Slow Cooker Kalua Pulled Pork -- The One I Make When My Hands Need to Remember

Two weeks until the wedding. The house smells like garlic and vinegar because I have started marinating test batches of pernil to make sure the proportions are right for the big one. I have been making pernil for thirty years. The proportions have not changed in thirty years. But this is my son wedding and nothing is left to chance, not the garlic cloves per pound of pork, not the ratio of oregano to vinegar, not the number of hours in the oven. I am testing and tasting and adjusting with the obsession of a scientist and the passion of a mother, and both of those things live in me at the same volume.

Jenny came for Sunday dinner and we finalized the reception layout. Her side of the buffet and my side of the buffet, facing each other across the table like two nations at a peace conference. She said, Carmen, should we put labels on the dishes so people know what everything is? I said, Mija, the pernil does not need a label. Anyone who cannot identify a roasted pork shoulder by sight and smell has not been paying attention to food, and I cannot help people who do not pay attention to food. But for the arroz con gandules, yes, we will put a label, because the last thing I need is Karen guests asking why there are beans in the rice.

David is coming from Brooklyn for the wedding. He offered to help me cook the reception food. I said yes, but only if he promises not to deconstruct anything. No deconstructed pernil. No pernil foam. No pernil served in a martini glass. He laughed and said, Mami, I would never. He is lying. I know he wants to deconstruct my pernil. I can feel it. But this is his brother wedding and we are serving traditional food because weddings are about tradition and tradition does not come in a martini glass.

I called Mami and told her the wedding plans. She listened. She said, I wish I could be there. I said, Mami, you will be there. The food is you. Every dish on that table is something you taught me, and when they eat the pernil they are eating your hands and your kitchen and your love. She was quiet. Then she said, Make sure the pernil has enough garlic. I said, Mami, it has enough garlic. She said, More garlic, Carmen. Even from fifteen hundred miles away, from a house without a roof, my mother is supervising my garlic. This is love. This is immortality. This is the only kind of forever that matters.

So yes, the pernil is sacred and the pernil is for the wedding and the pernil belongs to my mother’s hands and my son’s future. But on the weeknights between now and then, when I am too tired from testing batches to stand over an oven for six more hours, this is what I make—a slow cooker pulled pork that asks almost nothing of you and gives back everything. You salt it, you set it, you let time do what time does. It is not pernil. Nothing is pernil. But it is pork cooked low and slow with patience and faith, and that is close enough for a Tuesday.

Slow Cooker Kalua Pulled Pork

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 16 hours | Total Time: 16 hours 10 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 5 pounds bone-in pork shoulder (butt roast)
• 2 tablespoons coarse Hawaiian sea salt (or kosher salt)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons liquid smoke
• 1 large banana leaf (optional, for wrapping)

Instructions

1. Season the pork. Pierce the pork shoulder all over with a fork. Rub the liquid smoke evenly over the entire surface, then massage the coarse salt into the meat on all sides.
2. Wrap if using banana leaf. If you have a banana leaf, wrap the seasoned pork shoulder in it and secure with kitchen twine. This adds a subtle earthy flavor and keeps the pork extra moist.
3. Set it and forget it. Place the pork shoulder in the slow cooker fat side up. Cover and cook on LOW for 16 to 20 hours. Do not open the lid during cooking. The pork is done when it falls apart effortlessly with a fork.
4. Shred the pork. Remove the pork from the slow cooker and discard the banana leaf if used. Using two forks, shred the meat, discarding any large pieces of fat or bone.
5. Finish with the juices. Return the shredded pork to the slow cooker and toss with the accumulated cooking juices until well coated. Taste and adjust salt if needed.
6. Serve. Pile the pulled pork onto plates, into slider buns, over rice, or alongside your favorite sides. It needs nothing else—the simplicity is the point.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 340 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 0g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 980mg