Kalua Pig in a Slow Cooker

this is the best kalua pork i've ever had and i'm from hawaii. i had no idea it was so simple to make. i, too, found out that pork butt and pork shoulder is the same thing. i used a boneless, 2lb cut and it made enough for my husband and me with lots of leftovers. it is a little salty, but this is the way it's supposed to taste. it tastes best served with white rice (shortgrain, like sushi rice, not long grain). i also used black hawaiian sea salt, which i found at trader joe's. trader joe's offers black and red. but i noticed that the black sea salt also includes some charcoal ingredients, which helps it to taste more smoky and barbecued. i also used reese's mesquite liquid smoke. the black sea salt made the pork look really unappetizing on the outside, but once it's shredded, you can't really tell. also, i turned it over more than once; several times, in fact, and after shredding, cooked it on low for about another hour to soak up the juices. i added about two cups of shredded cabbage in the last hour or so, which is how it's served in hawaii. my total cooking time was 5 hours on high and 1 hr on low. great recipe and very impressive.

This is a great potluck recipe. I put the juices in the crockpot into a container and into the freezer while I waited for the pork to cool enough to shred. Then I take the hardened fat off the top and pour in the juices oil-free. That may help make this dish less oily.

THIS WAS INCREDIBLE!!! If I could give 10 stars I would!! Thanks to margarita4, I found the sea salt(Ming Tsai brand blue ginger at Target.) At first I was looking for something in a papper package like most salts are in and for something white. But it's in a tiny glass jar and the salt is a pinky salmon color(4-oz. $3.99) I had a 7 lb. bone in pork butt. It barely fit in my crock pot, but I managed! I started it at midnight, flipped it over at 8:30 in morning and let it cook until 4:30. Added 2 tsp. additional liquid smoke. It was done before that, but I kept it going like recipe said and there was hardly any fat in this. Hard to believe only 3 ingredients could taste so good! My sister in law lived in Hawaii for 3 yrs. and said it was just like what they had there. I love pork and have had it many ways, this ranks right up there with pig roasts, it is my favorite so far. I had 8 guests and they were all ewing and awing over this. It was fabulous and will make this often. Thanks Kay for sharing this, I'm so grateful!