Name: Slow-Cooker Pork Shoulder With Brown Sugar &amp; Balsamic Glaze
Cook time: 5 h
Yield: Serves 8 to 10
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 pounds pork shoulder (boneless pork butt); 4 cloves garlic, grated; 2 teaspoons ground sage; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; Freshly ground black pepper; 4 bay leaves; 1 cup water; 1 cup dark brown sugar; 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar; 1/4 cup soy sauce; 2 tablespoons mustard powder; 2 tablespoons cornstarch

◅ ▻

Slow-Cooker Pork Shoulder With Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glaze — 1 of 2 Photo by Julia Gartland

Test Kitchen-Approved

Author Notes: I've taken the uber-popular Crock-Pot Brown Sugar & Balsamic–Glazed Pork Tenderloin recipe and repurposed it with boneless pork shoulder. Fatty shoulder, more than lean tenderloin, gets effortlessly tender when slow-cooked like this. In addition to making the recipe totally hands-off, the slow cooker is an insurance policy against the meat drying out. I upped the ante on the glaze, too, adding a little mustard powder to balance out all that sweet and salty. —Eric Kim

Food52 Review: Featured in: This Is Our Most-Popular Recipe of All Time...but Why? —The Editors

Serves: 8 to 10
Cook time: 5 hrs

Ingredients

4 pounds pork shoulder (boneless pork butt)
4 cloves garlic, grated
2 teaspoons ground sage
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 bay leaves
1 cup water
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons mustard powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch

In This Recipe

Directions

Put the pork shoulder, garlic, sage, salt, pepper, bay leaves, and water into a slow cooker and smoosh around with your hands. Cook on High for 4 hours.
In a measuring cup, whisk together the brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, mustard powder, and cornstarch. Add to the slow cooker and cook for another hour.
Carve pork against the grain into individual portions and serve with roasted carrots or white rice.

This recipe is a Community Pick!

24 Reviews

cupcakeladybakes May 20, 2019

I made this with 2lbs cut of meat. I think the cooking time was too long. The meat fell apart and was super tender, but it wasn't "sliceable" like it looks in your picture. How long should I cooked a smaller piece of meat? Please let me know!

Rosalind P. May 17, 2019

what's your second most popular? Don't eat pork.

Bob May 17, 2019

Put on the smoker for 2 hours before the slow cooker really enhanced the flavor.

Marjorie S. May 17, 2019

what owld be a substitute for pork?

FrugalCat May 17, 2019

Chicken thighs?

rider5 May 17, 2019

I made this recently and the glaze was very sweet. Has anyone else found that it was too sweet? Did I do something wrong?

HappyHugs May 12, 2019

My roast pork was amazing. People asked for seconds and thirds! Since the piece of meat was large, (4.8 lbs) I used 1.5 cups of water to start and it was swimming in liquid. I cooked it for 4.5 hours then added the sugar/vinegar glaze and cooked it another 90 minutes. Still swimming in liquid but fall-apart tender and so very delicious (the liquid sauce was full of flavor and very good on rice). We've christened it "fusion adobo" and it has made me a slow-cooker fan!

jh May 13, 2019

Loved the flavor but also found it had way too much liquid; anyone have good idea about more realistic proportions? Also, because of the fattier cut, tons of fat floating on the liquid. Suggestions? Perhaps next time a make-ahead the day before, to skim off fat? (We served farro on the side, as a rice alternative...lovely.) Carrot chunks per reader below was also terrific in the pot. Speaking of which: Instantpot pressure cooker directions, anyone?

Laina R. May 17, 2019

My usual recipe for pork shoulder in the slow cooker uses absolutely zero water to start, and there is plenty of liquid & rendered fat in the crock by the time it's finished. I'm making this recipe this weekend and will try it with no liquid.

susansbw May 18, 2019

and????

Mary May 19, 2019

Please let me know how it turns out starting with no liquid. I love gravy but you could have the trick.
I’ll check back on Monday 5/20. Thanks.

Laura D. May 10, 2019

Erik,

Any thoughts on an Instantpot conversion? I would prefer to use the pressure cooker function, not the slow cooker function.

miamineymo May 4, 2019

How would I cook this in a conventional oven or on the stove?

mudd May 5, 2019

If you have a heavy cast iron or other Dutch oven you could do in a low temp oven. Heat oven to 300. Take all the step
one stuff, bring to a low simmer, cover and put in oven for about 2 hours. Mix all the glaze things well add to pan rolling the pork around in the liquid put back in oven lid off until it looks glazed That’ how I would do it

Gwen F. May 3, 2019

has anyone modified this for Instapot?

Cynthia P. May 5, 2019

Gwen, do you mean using the Instantpot as a slow cooker, or as a pressure cooker?

Gwen F. May 10, 2019

either would be fine. i guess the pressure cooker method is of more interest since I could just use low heat in the oven as you suggested above. Im also wondering if the liquids need to be adjusted. thanks.

Rachael W. May 17, 2019

Just to forewarn, the slow cooking function on many versions of the Instapot is not consistent. I would strongly suggest not using it for meats, since their temperature readings are known to be finicky.

Tashie May 2, 2019

So apparently I am out of balsamic vinegar. My options are apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar. Which would be better?

Author Comment

Eric K. May 2, 2019

I’d go with apple cider (I imagine the sugar content is closer to balsamic), but frankly both would taste great! There’s plenty of brown sugar in here to offset the poke.

Mary November 14, 2018

Delicious! cooked a 3.5lb shoulder, kept all other measurements basically the same although I did reduce sauce amounts by a bit. Reduced the brown sugar by half and did not have enough balsamic vinegar so substituted some chianti vinegar. Everyone loved it. However, I would say this amount of meat would feed 4 generously, not the 8 suggested in the recipe. Roasted onions, white sweet potatoes and carrots to accompany the meat and sauce. Will definitely do again.

FrugalCat November 13, 2018

I cooked carrots in the slow cooker along with the pork (add during the last hour or so). They soak up all that sauce and are fantastic. I served this over mashed potatoes.

Eric K. November 14, 2018

Oof, lovely idea.

Gwen F. May 17, 2019

Srik, suggestions for pressure cooker in instapot? Thanks.

Ice Box with Reversible Lid

Five Two Silicone Straws

Five Two Wool Dryer Balls

Demeyere Stainless Steel Egg Poacher & 1.5QT...

The Shop's Greatest Hits

Genius Recipes

My Family Recipe

Dear Test Kitchen

Big Little Recipes

Oven Scrambled Eggs

Espresso Caramel Sauce

Irene Kuo's 1-2-3-4-5 Spare Ribs

Sopa a La Minuta (Peruvian 'Minute Soup')

Recipes Browse By… 

Slow-Cooker Pork Shoulder With Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glaze

Popular on Food52

24 Reviews