Slow Cooker Pork Loin – Oak Moon Farm

January 15, 2021 – Updated November 19, 2022

A Slow Cooker Pork Loin roastorPork Shoulder roast that’s cooked in an amazing honey butter garlic sauce! It’s a slow cooker pork roast recipe that works fabulously with pork loin, shoulder and scotch fillet, for your slow cooker, pressure cooker or oven.

Summary

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 10 hrs
Total Time 10 hrs 10 mins
Servings: 8
Calories: 561cal

Ingredients

1.75 – 2.5 kg / 3.5 – 5lb pork loin OR shoulder/boston butt ,or scotch fillet, skinless (Note 1)
1.5 tbsp olive oil , separated

Spice Rub

2 tsp EACH paprika, thyme
1 tsp EACH garlic powder, onion powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper , optional
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt

Honey Butter Sauce

3/4 cup honey
125g / 1/2 cup butter , unsalted
5 cloves garlic , minced
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt and pepper , each

Thickener

3 tsp cornflour/cornstarch mixed with splash of water

Instructions

Spice Rub: Rub pork with about 1 tsp oil. Mix Rub together then sprinkle over pork. Pat to adhere all over.
Brown: Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add pork and sear all around until deep golden brown (don’t let spices burn). Place pork in slow cooker.
Honey Butter Sauce: Wipe pan. Add butter and melt. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute until golden. Add remaining Sauce ingredients, mix, simmer rapidly for 30 seconds.

Slow Cook:

Pour Sauce over pork. Cover slow cooker.
Pork loin – Cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours (see Note 2 for cook times for different sizes)
Pork Shoulder – Cook on LOW for 10 hours (see Note 2 for cook times for different sizes, and Note 4 for oven, InstantPot and pressure cooker methods).
Remove pork onto serving platter, cover loosely with foil (10 – 20 minutes rest). (See Note 6 on Doneness)
Pour all juices in slow cooker into large saucepan. Add cornflour water mixture, mix.
Thicken Sauce: Simmer on medium high for 5 minutes or until it reduces down to a syrupy consistency (Note 3).
Slice pork into thick slices (1.5 – 2 cm / 3/5 – 4/5″ thick). Serve with PLENTY of Honey Butter Sauce!

Adjustments

Flip roast half way through cooking time.

History

2021-01-15 – 2.2 lb roast. Cooked on low for 5 hours. It was quite tasty but not as moist as I might have expected. Was at 188 degrees when removed from the slow cooker so probably cooked too long. Will start checking internal temp next time after about 3 hours and turn it over at that time so the top is in the sauce part of the time too.
2022-11-18 – 2 lb 11 oz roast. Cooked on low for 4 hours and flipped the roast at 2 hours allowing both sides to cook in the liquid. This change made the pork much less dry and ended up with a temp of 165. I did use the full spice rub. It is probably too much but half wouldn’t be enough so removing that adjustment note.

TIPS FOR MAKING SLOW COOKER PORK ROAST

Slow cooker pork roast is actually very simple to make as long as you use the right cut of pork and follow a few key steps:

Best pork for pork roast in a slow cooker – Though I originally created this recipe for pork loin, this recipe works brilliantly with pork loin, pork shoulder and scotch fillet roast (pork neck, a roasting cut of pork that’s popular in Australia and some parts of Europe, brilliant for fast and slow cooking). The first photo at the top is pork loin, the 2nd photo is shoulder;
Slow cooking pork loin – Being a lean cut of pork, there’s only two ways to cook it: Hard and fast until the inside is at an exact temperature, like with traditional pork roasts, OR slowly at a lower temperature. Slow cooking is more forgiving because it’s done at a lower temperature so an hour or so too long isn’t going to ruin your pork;
Pork Shoulder and Scotch Fillet – These cuts have more fat marbled through them so they are natural choices to use for slow cooker pork roasts. As they cook, the fat melts, making the meat beautifully juicy;
Tenderloin – Not a natural choice for this recipe because it’s much thinner than the other cuts listed above so it cooks much faster than the cuts listed above. However, I have included directions in the recipe notes for how to make this with tenderloin;
Season the pork for extra flavour with at least salt and pepper. I use a simple spice mix for this crock pot pork recipe;
SEAR! Browning = flavour. Whether you brown the pork before or after slow cooking, don’t skip this step, it’s imperative for great flavour!
How long to cook a pork roast in the slow cooker – for pork loin, 4 to 5 hours on low for tender, juicy perfection. Pork shoulder needs to be cooked for 10 hours on low for a 1.5 – 2.5kg / 3 – 5 lb pork roast. Shoulder is a tougher cut of pork so it requires a longer cook time to break down the fibres and fat.

Notes

1. Pork cuts: recipe is ideal made with pork loin, shoulder / Boston butt (boneless) or scotch fillet/neck, these are the 3 cuts I’ve make this recipe with. This is a highly flexible recipe that is ideal for any roast-size cut of pork, lean or well marbled. Needs to be made with skinless pork, trimmed of excess fat (don’t want loads of surface fat melting into braising liquid which becomes the sauce).Pork Tenderloin – see directions here.
2. Different pork sizes:1 kg / 2lb – Pork Loin 3.5 hours on low, Shoulder 8 hours on low1.5 – 2.5kg / 3 – 5lb: Per recipe3kg / 6lb: Pork Loin 6 hours on low, Shoulder 11 – 12 hours on lowUse times closest to your pork size.
3. Sauce reduction: Reduction time to thicken dependent on how much juice comes out of the pork. Go by eye – when sauce is thin maple syrup consistency, it’s ready (will thicken bit more when it cools a bit)
4. Other cook methods:* Pressure Cooker – Pork shoulder 1 hour 20 minutes on HIGH. To save time, this is how I did the pork in the 2nd photo in post. Have not tried pork loin so am unsure of required time.* Instant Pot – Brown pork in IP, remove, melt butter and make Sauce in IP, then add pork back in, spoon over sauce. Then either cook using Pressure Cooker time for shoulder, or Slow Cooker time for pork loin or shoulder. If you get the burn notice, add 1/2 cup water. Remove pork and make Sauce using sauté function.* OVEN – See here for directions
5. MAKE AHEAD – Brown pork and make sauce up to 1 day ahead, pour into slow cooker then remove insert and refrigerate until ready to cook. If preparing ahead more than 12 hours or so, keep the sauce separate (because it will make the pork sweat).Leftovers – Keep in the fridge for 3 days, or freezer for 3 months. I pour the sauce over it, it soaks through the pork and I love it.
6. Pork Doneness – Loin is a lean cut of pork so it’s cooked for a short period of time than shoulder. Pork shoulder needs to be cooked for longer to let the tough fibres break down. Shoulder is more prone to falling apart (ie semi shredding) when slicing so be sure to rest it per recipe directions to minimise this.
7. Nutrition – per serving, assuming a 2 kg/4lb pork loin and 8 servings with all sauce consumed (which is unlikely).

Nutrition

From Recipetineats – Slow Cooker Pork Roast – By Nagi