King’s Hawaiian – Root Beer Pulled Pork Sliders
My proposal was selected as a winner in the King’s Hawaiian Tastemaker Program put on by Foodbuzzz! Incorporating King’s Hawaiian bread into a Spring Brunch would be easy, because as you can tell from so many past recipes, I love cooking with King’s Hawaiian bread. The soft, tasty Portuguese style sweet bread reminds me of visiting family in Hawaii and completes every meal from breakfast to dinner.
Lilo was right, ohana means family, and family means getting together and LOTS of eating. I knew that my King’s Hawaiian spring brunch dish would have to involve feeding the ones I love.
Root beer is the drink of choice in our family, so much so that I often use it in my recipes. The sweetness brings a lot out of savory dishes. I decided to make Root Beer Pulled Pork sliders: warm, succulent pulled pork – flavored with spices and root beer a perfect compliment to King’s Hawaiian sweet bread.
I am lucky that the King’s Hawaiian Bread factory is located right here in Los Angeles, with a bakery and restaurant not far away. This means I get the FRESHEST melt in your mouth sweet bread. Sure the supermarket bread is good too, but nothing beats sweet bread made fresh that day.
A quick run to the bakery and I got my rolls for my meal as well as King’s famous Paradise Cake for dessert!
To me this is the perfect way to welcome spring, good food and family. An Ohana lunch is the best way to celebrate the season! If you make it to the bakery make sure to get yourself a big gorgeous slice of King’s Hawaiian Paradise Cake to end this meal!
King’s Hawaiian – Root Beer Pulled Pork Sliders
Ingredients:
ingredients:
1 boneless pork shoulder (or pork butt) 4lbs
1 sweet onion, sliced
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Hawaiian salt
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
12 oz root beer (My preference is A & W for cooking)
King’s Hawaiian sweet bread dinner rolls
Instructions:
Place the sliced onion into the bottom of the crock pot and place the pork shoulder on top.
In a small bowl combine the brown sugar, Hawaiian salt, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, pepper, onion powder and oregano. Mix well and pour and rub into the pork.
Pour the root beer on top. Cover the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours.
When the 8 hours is up, take two forks and ‘pull’ the pork. It will be nice and tender and should shred easily. Make sure you mix up the onions on the bottom of the pot.
Cut the King’s Hawaiian rolls in half and place a nice helping of pork on top to serve!
hi Jenn ~
GoodGolly, your Root Beer Pulled Pork Sliders look ABFAB! Congrats on your King’s Hawaiian/Foodbuzz win, by the way!
The next time there’s a “daily special” on pork shoulder at work – one of my jobs is at fresh&easy – I am definitely going to try this recipe!
The only downer: We don’t have a King’s Hawaiian Restaurant/Bakery here in Vegas. UGH. I’m originally from the O.C., and I miss their Paradise cake *tears welling up in my eyes as I type this* (I’d often make the trek from south O.C. to Torrance, JUST FOR SAID CAKE!) sigh.
Oh well, thanks for the recipe; hope you’re doing okay this week!
PAX, Lola in Las Vegas
Love that cake as well as this site.
YUM! Those look so good! Loooove Kings Hawaiian- but I’m a Haupia cake girl. Congrats on the Tastemaker!
woot! one of the few good things about living in Torrance! hahaha!
Who could resist trying this with the root beer involved. 😉 What a great recipe.
ooh, my husband would love that pulled pork recipe since root beer is his fave type of soda. i really like doing crock pot recipes too so that is definitely something i would make.
pretty “paradise” cake too – i’ve never seen anything like it. are the layers different flavors? also, what’s on the top? is that jelly or a puree of sorts?
@caninecologne they are different flavors, i can’t list them at the top of my head, but one of them is guava. it is good, i had some today… i may have some more in a little bit!
@caninecologne
The three flavors of chiffon are guava, lilikoi and lime. It’s sort of a fruit gelee on top, all in a whipped cream frosting. DEEElish.
@denise – thanks! i wish there was a king’s hawaiian bakery here in sd
jenn- thanks for the info! that cake looks so beautiful, inside and out.
Well, I made these today and literally just finished enjoying them. I really liked them. I also forgot how much I like King’s Hawaiian. Great recipe.
I just made this! It’s on its first hour of slow cooking. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Can you buy Maui onions anywhere?
@Lucy
I’ve seen them at Trader Joe’s, and most supermarkets have some type of sweet onions, if you can’t find Mauis. (But I do believe they are superior. 😉 )
I made some pulled pork with A&W. It was ok. Didn’t quite turn out like yours. Good stuff nonetheless.
Congratulations Jenn! Thank you for the recipe! I’m new reader to your blog thanks to the King’s link! I live in Vegas too, like Lola.. so I was anxiously waiting to get to King’s yesterday. Got some Paradise cake haha and just ate some of it just a moment ago! onoz!! Can’t wait to try your pulled pork recipe!!
Awesome! Here via the KH FB page! Bookmarked–will try, for sure! ;D
DON’T YOU ALL JUST ABSOLUTELY HATE THE NEW A & W ROOT BEER? GOD, WE DO. I WANT MY OLD ROOT BEET BACK, PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! HELP US GET OUR OLD FAVORITE BACK. WRITE AND EMAIL TO PROTEST THIS HORRIBLE CHANGE. I NOW TASTED LIKE COUGH SYRUP. YUK!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE HELP US. WE MISS OUR ROOT BEER FLOATS SO MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
hi 🙂 tried this recipe and liked how it came out. my toddler didn’t eat much of it, but i had his 3 cousins over, and they ate it so i was happy 🙂 thanks!
I just felt I should tell you that I’ve done this recipe several times now, and its great everytime. This last time I lost the recipe, and googled until I could find it again. Luckily I did find it again, and now its bookmarked and saved in my documents. I much appreciate you sharing this. Its totally awesome
How many servings does the 4lb roast make?
What is Hawaiian Salt?
Making this again tonight! 3rd time, and it is always so awesome!
Totally jelly about you having Paradise Cake. Man do I miss living a few blocks away from that Bakery & Restaurant!! If I ask nicely, do you think they will ship one to NC for me? lol
My grandmother just gave us a crock pot (since our oven is broken right now) but it’s only 1.5qt. Would that be big enough for this recipe?
@Kat I’m afraid not. 1.5 is rather small but if you want to go for it you’d need to adjust the recipe down for about a 1 pound roast.