Slow Cooker Pepper Pork (Seared First)

"Originally an Alton Brown recipe, I have tweaked it a bit. Prep time includes 3 hours for the brine, and cook time includes 4 hours in the crock pot. The addition of searing makes this more fussy than your typical crock pot recipe, but that's what makes it our absolute favorite pork dish. It almost tastes like wild boar!"
 
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photo by twissis photo by twissis
photo by twissis
photo by Maito photo by Maito
photo by Maito photo by Maito
Ready In:
7hrs 45mins
Ingredients:
14
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Heat broth, salt, brown sugar, and peppercorns on the stove until salt and sugar dissolve.
  • Transfer liquid to a pourable container, and add ice. Stir and cool until room temperature or slightly lukewarm.
  • Pour liquid over pork in a ziploc bag, and refrigerate 3-8 hours.
  • Remove pork from the brine, and pat dry.
  • Place potatoes (if using) and apples in the crock pot.
  • Heat oil in a 12-inch stainless steel pan over medium heat. Place pork in the pan and cover with a splatter screen (makes a bit of a mess without one). Saute until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side (you might start checking the second side after 3 minutes for browning).
  • Place pork into crock pot over apples.
  • Add onion to saute pan, stir well, and cook about 2 minutes.
  • Deglaze with chicken broth, add pepper and thyme, and stir to scrape up brown bits off of pan. Transfer to crock pot. If using cabbage, add it on top at this time as well. Let pan soak for ease of cleaning.
  • Cook in crock pot for 1 1/2 hours on high, then 4 1/2 hours on low. Alternately, you can cook this for 4 hours on high for equivalent results. You might want to gently stir the cabbage and onions together about an hour before it is finished cooking. I like to serve this over brown rice (if I am not using the potatoes).

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Reviews

  1. super dish. I have never brined anything before and wasn't sure what it would be like but this was fantastic. The apples and cabbage made a wonderful combination as well.
     
  2. Made as written for the FYC tag game, altho I had issues unrelated to your recipe. Cuts of pork here in Iceland are unlike those in the US, are usually lrg & only the tenderloin is boneless. So I had to use a bone-in lrg roast that was difficult to brine/sear & barely fit in my crock pot. That said, I had to oven-roast the cabbage/onions. As cooking time neared its end, the roast & veggies traded places. This let me combine the tasty meat juices w/the veggies & add cous cous to absorb the juices. So cous cous replaced your use of rice & no potatoes were used. While doing all this, the roast cooked more than I intended, but I can fix that tomorrow. The flavor combo was excellent & reminded me of my Czech great-uncle who favored pork or duck w/cabbage & apples. Thx for sharing this recipe, Maito. Oddly, the pic I posted appears blurred compared to the pic I edited to post. ??
     
  3. This was very good! I particularly liked the light apple taste to the pork, it was very subtle and accented it nicely.
     
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