How to Make Cider-Braised Pork Roast

a special-occasion pork roast is a great thing for any good home cook to have in their back pocket or front pocket for that matter and this is a doozy it's tender and juicy and we're gonna play on that fun combination of pork and apples that isn't classic so to start you have to choose the right cut of pork and if the pork shoulder is where it's at also known as the Boston butt and today we're using a 5 to 6 pounder and it's got the bone-in because that bone and serious flavor all right so notice we have a good fat cap on this and this has been trimmed to about a quarter of an inch new a slight crosshatch in the fat cap let me make these slashes about an inch apart so there we have it and now we're gonna coat this with a combination of 1/4 cup of salt and a quarter cup of brown sugar I'm just gonna really rub it into the pork roast on all sides and this does a few things one it obviously adds some good flavor but to it'll help draw out some of the moisture in the pork but then that pork will reabsorb the moisture with the salt and sugar so it'll help flavor it we're gonna let this sit in the refrigerator for 18 to 24 hours so we're gonna wrap the pork in plastic wrap because it'll help keep that salt sugar mixture on here is a pork that's been sitting for at least 18 hours with that salt and sugar rub and before we brown this guy up in the pot you want to make sure to brush off any extra salt or sugar that's hanging out so some of that sugar and salt has been absorbed into the meat but the rest you got to get rid of it mmm hmm all right that looks pretty good last but not least we're gonna season this guy with a little bit of pepper top and bottom and a little on the sides a little on the back side blue on that side ok this is ready to get seared there's 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in this pot it's been heating up over medium-high heat you want to sear this on all sides and it's about three minutes aside 6 sides a little less than 20 minutes okay alright so while this guy is searing we'll keep an eye on it we're gonna prep just a few ingredients to help flavor the sauce we haven't talked much about the sauce you've never mentioned it no we're gonna do cider I mentioned apples and so cider really pairs nicely with the pork so we're gonna make a cider sauce now to bring that cider over to the savory side we're gonna add basic aromatics like an onion all right so here I'm just gonna take this nice big yellow onion I'm gonna slice it into nice thin slices so now we're gonna add a little bit of garlic and this is six cloves of garlic I'm just gonna smash them with a knife you can even do it with the skins on and the skins just fall right off that's all the garlic put that back in the bowl let's go take a look at our pork roast no good does it smell kind of bacony yes it does all right now sometimes this guy's a little slippery they're using two tongs it's good so we're gonna continue to brown all the sides and that'll take about 15 more minutes so you can see we've continued to brown this roast on all sides it's even more bacony there's a little bit of browning in the bottom of the pot that's good so a Mingo the onions and I'm just gonna sprinkle them around the pork right into all that fat in the bottom of the pot we're gonna add six cloves of garlic I know I know that pork fest looks really good with the onions and garlic I'm just gonna stir these until they soften alright that's about ten minutes smell amazing you can see how nice and golden they've gone sugar and a little bit of that pork fat that's gonna make that sauce taste amazing and speaking of sauce we're gonna add one in three-quarter cups apple cider this is the base for the entire sauce oh yeah help bring out those flavors we're gonna add a cinnamon stick because of course apples and cinnamon go together okay and help with the savory edge we're gonna add about six sprigs of thyme I'm just gonna add them to different parts of the pot and two bay leaves all right so it's simmering now we're just gonna put the lid on this we're gonna cook it in a 275-degree oven that low slow heat will make the pork so tender and juicy it's gonna take about two-and-a-half hours and we're looking for an internal temperature of 190 oh I can smell it from here you ready yes yeah you smell the pork you smell the cider you smell the herbs and the cinnamon mmm-hmm all right now it's time to temp it cuz it's been in there for about two and a half hours again we're looking for a temperature of about 190 there we are so if you wouldn't mind snugging that board up again the two Tong system alright see you later yeah I don't blame you we have to let this rest for at least thirty minutes before we slice into it let those muscles relax and let them reabsorb some of their moisture mhm we're gonna tent it with foil keep it warm keep frigid away from it now in this pot is an amazing amount of flavor and an amazing amount of fat so we're gonna keep the flavor lose the fats we don't have a greasy sauce the first thing we're gonna do is we're going to strain it to get rid of those solids that's the onion and all the herbs and the garlic I'm gonna put this liquid into a fat separator let me get much easier for us to get rid of all the fats we have a nice smooth sauce without being too greasy and then just before serving we're gonna whip together a box sauce [Music] still they're still there all right so we're gonna finish the sauce and we're gonna add even more apple flavor by adding apples Buddha funkin so we're gonna add two Braeburn apples cuz they're good and sweet and they hold their shape I'm gonna cut this Apple into 8 even wedges oh you could use Jonagold if you couldn't find braeburns and you know we tried to add apples to this dish in a lot of ways we put them in the pot we let some braise we put them in the beginning we add them halfway through but really they just disintegrated alongside that pork we found it best to just Brown them a little bit right before serving all right so into a bowl again this is two apples I'm gonna season them with a little salt and pepper all right so we're gonna Brown these apples in the pot and guess what I'm gonna use for the fat let's hope pork fat you know it all right so you can see this liquid has been sitting here for a while I know look at that pure pork fat on top I'm gonna take about a tablespoon and a half of the pure clear pork fat and right off the top so I'm gonna heat this fat up over medium-high heat all right so that fats been heating up for a couple minutes and it's starting to shimmer sure it's time to add our apples mmm and I'm just gonna arrange them so that they're cut side down we're gonna Brown both cut sides okay a couple minutes per side beautiful absolutely gorgeous all right so I turn the heat off and I'm gonna take them out of the pan I love how the skins also sort of lightening color and the red parts get nice and rosy blush mmm-hmm if you wouldn't mind tinting these with foil that just will help keep them nice and warm on to the last and best part of this recipe the sauce and here I'm just gonna take some paper towels and just wipe off any gunky bits left over so here we have the braising liquid that's been sitting and defatting you can see that liquid gold on the top oh yes so I'm just gonna put this right on top of a liquid measuring cup and we're looking for about 2 cups of defatted juice all right there we go a Navis right back to the pan and you know we wanted to obviously thicken this up into a nice sauce but one of our ideas to lend it more apple flavor was to use apple butter quarter of a cup it's gonna give it a really nice applae flavor and put this over a high heat and bring it to a boil look at the change in color in there Oh smell that very happily between the caramelized apples the apples be browned in there the apple cider now apple butter mm-hmm apple happy you can see it's coming to a simmer and it's time to add our thickener which is corn starch whenever you use corn starch you want to mix it with a little liquid first that's a tablespoon of corn starch into a quarter cup of more cider and then we're gonna whisk this into the simmering sauce and presto change-o this becomes a thickened sauce so I'm gonna turn the heat off I'm gonna finish this but just a little kick of vinegar this is a tablespoon of cider vinegar again that just gives the sauce a little bit of punch and of course pinch of salt pinch of pepper all right so I'm gonna put this off the heat and now it's time to dive into our pork roast there's this bone here and you see it's sort of this t-shaped bone uh-huh and we want to get that out and this is what you want to take a knife either a paring knife or a sharp boning knife I'm gonna hold the bone with one hand and just try to slice the meat away it's a cursive T shape it is it's a funky shaped bone now I'm just gonna slice the rest of this pork into about half inch thick slices oh hello juicy oh my goodness mmm I have to say I love the little shreddy bits that fall off the top of your thumb as you slice oh I'm gonna give you a nice big thick slice and a few apples thank you last but not least our sauce so not least mm-hmm okay come on look look at this it's falling off my fork it's so tender it's falling off my fork and into my mouth mmm-hmm there is bacon present even though you did not put it in the pop nope I would swear that it has that kind of salty smoky sultry bacon flavor well in the sauce the sauce is the perfect marriage of cider and pork yes and really the perfect texture just that little bit of cornstarch in the apple butter - mm-hmm great amount of thickening this is bar none my favorite pork roast especially with apples mm-hmm Cheers Julian that was absolutely amazing isn't it good so if you'd like to make a tender juicy cider braised pork roast at home well you've got to start with a bone-in pork shoulder and dry rub it all over with salt and brown sugar and let that seasoning penetrate the meat overnight next round the roast and add some aromatics onions and garlic before slow braising it all in an apple cider broth until that meat is fall apart tender then sear some Braeburn apples the flavorful pork fat and combine the braising liquid apple butter and apple cider plus a little cornstarch for most delectable sauce filled with apple flavor and there you have it from Cook's Country a special occasion fit for a special friend cider raised pork roast thanks for watching cooks country from America's Test Kitchen so what'd you think leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or just say I now you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our Channel see you later alligator [Laughter]

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 40,683

Rating: 4.9250002 out of 5

Keywords: pork roast, cider-braised pork roast, cider braised pork, apple cider, pork and apples, apples and pork roast, pork roast recipe, learn to cook, cooking show, cook's country

Id: mGXz3Rrytg8

Length: 10min 36sec (636 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 17 2019