Slow Cooker Apple Cider Pork Roast

Slow cooker apple cider pork roast fills the kitchen with the kind of cinnamon-and-cider smell that suggests you spent the afternoon occupied with wholesome domestic duties instead of ignoring a basket of clean laundry. Juicy pork loin cooks low and slow over apples and onions, soaking up a sweet, warmly spiced cider sauce with just a little smoky chipotle. Ten minutes of prep, six hours of ignoring responsibilities, and dinner is done.

Table of Contents

• 🥰 Is this slow cooker apple cider pork roast recipe for you?
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 📖 Recipe
• 🔪 How to make apple cider pork loin in the slow cooker
• 😱 What can go wrong (and how to fix it)
• 📚 More easy pork recipes
• 🍽️ Serve slow cooker apple pork roast with these sides
• 💬 Comments

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🥰 Is this slow cooker apple cider pork roast recipe for you?

• You want dinner to cook itself. Ten minutes of prep, then the slow cooker is taking over.
• You like sweet-savory flavors. Apple cider, brown sugar, warm spices, onions, and a little smoky chipotle. Flavors that say, "summer is over, let's be cozy."
• You want tender pork without hovering. No basting, babysitting, or opening the oven every 14 minutes to express concern.
• You need a fall dinner that isn't soup. Because apparently we cannot live on chili from September through February. I've checked.
• You appreciate leftovers with potential. Slice them for dinner tomorrow or pile the pork onto a sandwich and call that meal planning.

If you need something a little quicker try the iron skillet pork tenderloin with apples and onions.

🧾 Ingredients

The ingredient list is short, cheap, and blessedly free of anything you'll have to hunt down in the dusty corners of aisle 47.

• Pork loin - Look for a 2 to 3-pound pork loin roast, not pork tenderloin. They are different cuts and tenderloin will cook much faster. Because pork naming apparently needed its own layer of unnecessary intrigue.
• Apples - I use a combination of Honeycrisp and Granny Smith. Honeycrisp brings the sweetness; Granny Smith brings enough tartness to keep the whole thing respectable.
• Apple cider - Use actual apple cider, not apple cider vinegar. I feel ridiculous saying that, yet somewhere, someone is already reaching for the vinegar.
• Lemon juice - Just enough acidity to balance the brown sugar and cider.
• Ginger - Warm and a little spicy without making the pork taste like gingerbread.
• Cinnamon - We want cozy fall dinner here, not cinnamon roll. A little is plenty.
• Nutmeg - Freshly grated if you have it, ground if you don't. We are making dinner, not defending a dissertation.
• Chipotle powder - My favorite little plot twist. It adds a subtle smoky warmth that keeps all those apples and spices firmly on the dinner side of things.
• Salt - Pork needs it. Do not let anybody tell you otherwise.
• Brown sugar - Helps make the cider sauce rich, sweet, and very interested in clinging to slices of pork.
• Onions - They soften down with the apples and soak up all those pork-and-cider juices. Frankly, they know a good situation when they see one.
• Cornstarch - Optional. Use it if you want to thicken the cooking juices into a glossy sauce for spooning over the pork.

📖 Recipe

🔪 How to make apple cider pork loin in the slow cooker

There's no browning, searing, or standing over a skillet trying to remember the technique you saw on Iron Chef. Layer everything in the slow cooker, put the pork on top, and walk away. Six hours later, dinner smells like you walked into a French country inn.

1. Rub the pork loin with the dry seasonings and spices. Let rest.
2. Combine sugar, lemon juice, and apple cider. Pour over apples and onions.
3. Place the pork roast on top of the apple and onion mixture.
4. Cook. Optional: transfer the liquid to a saucepan and whisk with cornstarch slurry.

😱 What can go wrong (and how to fix it)

🍎 The pork is dry. Pork loin is lean and has no patience for overachievers. Check it with an instant-read thermometer and pull it when it reaches the temperature given in the recipe.

🍎 The apples disappeared. Some apples surrender completely after hours in a slow cooker. Honeycrisp and Granny Smith hold up better, and cutting them into generous chunks gives them a fighting chance.

🍎 The sauce is too thin. Slow cookers trap moisture, so those cooking juices may be more enthusiastic than expected. Remove the pork, stir in the cornstarch slurry, and let the sauce thicken before serving.

🍎 It tastes too sweet. Make sure you're using tart Granny Smith along with the Honeycrisp, and don't skip the lemon juice. That little bit of acidity keeps the cider and brown sugar from staging a dessert coup.

🍎 The sauce has cornstarch lumps. Mix the cornstarch with cold apple juice until completely smooth before adding it to the hot cooking liquid. Cornstarch dropped straight into hot liquid becomes tiny dumplings nobody invited.

📚 More easy pork recipes

🍽️ Serve slow cooker apple pork roast with these sides

🏡 This slow cooker apple cider pork roast is exactly the kind of fall dinner I love: ten minutes of effort, a house that smells ridiculously good, and tender pork with sweet-tart apples and plenty of cider-spiced sauce. Add some kind of potatoes, ignore whatever you were supposed to accomplish this afternoon, and call it a successful day.