The Low-Carb Slow Cooker: Kalua Pork

Welcome to what I hope to make a regular weekly feature: Low carb (ideally Paleo, or at least Paleo-adjacent) meals you can easily cook in your slow cooker (a.k.a. the Crock Pot, although that's a trademarked name, not a generic term). I love making low carb meat dishes in the slow cooker, because I am a lazy cook. I work from home so I have plenty of time to prep and create fabulous fantastic elaborate meals, but I would prefer not to.

Furthermore, the slow cooker is a great way to deal with large, cheap, tough cuts of meat. Like the one which is featured in this recipe: Pork shoulder. Pork shoulder comes bone-in or boneless. For the purpose of this recipe, either one will do. Just pick out the one that looks best to you. Both cuts will usually be pretty cheap, less than $3/lb at my local grocery store.

Here are the ingredients, are you ready for this? One pork shoulder. Half a bottle of liquid smoke. Salt.

Here are the instructions: Put all three things in your slow cooker for 10 hours. Shred the meat with a fork. Eat. (Goes great with a scoop of quinoa to soak up all the sauce.)

In fact this recipe is so quick and easy, I got it from a friend's tweet!

Kalua pork is a traditional Hawaiian dish. (It doesn't have Kahlua liqueur in it.) The traditional way to make it is to dig a pit, lay a bed of coals, top it with a lot of green leaves (like fresh banana leaves), put a whole pig in there, cover it up, and wait 24 hours. The pig is slow roasted which tenderizes the meat, and the smoke partially cures it.

I will caution you that the smell of the liquid smoke can be a bit much after a while. Next time I make this, I will put the slow cooker out on the front porch all day while it's cooking.

Image courtesy Flickr/SaucyGlo