Here's the thing about slow cooking - you can put meat into a slow cooker with almost nothing else and it will still turn out succulently moist. A little extra work may yield some extra complexity, a darkening in the flavor, but you can skip that and still have a great roast.
Either of the two methods offered in this recipe will give you a delicious pork roast with almost zero work, which is just what I like the week after Thanksgiving.
I had five members of my family visiting the first time I made this roast, and I was a little desperate. I took three minutes to throw it all in the slow cooker and left for the day. I was apprehensive about this, but we came home to the rich smell of pork falling to pieces in a broth of its own making. This is what I call cooking.
The second method is my attempt to doctor it up, and it's not necessarily better; it just adds a little more of a roasted, spicy flavor. Either way is good, and if you freeze the leftovers in one-serving portions, you can defrost them over the next month and stir-fry them with peppers, garlic and rice for a very quick weeknight supper.
A note about slow cooking: if you don't have a slow cooker, you can also make this in a Dutch oven or other heavy covered pot. Cook at 250ºF for about 4 hours.
Slow-Cooked Pork Roast
serves 8-10
3-4 pound pork roast
Kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves
8 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon allspice berries (optional)
Red pepper flakes (optional)
Method 1
Rub the pork roast all over with salt and pepper. Bruise the sage leaves and mince or slice the garlic - anything quick - it doesn't need to be pretty. Put the roast, sage, garlic, and white wine in the slow cooker and cook for 10 hours on low or 5-6 hours on high.
Method 2
The day before, rub the meat lightly with kosher salt and black pepper. On the day you are going to cook the roast, fry the garlic until golden in a little olive oil, then remove from the pan. Heat the pan up very hot and brown the pork roast until it's very dark on all sides. It helps if you cut the pork into pieces first. Don't worry about the meat drying out - it will reabsorb all its moisture and more. Crack the allspice and fry it, along with the red pepper, with the pork just as it's finishing browning. Add everything to the slow cooker and cook for 10 hours on low or 5-6 hours on high.
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That looks great, I've only ever made spicy things in the slow cooker. Maybe I should try something new?
can you make this if you don't have a slow cooker?
Is there a specific cut of pork that would work best? There are these odd, large cuts of relatively inexpensive cuts of bone-in pork I often see in stores and I was wondering if a slow cooker recipe might work with them as well.
I have a large 6 qrt slow cooker.. and I am wondering if this size will effect the cooking of the meat? It is just two of us in my household, and will be using a much small roast. Will it still work out for us?
Yeah, it should work all right in a slow oven, although I've never done it that way. You might want to add a bit more liquid. And yeah, I always get weird cheap cuts for slow cooking - love the frugality of it! I think my slow cooker is 5 or 6 quarts and it works fine. The cover keeps the moisture in.
When you cook stuff in the CrockPot, errr slow cooker, do you care that some parts of it stick out above the "water line" of whatever you put in?
I made a roast beef in mine slow cooker over the weekend and half of it was below the water I put in and 1/2 above, is that ok?
There's no bayleaves in this recipe, but they should do ok in a slow cooker too, right? Not to bring up fast food too often, but Chipotle Burrito makes some might tasty pork and I bet they use some kind of slow cook recipe similar to this for their amazing carnitas burritos.
Do y'all have a slow cooker you love? I'm in the market and need some recommendations. Thanks!
This looks awesome, I am currently without slow cooker but may have to try and approximate it in my Dutch oven. I have my grandmother's recipe which requires a rolled and tied up roast but I may skip that unless somebody can tell me why I would do it. However, she also slices little holes in hers and stuffs slices of garlic in, I would recommend this to any garlic fan or port roast fan!
Slow roasting pork (in the oven) is the best. My husband made this and it was falling off the bone delicious.
i halved all ingredients except the wine and cooked on low for 8 hours. absolutely divine, thank you!
@ Chris - "Is there a specific cut of pork that would work best? "
You can't go wrong with a boston butt. It's comprised of several muscles and has a lot of connective tissue which, when cooked low & slow, makes the meat absolutely succulent. This is the cut most BBQ joints use for their pulled pork or chopped pork.
This looks delicious. Personally, I prefer to make pulled pork in my smoker, but I know that's not an option for everyone. It's a little more work too :)
I would always suggest doing the low heat longer time for meats. Going with higher heat and less time may leave the meat really tough.