I learned how to make this traditional New Year’s Day feast from my husband, whose family is from central Pennsylvania. Particularly when paired with mashed potatoes and applesauce, it’s fantastic.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 6 hrs 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 6 hrs 25 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (2 pound) boneless pork loin roast
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 pounds sauerkraut
- 1 pound kielbasa, cut into 3-inch pieces
Instructions
- Preheat the oven broiler. Place the roast in a roasting pan, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with thyme leaves, and season with salt and pepper. Place under the broiler for 10 minutes, until lightly browned in several places.
- Place 2 pounds sauerkraut in a slow cooker. Arrange kielbasa pieces around the edges of the slow cooker pot, and place the roast in the center. Cover with remaining sauerkraut.
- Cover slow cooker, and cook roast 6 hours on High.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 229 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 8 g |
| Cholesterol | 52 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 15 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 1358 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made this for my family and they loved it! I doubled the amount of kielbasa and the recipe was delicious!
This is a long standing family favorite for New Year’s Eve finishing for the first good luck meal after midnight. So very easy and fits perfectly in crock pot. The only substitute I made was dried thyme for fresh sprigs. I used about a teaspoon. I didn’t need to add any beer or broth like other users suggested. Delicious! We love Reubens so I think I’ll use any leftover sauerkraut for sandwiches.
This was incredibly easy to make and my husband really liked it. It is also fine halved, you just have to watch that there is sufficient liquid to keep it tender. For someone with many Amish friends, this is authentic and would not be complete without the homemade applesauce!
Delicious! I was too lazy to put my pork in the oven broiler first but it turned out great, white but scrumptious!
Smelled wonderful when cooking. Served with mashed potatoes and applesauce, as suggested. Got rave reviews.
This recipe is amazing! I use it every year and I don’t change a thing.
This is a top shelf recipe. I have made this a total of five times now. First two times followed the recipe exactly. Did some slight tweaking from there. Are use one fresh head of cabbage diced. I fry six strips of bacon diced. Add 2 teaspoons of kosher salt. And then one premade bag of sauerkraut on top. Kind resembles a friendship bread recipe.
Super delicious and super easy. Tossed everything in the crockpot at eleven a.m. And had a tender and moist main dish by six p.m. I’ll be making this again for sure.
This was absolutely perfect made as recipe stated EXCEPT omitting thyme because family doesn’t like the herb. The Roast was sooooo tender and everything was so flavorful. Don’t change a thing–it’s PERFECTION! I made home made mashed potatoes and home made cranberry sauce to go with it. Everyone LOVED IT! Great recipe!
I made this recipe it is wonderful I used some chicken broth when I first started it this is one of the best meals I have ever cooked
This recipe is excellent, either as it is or with some tiny additions if you want the other flavors. I followed some of the review tips and added a little beer, brown sugar, and diced onions and apple that I stir-fried for a few minutes. I also like the idea of adding the kielbasa later, since it had a crumbly texture after cooking so long. I had never heard of such a dish or combination when I made it for the first time last New Year’s, and I can’t wait to make it again. Thank you so much for the recipe, and for all the extremely helpful comments. You all play a large part in why many of my friends love my cooking!
This may be the most delicious slow cooker recipe there is. Plus it’s as easy as can be. I seared the pork roast on cast iron, then followed the recipe with the following notes. I used dried thyme, and it came out just fine. Definitely add a half a bottle of dark beer (I used Red Hook Winterhook, because ’tis the season).
The whole family loved it. Not a clean plate on the table left.
5 stars!!! Don’t add the sausage until an hour before the meal is done if you are using precooked sausage. It just looks better when served. This recipe was even tastier as left overs!!!
This was good, and I will likely make it again, but not like “OMG 5 stars!” Cooking the Kielbasa for 6 hours was overkill. Next time I make this I will add it either half-way through or toward the end. The overall flavor was good, but I feel it was still lacking a little sumpin’ sumpin’. Next time I will try adding beer, as other suggested, and some chopped up roasted Pueblo green chiles because, like bacon, they make everything better 🙂 The pork became a little dry the following night after reheating for leftovers so I heated up some chicken broth to pour over it and that seemed to do the trick. Garlic mashed potatoes and peas went well as side dishes.
We love all these ingredients and I was so excited to find this recipe with such an awesome combo of these ingredients in a super easy slow cooker recipe! In sending it to my brother who makes sauerkraut right now!!!
Absolutely fantastic. the roast was so tender it was practically falling apart when I cut it. definitely will be making this again
I made this and it was fantastic, thank you so much for sharing
This was very good! The pork was very tender. I added half a cup of beer, some onions and brown sugar like another user suggested and it tasted great. I will definitely make this again.
Delicious. My family has made this for years on New Year’s Day, but never in the crockpot. It was fabulous and beautiful too. I did add a can of Budweiser thanks to someone else’s tip and then served it over homemade mashed potatoes. It’s a keeper.
I used fennel instead of thyme and added some apple in with the sauerkraut. Outstanding flavor.