This instant pot kalua style pork is tender and delicious and flavor packed! It’s ingredients list is so simple! Traditional kalua pork is from a pig that is wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a pit in the ground, I have had the pleasure of eating it before and t’s delicious, tender, slightly smoky and it tastes amazing! So my focus of this recipe is to replicate some of that taste and texture into a instant pot version that takes a fraction of the time and a sliver of the effort.
Kalua pork is essentially salted pork, there are really only 2 ingredient to it and those are sea salt and pork. I like to use a pork butt roast. You can use a pork shoulder roast or picnic roast as well. To get pork to the stage it’s ready to fall apart and shred it needs to be cooked for about 8-10 hours depending on the size of your roast and the temperature, with this instant pot version it will take about 2 hours in the instant pot. So it does still take some time still but that is much less than 8-10 hours.
I have listed a few optional ingredients on this to give it a little extra smoke and flavor, If you want the smokiness you can use liquid smoke. I personally don’t add it to my own but if you want the smoke you can add a little and it will give it that replicated kalua smoke flavor. Other traditional ingredients would be red Hawaiian sea salt and banana leaves but I find that pink sea salt does the trick just fine.
Leftovers can be frozen in a zip lock bag or freezer containers for 1-2 months, just defrost, heat and enjoy.
What you need to make this instant pot kalua Style pork:
Makes roughly 5-7 pounds
- ~5-7 pound pork butt roast – shoulder or picnic roasts can also be used.
- 3-4 teaspoons pink sea salt – you want about 1/2 a teaspoon salt per pound of pork, I always round up to the nearest teaspoon instead of doing 1/2 teaspoons on this recipe.
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce – optional but recommended
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar – optional but recommended
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke – optional
- 1 1/2 cups water – The instant pot will burn the roast without the water so you need to add it.
Instructions
- Add the pork roast, sea salt, soy sauce, brown sugar, optional liquid smoke and water to the instant pot and cook on high pressure for 2 hours with a quick release.
- Shred pork and pour some of the cooking liquid over the pork then mix around so it coats all of the meat.
- Serve and enjoy.
Here are a few other recipes you may love:
- Island Honey Cake RECIPE HERE
- Easy Teriyaki Grilled Chicken RECIPE HERE
- Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken RECIPE HERE
- Hawaiian BBQ Pork Roast RECIPE HERE
Instant Pot Kalua Style Pork
Ingredients
- ~5-7 pound pork butt roast – shoulder or picnic roasts can also be used.
- 3-4 teaspoons pink sea salt – you want about 1/2 a teaspoon salt per pound of pork I always round up to the nearest teaspoon instead of doing 1/2 teaspoons on this recipe.
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce – optional but recommended
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar – optional but recommended
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke – optional
- 1 1/2 cups water – The instant pot will burn the roast without the water so you need to add it.
Instructions
- Add the pork roast, sea salt, soy sauce, brown sugar, optional liquid smoke and water to the instant pot and cook on high pressure for 2 hours with a quick release.
- Shred pork and pour some of the cooking liquid over the pork then mix around so it coats all of the meat.
- Serve and enjoy.