Cider Braised Pork Roast

Cider Braised Pork Roast Ingredients

So a few weeks back I got a great deal on Bone in Pork Shoulder and had a bunch of apple cider leftover from holiday cooking and baking.  Cider Braised Pork Shoulder sounded like it would be delightful.  I was excited to try it.  It went all day in the crockpot giving off great aroma, but it didn't really measure up.  I can't lie, I didn't love carving it and anything with bones and skin is not so much for me.

So this time I took advantage of a boneless pork loin roast on sale when we were at the Hilltop and tried again.  Let's see how this attempt came out.


Cider Braised Pork Roast

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 1/2- 4 lb boneless pork loin roast
• 3 1/2 cups apple cider (divided)
• 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground sage (divided)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder (divided)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne (divided)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1/2 apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 peeled garlic cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 Tablespoon cold butter
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix 1 1/2 cups apple cider, water, 1 teaspoon each of ground sage & garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.  Place pork in brine overnight and refrigerate .  This will fit in a gallon freezer bag.

Briney Goodness 

Remove pork from brine and discard brining liquid.  Pat pork roast dry and tie with kitchen twine at one inch intervals.  Season pork with salt & pepper.  

I need to work on my tying skills

Heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil in saute pan till shimmering.  Sear pork on all sides to create dark crust. 

Mmm Crusty

Place pork roast in slow cooker.

Into the slow cooker

Heat remaining oil in saute pan and add shallots and celery to saute pan.  Cook for about two minutes.  Add remaining ground sage, garlic powder, cayenne, ground cinnamon and ground cloves.  Deglaze pan with apple cider vinegar and cook until vinegar has evaporated.  

Developing Flavors

Transfer mixture to slow cooker.  Pour remaining apple cider into crock pot. Place bay leaf, peeled garlic clove & cinnamon stick into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.  Halfway through cooking, give the roast a turn as the braising liquid is only about halfway up the pork.

Apple Cider Braise

Remove pork roast from slow cooker to a carving board and tent with foil.

Almost Finished Pork

 Strain braising liquid into sauce pan over high heat (skim excess fat as possible)  and reduce to about 25%and remove from heat.  Off heat whisk in Dijon mustard until combined and whisk in cold butter to finish the sauce.

This sauce is very flavorful and concentrated - a lot goes along way

Slice pork and serve with sauce.  

Pork Deliciousness

Happy Hubs/Sous Chef

Pack up four lunches for later in the week

The results are in, this was fantastic.  Really very delicious.  The brine really made the difference in this attempt.  I am in sweet love with this recipe and next time boneless pork loin roasts are at my buy price (2.99/lb) I will be making this again and likely for company!   I do recommend doing something easier for a side.  I did the buttermilk mashed potatoes which I highly recommend and will have to share in the future.  Just finishing the sauce, taking care of potatoes and sautéing green beans proved to be a little too much right before serving.  But then again, I'm not a professional chef.

Spicy Honey Pork Medallions

Yields: 8 Servings

Printable Recipe

This is a great comes together quickly meal, but doesn't feel like it.  This is definitely something I can do after work, but I would definitely make for company too.  Pork Tenderloin is another really versatile meat and is pretty quick cooking.  Slicing the tenderloin into medallions give it even more surface area to take on flavor.  This is a variation on a recipe in America's Test Kitchen's Healthy family cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 2 pork tenderloins 
• 1 Cup Honey
• 1/2 Cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)
• 4 Teaspoons minced chipotle in adobo sauce
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons ground cumin
• Salt & Pepper 
• Olive Oil

Slice pork into medallions and season with salt & pepper.

Heat olive oil in pan over medium heat.  When pan is heated, place pork medallions in pan and brown on each side 2-3 minutes.  Just enough to get a bit of a crust on it.  If all medallions don't fit, brown in batches. 

Remove browned medallions from pan.  Combine honey, lime juice, chipotle & cumin in same pan and let it cook down, scraping up brown bits.  After 1-2 minutes when the mixture is more of a glaze consistency, add the pork medallions back to pan and reduce heat to low.

Yum!

We had this as a roasted pork tenderloin with a glaze.  I decided to try it this way and it did not disappoint.  I enjoyed it more and it came together fast!  I would definitely mince the chipotles finer than we did, especially if you do not like heat.  This is one of Hubs favorite meals.

BBQ Pulled Pork

BBQ Pulled Pork

Adapted by America's Test Kitchen - Slow Cooker Revolution

Printable Recipe

I love this cookbook and if you are from the school of thought that all crock-pot meals taste the same (I was) or don't like that a lot of crock-pot recipes have a lot of ready made or processed ingredients (I did) but want to use your crock-pot, this is worth picking up.  I love ATK, I know some people have hard time with it because their tends to be a lot of steps, but I find the show & cookbooks fascinating.  The adjustments I made to this recipe were to use boneless pork loin (the recipe calls for boneless pork butt) and less of it (recipe calls for 5lbs and I used 2.5) 

Ingredients:

• Barbecue Rub (see below)
• 1 (2.5 lb) boneless pork loin roast
• 1 cup Barbecue  sauce
• Cider Vinegar (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• Brown Sugar (to taste)

BBQ Rub (makes enough for 5lbs pork)

• 1/4 Cup packed brown sugar (I used light brown)
• 1/4 Cup sweet paprika (I used regular)
• 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 Tablespoon onion powder
• 1 Teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon salt

Using a fork, prick pork all over. Rub the pork loin with 1/2 the rub noted.  Save the rest of that rub for another time.  Wrap pork loin in plastic wrap and refrigerated from 8 to 24 hours.  Unwrap pork and place in crock-pot.  

Spread barbeque sauce evenly over pork, cover and cooke until pork is tender, 9 to 11 hours on low or 5 to 7 hours on high.

Transfer pork to bowl, let cool slightly, then shred into bite size pieces.  Discard excess fat; cover to keep warm.  Let braising liquid settle for 5 minutes, then remove fat from surface using large spoon.  Season with salt, pepper, sugar & vinegar to taste.

Toss shredded pork with 1 cup of braising liquid, add more liquid as needed to keep meat moist.  Serve with barbecue sauce

The verdict:

We'll be using this recipe for years to come.  It's great for prepping the night before we have it (10 minutes tops) and while the coffee is brewing in the morning the prep is super easy (maybe 3 minutes)  Getting home from work to the smell is priceless and in less than 10 minutes its on the table.  As noted, we used this in a variety of ways, we had it on the night we made it as a sandwich, we brought it to work with a side salad for lunch, and it arrived in pizza form later in the week.  What other ways can you use this dish?