BACON!!!
Have I got your attention now? Don’t judge me for trying to entice you with the word bacon — I use it all the time on the kids (you should see how fast they come runnin’ when I say that word) so I figured it would work for you too.
I am so excited to share with you the best Kalua pork recipe ever known to man.
Why is this Kalua pork recipe so good you ask?
Well, this is because it is completely covered in BACON! That’s right, I said it, bacon.
This fall when I did my 50 freezer meals in a day, I decided to get creative with one of my meals. I like to makeup a few different kinds of roasts and one of them happened to be a pork roast. I was going to do what I usually do, prep it for a good ole’ fashioned Hawaiian Kalua pork recipe, but a thought entered my mind that blessed day and my life will forever be changed.
Bacon can do that to a person you know.
This is a story that will be passed down through the generations, so pay attention.
There I was, sweating, tired, and worn out from all the cooking I was doing. Making 50 Freezer Meals in a day is exhausting, but very rewarding when you are all finished. Pork roast in hand, I glanced over and I saw all this leftover bacon that I was using for a different meal. Instead of cooking it up for breakfast the next morning (Ha! Like that was going to happen after me doing all these freezer meals – a girl needs a break after that much cooking!), I decided on a whim to cover my Kalua pig with the leftover bacon and hope for the best. I mean, really, bacon can only improve the recipe, right? Well that was my hope, and it totally paid off. History was made that day folks!
The best part about this little package wrapped in bacon was the tender meat waiting for me in the inside.
The flavor of the bacon soaked into the meat, deepening the flavor even more, making my taste buds do a jig. One bite of this meat and your life will be changed forever.
You too will be telling your Grandchildren of the day that you stumbled upon this recipe. It is so good and it’s also easy to make! I promise, you won’t be disappointed if you try this kalua pork slow cooker recipe.
BACON COVERED KALUA PORK RECIPE
Ingredients:
3.5-5 lb boneless pork shoulder (butt) roast
6-8 slices of bacon
6 cloves of peeled garlic
1 Tablespoon Hawaiian Alaea Sea Salt- (white sea salt will work if you can’t find the pink stuff)
1 Tablespoon liquid hickory smoke – (optional)
Method:
Rinse and pat dry your pork roast. Trim any large pieces of fat off the meat. Next, take a knife and poke holes over the entire roast. Tuck pieces of garlic in the holes that you just poked into the meat. If your roast needs a little help with keeping a nice shape, use bakers twine and tie that pig up.
Sprinkle meat with 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke if you choose, and then rub the Hawaiian Sea Salt in to the meat.
Lastly, take your bacon strips and wrap them around your pork roast.
You are now ready to place your meat into the crock pot. Cook in crock pot on low for around 12 hours. You don’t need to add any water or liquid to the crockpot, as it will create it’s own juices in there.
If after 12 hours your bacon isn’t as crisp as you would like it to be, feel free to put it under your broiler for a few minutes to crisp it up.
At this point you can gently remove the pork roast from the crock pot and place on a large plate or serving platter.
Remove the bacon (if you used twine, now would be a good time to remove that) and shred the meat, discarding any fatty pieces along the way. You can either choose to eat the bacon immediately or crumble it up and add it to the shredded meat.
See that little piece of bacon? Oh yeah baby, that’s what I’m talking about!
Serve this on its own, over rice, veggies, or my personal favorite on a bun with some BBQ sauce. Enjoy!
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To Freeze: Follow the directions to prep roast for the crock pot. Place in freezer safe bag and freeze. The day before you cook it, remove from the freezer and let thaw completely. This one really needs to thaw – don’t toss it in frozen. Place in crock pot and cook on low for 12 -14 hours.
Below is the printable version of this recipe:
Bacon Covered Kalua Pork recipe
Ingredients
- 3.5-5 lb boneless pork shoulder roast butt
- 6-8 slices of bacon
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp pink Hawaiian sea salt- if you can't find it white sea salt will work just fine
- 1 tbsp liquid hickory smoke- optional
Instructions
- Rinse and pat dry your pork roast. Trim any large pieces of fat off the meat. Next, take a fork or knife and poke holes over the entire roast. Tuck pieces of garlic in the holes that you just poked in meat. If your roast needs a little help with keeping a nice shape, use bakers twine and tie that baby up. Sprinkle meat with 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke if you choose, and then rub the Hawaiian sea salt in to the meat. Lastly, take your bacon strips and wrap them around your pork roast. You are now ready to place your meat into the crock pot. Cook in crock pot on low for 12 hours.
- If after 12 hours your bacon isn't as crisp as you would like it, feel free to put it under your broiler for a few minutes to crisp it up.
- At this point you can gently remove the pork roast from the crock pot and place on a large plate or serving platter. Remove the bacon (if you used twine, now would be a good time to remove that) and shred meat, discarding any fatty pieces along the way. You can either choose to eat the bacon immediately or crumble it up and add it to the shredded meat. Serve this on it's own, over rice, veggies, or my personal favorite on a bun with some BBQ sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Looking for other great recipes? Make sure to check out my freezer meals and my from scratch recipes. Also I would love it if you followed me on Pinterest too (I have all my favorite freezer meals on a board there).
This looks delish! I have the same question as Hannah – how can this be converted to be cooked in the Instant Pot? I use that in favor of my crock pot pretty much all the time now. Thank you Karrie!
Hi, I’ve never made it in my instant pot, not sure how the bacon will do since you have to cook the pork so long. I’ll have to test it next time I make it! But if it did work it would be this: Put it on the saute feature, Then add the bacon wrapped pork and cook on each side about 2-3 minutes so it browned a little. Then add lid, and cook on high pressure for 40 minutes. Once the cooking time is up, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then do a quick release. That’s how it would look. Now… if the bacon doesn’t burn that would be awesome! So my answer is, I’m not sure, but I’ll update the post when I do try it! 🙂
i finally got to this in my freezer meals…it was AMAZING. i used too much liquid smoke because i misread 1 tbsp not a tsp but i don’t care, it turned out so GOOD. next time i will shred it in the juices. can’t wait for the next time pork is on sale.
So happy you liked it!
Is there a way to do this in an instantpot? I can’t wait to try! Just purchased your cookbook
I am going to buy your cookbook. Can you tell if the 50 Meals are also in the cookbook?
Hi! Yes I do have a 50 meals recipe plan in the book… and thank you so much!!!
I made this overnight and ateit with fried eggs in the morning..I hadn’t intended too but it smelled so darn good I had to do it. It was delicious. I tried to broil it to crisp up the bacon and about set my house on fire. The non-crispy bacon wasn’t so bad once I shredded everything up. Yummy!