So Halloween is over and now I feel like we’re kind of in the calm before the storm that is Thanksgiving-the New Year. I’m in the mood for home-y comfort meals, especially if I can make them in my Crock Pot! This Crock Pot Apple Cider Pork Roast totally fits the bill–a little sweet, a little tangy, super easy, with a handful of ingredients I already have in my house.
To get started, you’re going to caramelize some onions. If you’ve never done it before or if you need a refresher, check out this post. You’ll need a medium white onion, sliced in half and then cut vertically, some butter, and some extra-virgin olive oil (I love using our garlic olive oil).
Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When melted, add the onions in a single layer and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden and caramelized. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside.
For the roast, you’ll need a 2 1/2-3-pound pork sirloin roast, some apple cider (like the murky brown apple juice you can find in grocery stores and roadside stands all over the place in the fall, or Simply Apple the rest of the year), some mild coarse grain or Creole mustard, honey, salt, and pepper.
While the onions are caramelizing, season the pork roast on all sides with the 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.
When you have removed the onions from the pan, increase the heat to medium-high and add the pork roast (you may need to add another teaspoon or so of oil). Sear on all sides.
When the roast has seared, place it in a slow cooker. Top with caramelized onions.
In a 2 cup measuring cup, whisk together the apple cider, honey, and mustard. Pour it over the roast and cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours or until the meat can easily be shredded with a fork.
When the meat is done, remove the roast and onions from the slow cooker and shred. Pour the cider mixture into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. While the cider is heating, whisk together the cold water and cornstarch. When the mixture is boiling, whisk in the cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened. Remove from heat and add vinegar.
Serve the pork on top of mashed potatoes and topped with gravy.
Crockpot Apple Cider Pork Roast
Description
This slow cooker recipe will quickly become a family favorite!
Ingredients
1 medium onion, sliced vertically
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (I use Our Best Bites garlic olive oil)
1 2.5-3 pound pork sirloin roast
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups apple cider (the murky, brown stuff–it’s widely available in the fall, but you can usually find Simply Apple year-round)
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Creole or mild coarse grain mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons organic apple cider vinegar (again, the murky stuff, like Bragg’s)
2 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Mashed potatoes
Instructions
Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When melted, add the onions in a single layer and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden and caramelized. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside.
While the onions are caramelizing, season the pork roast on all sides with the 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. When you have removed the onions from the pan, increase the heat to medium-high and add the pork roast (you may need to add another teaspoon or so of oil). Sear on all sides.
When the roast has seared, place it in a slow cooker. Top with caramelized onions. In a 2 cup measuring cup, whisk together the apple cider, honey, and mustard. Pour it over the roast and cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours or until the meat can easily be shredded with a fork.
When the meat is done, remove the roast and onions from the slow cooker and shred. Pour the cider mixture into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. While the cider is heating, whisk together the cold water and cornstarch. When the mixture is boiling, whisk in the cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened. Remove from heat and add vinegar.
Serve the pork on top of mashed potatoes and topped with gravy.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 8
Questions & Reviews
I love this recipe! One of my favorites by you guys.. and I’m having a major surgery done in a few weeks and was wondering .. would this freeze well?
Definitely!! ❤️❤️
Would this work with a pork tenderloin?
I know some people cook pork tenderloin in the crockpot, but it’s not my favorite because it’s so lean and small that it tends to dry out. Maybe if you cut down on the cooking time?
Oh. Em. Gee. For real. I halved this recipe because of our small family size but wish I wouldn’t have! This was so delicious! My almost 4-year-old asked for more. I did make it *slightly* different though but still turned out successful. With HALF of the exact recipe, I roasted it in an 8×8 pan in a 300* (degree) oven for 2 hours. I cut it more like a roast rather than shredding it. My gravy turned out a little thicker than I like but I’m guessing that’s because of the recipe amount change (or I’ll just use less of a slurry next time).
Thank you!! We are adding this to our menu rotation.
Just wondering if we can use a much larger roast? We have 5 adults coming for dinner (and some kids) so I was going to use around 5 lbs. I’ll plan to double the recipe but I’d love to hear what you recommend for larger roasts. Thank you! This looks delicious!
Sure! Go for it! 🙂
This looks amazing! Adding to this week’s menu. I’m not sure if y’all did something different with the printing option on the recipes, but I love how they look when I print. Very clean and easy to read. Thanks for all the good stuff! 🙂
Can you use BRaggs for all of the apple cider…?
I’m a bit of a dummy on pork roasts. I really want to make this but I’ve gone to a couple of different grocery stores and they have pork “loin” roasts and “butt” roasts. I don’t see any that specifically say “sirloin” roast. I asked the butcher and he tried to talk me into the butt roast. It’s darker and much more marbled than the one pictured so I’m not sure it would come out as well. Can you advise me?
A butt roast will be delicious (it really is the tastiest pork roast out there), it just won’t be as healthy. But it’ll be delicious. 🙂
Thank you very much! I guess for one day we can be a little less healthy! 🙂
I just made this for dinner. It was fantastic! Everybody loved it. I ended up using a pork shoulder. Thank you for such a great recipe. I will definitely be making it again.
This was fantastic! 5 star reviews from everyone in the family, this is definitely going into the regular rotation. It was definitely worth tracking down the good apple cider and Bragg’s. Thank you so much!
I made this for dinner the other night and it won rave reviews from everyone including my toddlers. So delicious. Plan on making this for Christmas Eve dinner.
Made this tonight for a family dinner and it turned out wonderfully! Nice work ??
That was a super delish sunday dinnter! Thank you!
You have the apple cider vinegar listed two different ways…. do I add it with the honey mix or wait until the end? Thanks.
Haha never mind!
This is one of the best recipes on this site and that is saying a lot because I love everything Our Best Bites. Delicious!!!
I’m seriously so happy to hear this!!! Thank you so much!
This was sooooo delicious, my family gobbled it up! It was nice to have a pork recipe that isn’t bbq or mexican! Thanks for another amazing recipe!
I’m so glad you loved it!!!
I would love to do this in the instant pot. Do you think if I just followed other site’s recommendations for time it would work?
It *will* work in the Instant Pot, but I haven’t tried it, so I can’t give definitive times. I’d recommend slicing it like Sara has in her Instant Pot recipes and maybe following those time guidelines.
Hi Kate, do you think that you could make this in a dutch oven? I just got one and I’m excited to use it!
Like a dutch oven with coals, outside? I’m sure you could, but I’m definitely not an expert on this. 🙂
If you mean a dutch oven like a Le Creuset, you could definitely do that. I’ve done similar roasts for 3-4 hours at 300 degrees F, but I’ve never tried it with this recipe, so it’s hard to say for sure.
Lol, yeah like a Le Creuset dutch oven! =) Thanks, I’ll give it a whirl!
This sounds delicious, is there a specific gravy you recommend?? I don’t have a fat separator…
You just make it with the liquid in the crock pot. 🙂
I would also LOVE an Instant Pot conversion! Love your pressure cooker recipes!
Does stone ground mustard work? Couldn’t find Zatarains or course ground.
Yep, stone ground is great!
I made this for dinner tonight and we loved it, even though I messed up and put the vinegar in at the beginning. ? I guess that’s what happens when you’re in a rush to get dinner in the crockpot before 9 am church on fast Sunday. I’ll have to make it right next time and see if we can tell a difference. We also had your World’s Best Rolls and are ending the meal with Apple cider floats so thanks for the yummy dinner tonight!!
I also put the vinegar in with the cider, mustard and honey. I was in a hurry and it was listed with them. 🙁 Hopefully it still turns out tasty.
It’ll be fine! If it’s not strong enough, just add a little more at the end.
I made this last night and did the same thing! Turned out great. My picky eater 3.5 year old ate all of her “roasts beef” as she called it, and my 7 year old liked it too! GREAT recipe!
I made this today and we enjoyed it. I thought the gravy was lacking flavor. The sweet and tangy wasn’t the problem, it just needed savory. So I added 1packet of Lipton onion soup mix and a little more water and it was perfect. I had neighbors and my parents to dinner and it was a hit! I served it on top of mashed potatoes (I added parmesan and garlic powder to the potatoes) . I just wanted to say, thanks-You ladies never disappoint!
will normal apple cider vinegar work?
It will, but the Bragg’s stuff is better if you can swing it. 🙂
Just made this, it is sooo tasty. I put it in my crockpot before we went to church, and after we came home, I finished it up. Perfect for Sunday dinner.
I’m so glad!!!
Kate – I love your home-y comfort foods for fall and winter! I make white beans with rosemary and bacon like, 4 times in the fall. My husband and I LOVE it! This looks delish as well… question–would the leftovers from this freeze well? Thanks 🙂
Yes, absolutely!!! In fact, I froze our leftovers!
This recipe sounds like it’s prime for an instant pot conversion. Any thoughts?
For sure!! I would need to try it before I give you for-sure times and directions, but you could definitely instant pot this!
Yummo! Adding this to our menu plan! My slow cooker is on its last legs….I’m asking Santa for a new Cuisinart for Christmas.?Do y’all have suggested oven cooking temp/time? Help a busy mama out, please.
In the past, I’ve done 300 for 3-ish hours–maybe try that, but with a little buffer in case you need to go longer?
I’m a little unsure of what “mild coarse grain mustard” is. Can you give me an example or brand name? And do they even make Creole mustard? I’m kind of lost here
Yep! Look for zatarain’s creole mustard–it’s a national brand. But most stores carry a spicy and a mild coarse ground mustard. 🙂
Thank you! I’m excited to make this recipe for Sunday dinner this week!
Is this a powdered mustard?
Nope, it’s a prepared mild whole grain mustard. 🙂
Yuuuummmm.
Oh, my goodness. If I could get this delivered for breakfast that’d be fab….
Looks tasty!! Do you think a pork shoulder would work for this too? (That’s not the same thing as a pork sirloin roast, right?) Thanks!
A pork shoulder would be great! I like sirloin because it does well in the crockpot and it’s lean, but shoulders are so tasty.
Thanks! I have a shoulder already, so I figured I’d check.
Btw I really like your blog! My family owes many dinners to you ladies. Thank you!