of the underground pressure cooker renders the fat and breaks down every fiber until the pork is succulent and easy to shred.
Why You Will Love This Recipe!
You'll love this recipe because it will give you the perfect balance between the salty and smoky flavors that Kalua pork is famous for!
This recipe also stands out for these additional reasons:
- You'll score the pork butt deeply - this lets the salt and smoke penetrate past the surface, so every shred tastes seasoned instead of just the outside.
- Use of a Dutch oven - this is the perfect vehicle for trapping steam and keeping the pork from drying out, mimicking the sealed environment of an imu.
- Low heat and slow cooking at 325°F over 3 hours makes the meat so tender and juicy.
- Adding cabbage in the last 10 minutes keeps it from turning to mush while still letting it drink up all that rendered fat and drippings.
Are you ready to make some of the most delicious pork and Hawaiian food you've ever had in your life? Then let's get to it!
🍽 Equipment
You won't need much in the way of equipment to make this Kalua pork in your oven.
However, use of a Dutch oven is highly recommended. If you don't have a Dutch oven, then you could use a stock pot with a very tight lid which will help to seal in moisture.
🥘 Ingredients
You only need a few simple ingredients to make this Kalua Pork With Cabbage recipe:
- Boneless pork butt - you could also use pork shoulder, however the cooking time may differ from the time indicated in this recipe
- Oil (I used olive oil)
- Hawaiian red salt (see below)
- Liquid Smoke - we'll use this to give us a nice smoky flavor (since most of us don't have an underground oven with hardwood to cook our pork in 🙂)
- Water
- Green Cabbage - this recipe uses approximately half a head of cabbage
Hawaiian red salt is also known as Alaea salt. This is sea salt that is combined with a native volcanic clay (alaea), which gives it a red color and an enhanced mineral content.
Alaea salt is traditionally used to season Kalua Pork, which gives the pork a mellow and earthy flavor.
There's no substitute for Hawaiian red salt when making Kalua Pork. 🙂
🔪 Instructions
Preheat your oven to 325F. Cut the pork into 4 equal pieces, then make several deep incisions into each piece using a sharp knife. Season your pork all over with the Hawaiian red salt, including adding some salt into the incisions.
Add the oil to your Dutch oven (or pot), and place on a medium high heat. Brown the pork on all sides (approximately 2 minutes per side) frying in batches and lowering the heat a bit if needed.
Once the pork is browned, turn off the heat on your stove. Now add the water and liquid smoke, cover, and place in your oven for a total of about 3 hrs, or until the pork is tender and easy to shred. Check on your pork 2 hrs into cooking time, adding more water if necessary (remember, you'll need to have some liquid available to cook the cabbage later).
Now shred the pork in the Dutch oven (or pot). At this point you should have enough braising liquid to cook your cabbage (if not add a little water).
Place the Dutch oven (or pot) on a medium high heat until the liquid boils, then add the chopped cabbage and stir it in. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, then cook for 10 minutes or until the cabbage is tender enough for your liking.
That's it! You made incredibly delicious Kalua Pork With Cabbage!
Suggestions For Enjoying And Serving
It's time to indulge in your Kalua Pork With Cabbage!
This classic Hawaiian dish is perfect served with white rice or macaroni salad.
I hope you will enjoy this recipe which gives you a delicious taste of the Hawaiian islands time and time again!
FAQ
It's not recommended to substitute regular salt for the Hawaiian red salt because the flavor profile is different and you won't get the earthy flavor that Kalua pork is known for. If you can't find the Hawaiian red salt, a coarse sea salt is your best substitute.
Crock pots are also great for making Kalua pork. However, I haven't developed this recipe for the crock pot so it's best to stick with oven baking if using this recipe.
Some Other Recipes You May Enjoy!
Here are some other recipes you may enjoy:
- Easy Hawaiian Spam Musubi
- Central BBQ Inspired Pulled Pork Nachos
- Easy Slow Cooker Pulled Pork With Coke
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Cheers!
Grace
Easy Kalua Pork With Cabbage Recipe For The Oven
Equipment
- 1 Dutch oven you can also use a pot suitable for the oven with a very tight lid
Ingredients
- 4 lbs boneless pork butt cut into 4 equal pieces
- 1 tablespoon oil plus additional as needed for frying
- 1.5 tablespoon Hawaiian red salt
- 1.5 tablespoon Liquid Smoke
- 2 cups water plus additional as needed
- ½ lb cabbage tough outer leaves removed, cored, and chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325F. Cut the pork into 4 equal pieces, then make several deep incisions into each piece using a sharp knife. Season your pork all over with the Hawaiian red salt, including adding some salt into the incisions.
- Add the oil to your Dutch oven (or pot), and place on a medium high heat. Brown the pork on all sides (approximately 2 minutes per side) frying in batches and lowering the heat a bit if needed.
- Once the pork is browned, turn off the heat on your stove. Now add the water and liquid smoke, cover, and place in your oven for a total of about 3 hrs, or until the pork is tender and easy to shred. Check on your pork 2 hrs into cooking time, adding more water if necessary (remember, you'll need to have some liquid available to cook the cabbage later).
- Now shred the pork in the Dutch oven (or pot). At this point you should have enough braising liquid to cook your cabbage (if not add a little water).
- Place the Dutch oven (or pot) on a medium high heat until the liquid boils, then add the chopped cabbage and stir it in. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, then cook for 10 minutes or until the cabbage is tender enough for your liking.
- That's it! You made incredibly delicious Kalua Pork With Cabbage!
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