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Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder

Slow cooker pork shoulder is a delicious way to enjoy this tasty cut of pork.

Add all the ingredients to the slow cooker in the morning, and six to eight hours later, you’ll be tucking into a soft and tender pork shoulder dinner.

pork shoulder with gravy and onions

How To Cook Pork Shoulder In A Slow Cooker

Pork shoulder is an economical pork cut that is ideal for slow cooking.

It is often used as the preferred joint when making slow cooker pulled pork; when it is cooked long enough, it easily ‘pulls’ apart.

What You Need:

For more concise recipe instructions and to print it out, head down to the recipe card at the bottom of this post!

slow cooker pork shoulder ingredients
  • Pork shoulder joint – any size; I used one that weighed in at 1.8kg
  • 2 tsp of your favourite seasoning for pork – I used 1 tsp each of season-all and dried mixed herbs
  • 2 bay leaves – dried or fresh (we have a bay tree in the garden, so it’s easy enough to pick them fresh!
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 2 onions
  • 400ml chicken stock – alternatively use vegetable or, if you can get it, pork stock
  • Gravy granules or cornflour – you can optionally stir in some gravy granules at the end to make a tasty sauce
  • Slow cooker – you can use any type of slow cooker; I used a Morphy Richards

Making It:

Rub your choice of seasoning over the pork shoulder joint.

raw pork shoulder joint in slow cooker

Add all the remaining ingredients to the slow cooker. Place the lid on top and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

pork shoulder joint in slow cooker with hot stock, onions, bay leaves, herbs

At the end of the cooking time, check the pork is cooked through – if you have a meat thermometer, the internal temperature should be 75°C.

Do You Need To Add Liquid To Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder?

No, you can put the pork shoulder joint in the slow cooker without any liquid. During the slow cooking time, the pork will naturally release its own juices.

For this recipe, I like to add the stock; this helps to ensure the pork shoulder is soft and tender, and I can use the liquid at the end to make a sauce/gravy to serve over the pork.

How To Make A Gravy Or Sauce From The Juices

cooked pork shoulder in a slow cooker

You have two options for making gravy or sauce out of the liquid at the end of the cooking time.

When the pork is ready, carefully remove the joint and leave it to rest (or put it in the oven to make pork crackling, see below for the steps to do this).

Stir In Some Gravy Granules (Or Cornflour)

Leave the rest of the sauce in the slow cooker and skim off any fat; remove the bay leaves.

Stir in some gravy granules or cornflour to thicken it up.

Return the sliced pork to the slow cooker and submerge it in the sauce.

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The downside to this method is that you will still have some excess fat from the pork in the gravy, which might make it a little greasy, and also, if you are crisping the pork fat rind up, the gravy might cool down too much before it’s time to serve.

pork shoulder with gravy and onions

As a side note, I used this method, and it wasn’t too greasy and tasted amazing! No extra seasoning was required.

Strain The Liquid And Simmer In A Pan

The other option, and the more common method, is to remove the bay leaves, blend the liquid with a stick blender, and strain the liquid into a saucepan.

Add some cornflour (or gravy granules) to thicken it up, and simmer it on a really low heat while you wait for the crackling to crisp up or the pork to rest before slicing it.

After a quick taste test, you may want to add some more seasoning to the gravy.

Can You Put Raw Pork In A Slow Cooker?

Yes, you can put raw pork directly in a slow cooker. I rarely separately sear or brown any meat before I add it to the slow cooker, mainly due to the extra time and washing up it creates.

My main exceptions to this are when I slow cook sausages (like in my slow cooker sausage casserole recipe) and slow cooker meatballs.

How To Get Crispy Pork Crackling

Understandably, the pork shoulder joint fat won’t crisp up in the slow cooker to make crispy pork crackling.

But the good news is that you can still get a crispy pork crackling by adding in an extra step.

About 10 to 15 minutes before the end of the slow cooker cooking time, preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 9.

You can also do this step in an air fryer – preheat for 3 minutes instead.

When the pork shoulder is cooked in the slow cooker, you can either put the whole joint in the oven (or air fryer) or carefully remove the fat from the pork joint and crisp it up on its own.

I prefer to cook the pork cracking on its own, leaving the joint loosely covered in foil to rest before carving it.

If you choose to place the whole pork joint in the oven loosely cover the meat part of the joint with foil so that it doesn’t dry out.

Either way, you need to score the fat rind with a sharp knife, brush oil over it and rub salt all over it.

Place it in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until it has bubbled up and is crispy.

In an air fryer, it should take about 20 minutes.

What To Serve With Pork Shoulder

We enjoyed this slow cooker pork shoulder recipe with some roast potatoes and green vegetables. You could also serve it with mashed potatoes or rice.

More Slow Cooker Pork Recipes

Are you looking for more slow cooker pork recipes?

pork shoulder joint in slow cooker with onions

Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder

By Liana Green
Pork shoulder is the perfect joint to slow cook. After a long and gentle cooking time, you'll be enjoying a soft and flavoursome pork dinner.
4.39 from 26 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 10 minutes
Course Slow Cooker Recipes
Servings 4 to 6 servings
Calories

Ingredients
  

  • Pork shoulder joint 1.5kg to 2kg
  • 1 tsp season-all
  • 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 6 cloves garlic crushed
  • 2 onions sliced
  • 400 ml chicken stock you can also use pork or vegetable stock
  • Gravy granules or cornflour to thicken
  • Salt and pepper according to taste

Instructions
 

  • Rub your choice of seasoning over the pork shoulder joint.
  • Add all the remaining ingredients to the slow cooker (apart from the gravy granules/cornflour).
  • Place the lid on top and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
  • At the end of the cooking time, check the pork is cooked through – if you have a meat thermometer, the internal temperature should be 75°C.
  • Remove the pork joint from the slow cooker and either leave it to rest before slicing or, if you are making pork crackling, brush some oil on the rind and rub some salt over it. Place it in a preheated oven (220°C/Gas Mark 9) for 30 to 45 minutes until the fat is bubbling and crispy. You can also remove the rind from the pork meat and cook it separately while the pork rests.
  • If you want to make some sauce or gravy from the stock and cooking liquids (I highly recommend you do!), you can either make it directly in the slow cooker bowl. Remove the bay leaves and scrape off any fat from the surface, then stir in some gravy granules or cornflour. Alternatively, strain the liquid into a saucepan to remove more fat and any bits and simmer on low heat; stir in cornflour to thicken it. In each method, taste before serving to see if any extra salt or pepper is needed.

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4.39 from 26 votes (25 ratings without comment)
Recipe Rating




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Ben Stuart

Saturday 2nd of November 2024

Going to have this today, nice recipe.

Linda Bennett

Saturday 11th of November 2023

Your soup maker book is great and I use it a LOT. So am now ordering this slow cooker book, which I'm sure I'll love just as much.