Smoked Kalua Pork Recipe with Banana Leaves – State of Dinner (2024)

Published: Jul 28, 2020 · Modified: Aug 13, 2023 by Erin · This post may contain affiliate links · 8 Comments

Smoked Kalua Pork is seasoned with Hawaiian salt and wrapped in banana leaves, then smoked, to give it the authentic flavor of traditional Hawaiian Kalua Pork without digging a hole in your backyard!

Traditional Kalua pig is a whole pig that is cooked in the ground. Literally, they dig a giant hole and bury the pig!

I don't know about you, but that's not something I was up for doing in my backyard. So when we had our Hawaii state dinner I needed to figure out another option. Something that would replicate the amazing flavor of Kalua pig, without having to dig a hole...or buying a whole pig.

Smoked kalua pork wrapped in banana leaves was the answer! It turned out delicious!

Traditional Kalua Pork

Before I break down how we smoked our pork, let's take a look at how Kalua pig (or Kalua pork, as it is also called) is traditionally made. Usually, a hole is dug in the ground and then filled with wood chips.

Coarse Hawaiian sea salt coats the pig. It is wrapped with banana leaves and placed on top of lava rocks. Then it is covered with more banana leaves and dirt, for insulation, and is left to roast throughout the day. This dish is served at large events and parties, including the famous Hawaiian luau.

Now, you can do this in your own backyard. However, if you live in a city this means calling the digger's hotline, renting a backhoe, and purchasing a bunch of sand. Or you can use your grill or smoker and enjoy the same flavor. Which, to me, seems a lot more reasonable.

Alaea Sea Salt

Alaea sea salt is a Hawaiian salt that has been mixed with volcanic red clay. This clay is rich in iron oxide and gives the salt a brick-red color.

You can buy it on Amazon, or we have also found it at World Market. Using a sharp knife, put slits all over your pork roast.

Then rub the salt over it, getting salt into the slits that are in the meat. We used 3 tablespoons for a roughly 5-pound pork roast. Cover your pork and refrigerate for a couple of hours, or overnight.

Pork Wrapped in Banana Leaves

Now get ready for your kitchen to smell like green tea! It's time to wrap the pig in banana leaves.

We found banana leaves at our local Asian market. The leaves are huge! We just used two to wrap our pork.

Wrap thefirst leaf along the long side of the pork, then turn and wrap the second leaf around the short side.This helps seal in the flavor. Use some butcher’s twine to secure the leaves.

Preparing Your Grill

Arrange your coals in a thin layer and have them heating up while you are wrapping your pork. Not too many coals, as it doesn’t take much to create the 225-250°F markwe are shooting for. This is the same low and slow cooking method that I use for Texas brisket.

While this is heating, soak some mesquite wood chips in water for roughly 20 minutes. This will help them create a good smoke without flaming up or disintegrating quickly. After they have properly soaked, remove them from the water, and lay them directly over the burning coals.

Perfectly Smoked Kalua Pork

Once the wood chips are on the coals, place the pork in the center of the grate and cook it until it reaches 200 degrees. For boneless pork plan for about an hour per pound, but know that with smoking, time is really an unknown. It is completely dependent on your individual smoker as well as the piece of meat. Once it hits 200 degrees, wrap the entire thing in a blanket and put it into a cooler for at least an hour, or up to 5 hours. This helps to finish the cooking and creates a fall-apart pork roast.

I can see why this is common for large parties! It's great to have the meat cooked and out of the way early, without having to worry about it getting cold. Make sure to unwrap the pork over a serving tray or large platter to help retain the juices that will come out as you open it!

Serve it with your favorite homemade BBQ sauce for extra flavor!

Recipe