Slow Cooker Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Apples and Onions

Pork shoulder is the best value in the meat case, and September and October are exactly when apples and onions are cheapest. Braised together for eight hours they collapse into a sweet-savory sauce that needs almost nothing else. The dish reads as a French countryside braise, but the whole ingredient list is pantry staples, bulk-bin apples and the single cut of meat that rewards patience more than money.

Hard cider is worth using if there is a bottle in the house, but plain unsweetened apple cider with an extra tablespoon of vinegar gets to nearly the same place for less. What the braise needs is sweetness with acid behind it. That is what keeps a pot of pork and apples from reading as dessert. Use a mix of apples if you can, one sweet variety for body and one tart variety so the sauce does not turn cloying.

The sauce is not finished when the pork is. Eight hours of covered cooking produces a great deal of thin liquid, and reducing it in a saucepan for ten minutes concentrates everything the braise gave up. Whisking in cold butter off the heat at the end is what makes it glossy, and it takes about thirty seconds.

Slow Cooker Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Apples and Onions

Pork shoulder, hard cider, and a pile of fall apples — a Sunday-dinner braise that costs less per serving than most weeknight chicken.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 hours hrs

Total Time 8 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 8 servings

Equipment

• Slow cooker 6-quart or larger

Ingredients

  

• 4 pounds bone-in pork shoulder
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 large yellow onions sliced 1/2-inch thick
• 3 firm apples cored and cut into eighths
• 6 cloves garlic smashed
• 1 1/2 cups hard apple cider
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons cold butter
• fresh parsley chopped, for serving

Instructions

 

• Combine the salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and dried thyme and rub the mixture all over the pork shoulder.
• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the pork on all sides, about 4 minutes per side, until well browned. Transfer to the slow cooker, fat cap up.
• Scatter the onion slices, apple wedges, and smashed garlic around and over the pork.
• Pour the cider into the still-hot skillet and scrape up the browned bits. Whisk in the chicken broth, cider vinegar, mustard, and brown sugar, then pour the mixture around the pork so the rub stays on the meat.
• Tuck in the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours, until the pork pulls apart with gentle pressure from a fork.
• Lift the pork onto a cutting board and tent with foil. Discard the bay leaves and thyme stems.
• Skim the fat from the cooking liquid. Mash the softened apples and onions into the liquid with a potato masher, or blend smooth with an immersion blender.
• Pour the sauce into a saucepan and simmer for 8-10 minutes to reduce. Off the heat, whisk in the cold butter a piece at a time until glossy. Season with salt and pepper.
• Pull the pork into large pieces, discarding the bone and large pockets of fat. Return it to the sauce or spoon the sauce over the top.
• Serve over mashed potatoes or buttered noodles, finished with parsley.

Notes

Bone-in pork shoulder is usually cheaper per pound than boneless and cooks up more flavorful. Buy the whole cut rather than pre-cut stew meat.

Hard cider adds depth, but plain unsweetened apple cider plus an extra tablespoon of vinegar works and costs less.

Use the bruised, discounted apples from the bottom of the bin – they break down entirely, so appearance does not matter.

Freeze half in its sauce in flat freezer bags. It reheats in about fifteen minutes and becomes sandwiches, tacos, or a topping for baked sweet potatoes.

Keyword Autumn, budget-friendly, pork braise, slow cooker