The Slow Cooked Pork Casserole you'll never forget

A lovely comforting dish, this pork casserole is cooked slowly with cider and stock in the oven. It's finished off with a good splash of cream and a sprinkling of crispy bacon lardons.

I love to serve it with creamy mashed potato for a dinner that has everyone asking for seconds!

Free printable recipe is available on our site: https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/crea...

Non-Alcoholic Version: Cider - this is alcoholic dry cider. You can replace with dry apple juice or a mixture of dry apple juice and stock (in addition to the rest of the stock in the recipe) if you prefer.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp sunflower oil
500 g (1.1lbs) diced pork shoulder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground black pepper
¼ tsp celery salt optional – I find it adds a nice savoury flavour
1 onion peeled and chopped
12 baby mushrooms chopped in half
2 carrots peeled and chopped
250 ml (1 cup) dry cider (hard cider if you're in the USA)
420 ml (1+¾ cups) chicken or vegetable stock (water + 2 stock cubes is fine)
½ tsp dried thyme
150 g (½ cup) bacon lardons or chopped streaky bacon
1 tbsp cornflour cornstarch mixed with 3 tbsp cold water
60 ml (¼ cup) double (heavy) cream
2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley

To Serve
Mashed potatoes
Steamed kale or other green veg

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F.

2. Heat 1 ½ tbsp of the oil in a large casserole dish, over a high heat, until hot.

3. Add the pork, salt, pepper and celery salt and brown on all sides - it should take around 6-8 minutes.

4. Turn the heat down to medium and add in the onion. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion softens.

5. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further two minutes.

6. Add the carrots, cider, stock and dried thyme. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Stir and scrape up any bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the pan.

7. Place a lid on the pan, and place in the oven for 2 ½ to 3 hours*, until the pork flakes apart when you press it with a fork. Check a couple of times during the last hour of cooking and add a splash of water or stock if it's starting to look a little dry.

8. Just before the casserole comes out of the oven, heat the remaining ½ tbsp oil in a frying pan and cook the bacon lardons until crispy. Turn off the heat.

9. Remove the casserole from the oven and stir in the cornstarch and water mixture to thicken, if needed.

10. Stir in the cream. Taste and season with a little more salt and pepper if needed. Sprinkle on the bacon lardons.

11. Serve with green veg on top of mashed potatoes. Sprinkle on a little chopped parsley before serving.


Want to cook in the slow cooker?
Cook the ingredients until the point it's just about to go in the oven. Then transfer to a slow cooker at this point and cook for 6-8 hours on low or 5-6 hours on medium.

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