A pork roast seasoned with thyme and bathed in apple juice and nestled into a slow cooker surrounded by sliced onions and dried cherries. A perfect minimal prep, full of flavor dish, this Slow Cooker Pork Roast and Cherries will make your house smell absolutely divine all day as it cooks.
Let me take you on trip back in time, if you will. It was about ten years ago and Andy and I were newly married. He the medical student, me the interior designer who loved to cook and try out new recipes. (That second part is no different from today.) I had found a slow cooker recipe featuring a pork roast and dried cherries and decided to give it a try as it sounded like something my studies a million hours a day husband would enjoy. The good news? He absolutely loved it! The not so good news? I somehow misplaced the recipe after making it only that one time.
It’s been an ongoing joke for the last ten years that whenever I’d ask Andy what he wanted for dinner, he would always respond with “pork roast and cherries.” And I of course would either give him a death glare or an eye roll depending on my mood.
I remembered a few of the ingredients. Obviously, including the pork roast. There were also dried cherries and apple juice involved. And that’s where my memory faded to black. I searched all of the cooking magazines that I subscribed to and did countless internet searches but to no avail. The recipe remained a mystery.
When I received this beauty in the mail, I decided once and for all I was going to try and recreate the infamous recipe that my husband has given me a hard time about for oh so long. Another slow cooker, you ask? Not so fast, my friend. This is more than a slow cooker. This is the Cuisinart 3-In-1 Cook Central 6-Quart Multi-Cooker. It not only is a slow cooker but it also browns and sautes as well as steams. Hello, there amazing appliance of my dreams!
I’ve mentioned before how much I absolutely despise having to brown meat first before putting it into the slow cooker. Not any longer! It’s no longer a chore when I can brown the mean IN the slow cooker. Even Andy was amazed when he saw what I was up to. After each side of the pork roast was browned, I simply changed the setting to slow cooker mode to finish cooking. Easy peasy as our four year old would say!
A pork roast seasoned with thyme and bathed in apple juice and nestled into a slow cooker surrounded by sliced onions and dried cherries. A perfect minimal prep, full of flavor dish that makes your house smell absolutely divine all day as it cooks. The cooking liquid is thickened to create an amazing finishing sauce that ties everything together. Served over rice or pasta, this Slow Cooker Pork Roast and Cherries can serve a crowd!
Melanie Bauer
Yields 6
15 minPrep Time
10 hrCook Time
10 hr, 15 Total Time
Save Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons thyme
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 pound pork shoulder roast
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup apple juice
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 cups dried cherries
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
Instructions
- In a small bowl, stir together thyme, pepper and salt. Season each side of pork roast with seasoning mixture.
- Add oil to Cuisinart 3-In-1 Cook Central 6-Quart Multi-Cooker and using the Brown/Saute setting set to 350 degrees, brown pork roast on all sides.
- Switch multi-cooker to Slow Cooker setting.
- Pour apple juice over pork roast and add onion and dried cherries.
- Cook on LOW for 8-10 hours.
- Remove pork roast and set aside. Tent with aluminum foil to retain heat.
- Strain onion and cherries from cooking liquid to a bowl and set aside.
- Switch multi-cooker to Brown/Saute setting set to 350 degrees.
- Whisk together corn starch and one cup cooking liquid. Whisk into remaining cooking liquid in multi-cooker and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened.
- Serve pork roast over rice or pasta and topped with cherries and onions and sauce.
Notes
If you do not own a Cuisinart MSC-600 3-In-1 Cook Central 6-Quart Multi-Cooker, you'll need to brown your pork roast and create the finished sauce on your stove top.
So if you’re keeping score, I browned the pork roast, slow cooked it and created a sauce all in this multi-cooker. Even better? Clean-up was insanely easy! This is what the multi-cooker cooking pot looked like after I poured the sauce into my serving dish. I was literally able to simply spray it with water and wipe it out with a soapy dish cloth. So much easier than the slow cooker I typically use. Non-stick for the win!
At our house, I chose to serve this dish over pasta as it tends to be more child friendly. Read that as meaning, not as messy! I also love that the rotini I chose holds onto the sauce making each bite as delicious as the last.
Needless to say my new multi-cooker has kicked my previous slow cooker to storage in the basement while it now resides comfortably in my kitchen cabinet. It’s new home sweet home!
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I received this Cuisinart 3-In-1 Cook Central 6-Quart Multi-Cooker for review but received no other compensation. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting this sponsor that allows me the opportunity to create content, such as this, for Melanie Makes.
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