Pork, two ways, in the crock-pot

When it comes to meat, I know what I like.  I like moist meat.  The kind that breaks open easily with a fork.  Full of flavor.  With sauce or drippings.  Yes. YUM. 

I've established two go-to recipes for pork that we love.  I can't imagine you won't love them, too:
First and favorite way:
Take a thawed pork shoulder (or any other big hunk of pork) and sear it in butter or olive oil in a cast-iron pan (or other frying pan).  Brown it on as many sides as you can get to by flopping it around in the pan, on medium heat.

Drop it into the crock-pot.  

Then, in a bowl, mix together with a fork:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 T chili powder
2 T smoked paprika
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-2 shakes of cayenne pepper
Pour about half of that seasoning mix on top of the roast and rub it in.  Then flip the roast and season the other side with the rest of the mix.  Rub in all over the roast, (top, bottom and sides), stick the lid on your crock-pot, set to low and leave it until dinner.  (Cook for at least 5 hours on low.)  
I usually peek at it about half-hour before dinner and roughly shred the meat with two forks and stir it a bit. You can eat it as is or take the juices from the bottom and make yourself a gravy with them.  (1-2 T of butter, add 1-2 T flour, add juices into a saucepan until it thickens, voila!)  DELISH.  Serve with mashed potatoes or rice.  Mmmm!
 * * *
Second and also scrumptious way:
(But made less often because I have to pre-plan and have these ingredients on hand)
Take a thawed pork shoulder and sear it as described above, put it into the crock-pot and pour these (mixed) ingredients over top of it: 
3/4 cup of beer  (I don't know beer. At ALL. I generally buy a bottle of some sort of ale.  I'm sure anything would work).
1/2 cup dijon mustard
6 T honey
1/4 cup olive oil (less)
1 T dried rosemary
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed 

Set crock-pot to low and leave it until dinner.  (At least 5 hours.)  Check and shred meat about half-hour before you want to eat, and then add 1/2 cup cream.  
This sauce is amazing.  Truly.  It's so good you'll want to drink it.  I always serve this with mashed potatoes so we can just pour this sauce on over the potatoes for gravy. Or with some bread so we can lap up the sauce on our plates with the bread.  Yum.  
Enjoy!  

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing! Chuck is not a big fan of pork, but I like it because the pork roasts are cheap and I can throw them in the crockpot. Can't wait to try these!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh I am SOOO sad for Chuck. Pork roast is my favorite! And yes!- to cheap roasts. ;)

      Delete
  2. Yum! We eat a lot of pork roasts around here, and cooking all day in the crock pot is my favorite! I'm excited to have a few new recipes to try. My FAVORITE meal is the Pioneer Woman's Spicy Pulled Pork. It isn't on her website, but it's in her Orange cook book. Sooo ridiculously yummy!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah- Mmmm! I'll have to look that one up!

      Delete
  3. Just put pork roast #1 in the crock pot ... ThanK you!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Emily! I REALLY hope you love it as much as we do!

      Delete
  4. We are trying recipe #1 tomorrow. Thank you for sharing and look forward to eating it tomorrow evening!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! I'm so thrilled to pass on one of our favorite recipes. I hope you love it! :)

      Delete
    2. It's in the crockpot and my family has already said, "Yum, that smells sooo good!" Off to a good start :) and my mouth is watering, too.

      Delete

Thank you for commenting! I love hearing from you, and I will do
my best to reply back to you in the comment section.