In this slow cooker recipe for pork shoulder, pork shoulder and apple cider are combined, and the meat is cooked for a number of hours until it is soft. Reduce the cooking liquid to make a rich, delicious sauce that you can serve with the pork slices.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 6 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 7 hrs |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (4 pound) boneless pork shoulder roast
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 1 rib celery, chopped
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 ½ cups apple cider
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
- 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs (Italian parsley, sage, or thyme)
Instructions
- Season pork with salt and black pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Sear pork on all sides in the hot oil until browned, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer pork to the slow cooker.
- Reduce stovetop temperature to medium; cook and stir shallots and celery in the skillet until they begin to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Pour in apple cider vinegar and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until liquid is nearly evaporated, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Pour shallot mixture over pork shoulder in the slow cooker. Add apple cider, garlic cloves, and bay leaf. Cover, set slow cooker to Low, and cook until fork-tender but not falling apart, about 6 hours. Turn pork over every 1 to 2 hours. Remove pork roast to a plate and cover loosely with foil.
- Pour remaining liquid from the slow cooker through a fine mesh strainer into a large saucepan; place over high heat. Discard bay leaf and other solids. Bring sauce mixture to a boil, decrease heat and cook, skimming fat from the top, until reduced to 1/4 of the original volume, about 10 minutes.
- Remove sauce from heat and stir in Dijon mustard and cayenne pepper. Slowly whisk in cold butter until incorporated. Sprinkle in fresh herbs and season with salt and black pepper to taste.
- Cut pork into 1/4-thick slices and serve with sauce poured over the top.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 389 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 14 g |
| Cholesterol | 97 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 127 mg |
| Sugars | 10 g |
| Fat | 26 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was super easy to prepare and everyone loved the sauce. My crock pot must run very hot because even on low my pork was falling apart at 4 hours. This is a tasty dish but not quite elegant enough for company. Next time, I may try adding some diced apple when I reduce the sauce to add a little texture and more apple flavor.
No changes. Perfect the way it’s shown.
Absolutely LOVED this recipe! I had two pork shoulder roasts in the freezer (Costco, ya know?) Did one yesterday and it was such a hit I’m making the same again today! That is a true first, as my husband usually cooks the meat and I just chop the veg!! Thank you!
Tried this as a way to use up my apple cider. The meat was delicious and fall off the bone tender. I used a 5 lb boneless roast which worked fine. I was hoping for just a little more of the cider flavor?! But thinking that the leftovers should soak in the juices and be even better. Served with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes and it was great!
YUMMY!!! My family LOVED this recipe and said it’s definitely a do over!
The whole point of this is to create the sauce properly. Unbelievably good if you take the time to reduce it until an almost syrupy consistency. I cooked the whole thing the previous day and chilled the liquid. Easy to remove the fat prior to reducing the cooking liquid. Great result.
When make again will decrease amount of apple cider vinegar. But still good but would prefer it to be less tart. The sauce cooks down to 1/4 very nicely.
Used this as a base recipe for pork loin in a pressure cooker. Apple cider vinegar adds the right level of acid to the dish that you would not normally get with just apple cider, but I reduced the amount to about 3 tbs.
I used apple juice instead of the apple cider and have not made the gravy yet, but the roast is excellent.
Super easy. Used country style ribs and cold it in the instant pot for 8 minutes. Thickened with cornstarch. Yummy!
This is SO good… I made a couple of small changes, but that’s only because I did not have all of the ingredients (and live too far from a store). I was looking for a sauce other than the usual BBQ for cooking some country-style ribs, so tried this. I didn’t have shallots so used an onion, and didn’t have celery so threw some celery salt into the mix. Otherwise all else was the same. For those who wrote that there’s too much vinegar, perhaps you used 2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar instead of apple cider? I also had no problems with it cooking down to a thick glaze; I didn’t have to add cornstarch (in fact, I cooked it a minute too long and added a bit of water to thin it out). A bit of a tangy taste – almost a sweet-sour – but very good!
Made it per the recipe specs and it turned out delicious. The gravy was especially rich and tasty! Hubby loved it.
This slow cooker apple (juice or cider) braised pork was excellent. I used a smaller pork roast and only had to slow cook it for 4 hours. It was not crumbly but I could cut it with a fork (once I carved up the roast)! I used apple juice instead of apple cider. My husband and son really enjoyed it as well. This recipe is a keeper.
Meh…
Excellent result. I did marinate overnight and think that was a good additional step.
I used apple cider beer.
wonderful recipe. will definitely make it again. Everyone loved it.
Made recepie as directed. Used pork shoulder bone in, sauce was delicious. Served over a layer of applesauce, along with oven roasted potatoes, carrots, and steamed green beans.
This was delicious! I made it almost as listed except a few changes. I can never find shallots so I used sliced onions. Also, the only cider I could find was spiced so I did as some other reviewers said and used apple juice. As I am doing Whole30 right now, I used olive oil, personal preference over vegetable oil and ghee instead of butter. The sauce with this was so rich and tasty! Wish we were eating bread, french bread dipped in the sauce…yum! Anyway, next time I probably won’t add the fresh herbs to the sauce at the end as I don’t feel they added anything to the flavor at that point. Reducing the sauce definitely took much longer than stated, I gave up when it got to around 1/2 volume! I could see thickening it a little in the future but it was good the way we had it! This is for sure added to our rotation and will be a regular, not a simple recipe but the return for effort is well worth it!
Fire recipe I used the fat skimming for a blond roux with heavy che
Very easy and delicious. I will make it again, definitely!