Slow-cooked to perfection this creamy pork casserole
is the perfect comfort food dinner. It's simple to make and I guarantee clean plates all round.
Hi I'm Nicky, welcome back to our kitchen where we show you how to make delicious
family-friendly recipes. This pork casserole is a fantastic freezer friendly make ahead
and scalable meal with chunks of lovely tender pork in a luscious creamy sauce, so let's get
cooking. We're going to start by preheating the oven to 170c or 325f. Now I've got about 500 grams
which is about 1.1 pounds of diced pork shoulder here but really you can use any cut of pork so
long as it's got a little bit of fat on it, it's all gonna cook down and become tender and juicy.
First off add one and a half tablespoons of oil to a large casserole dish over a medium to high heat.
Add the pork along with a quarter of a teaspoon each of salt, pepper and
celery salt and brown the meat on all sides, this should take about six to eight minutes.
Turn the heat down to medium and add in a large diced onion.
Now I'm going to be cooking this in the oven but if you prefer you could cook it in the slow cooker,
I'd still recommend that you brown the meat before you place it in the slow cooker for more flavor.
Once the onions have softened then add in 12 baby chestnut mushrooms
that have been chopped in half and cook for another two minutes.
Then add in two peeled and roughly chopped carrots.
Now we're going to add in 250 ml, which is a little over a cup, of dry
cider. Now if you're in the U.S. this is hard cider and we're going to use that to deglaze
the pan and it'll give this dish a lovely flavor which really complements the pork.
Now most of that alcohol will cook off but I know some of you don't like cooking with
alcohol so if you prefer you can swap this for half apple juice and half stock.
We're also going to add in 420 ml, which is about one and three quarter cups,
of chicken stock and half a teaspoon of dried thyme.
Give it a stir and scrape up any bits that might have stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Bring it to a simmer then place a lid on the pan and place in the oven.
Now we want to cook that in the oven for about two and a half to three hours until the pork is lovely
and tender, make sure you check it in the last hour of cooking a couple of times and if it's
starting to look a little bit dry you could top it up with a splash of water or a splash of stock.
As Chris likes to say "everything tastes better with bacon" and what goes better
with pork than more pork so I'm going to fry up some crispy bacon lardons to top this casserole
but that's totally optional. Add a splash of oil to a frying pan.
Then add 150 grams, which is about half a cup, of bacon lardons or pancetta to the frying pan.
Fry them over a medium to high heat until they're nice and crispy.
Turn off the heat and place them in a bowl for later.
Once the pork pork's cooked and it's lovely and tender, remove the casserole from the oven.
Now we're going to thicken that sauce slightly by stirring in a cauliflower slurry
which is made of one tablespoon of cornflour mixed with three tablespoons of cold water.
We're also going to make that sauce lovely and creamy by adding 60 ml,
which is about quarter of a cup, of double or heavy cream.
Serve it up with some green veg, mashed potatoes and topped off
with those cooked bacon lardons and a sprinkling of fresh parsley.
Okay let's give it a taste.
That pork is so amazingly tender and the sauce is so good, it's just perfect comfort food right there.
Now if you want all of those delicious creamy pork flavors but haven't got
the time to slow cook your pork, then check out my smothered pork ready in 25 minutes, and for
all of those pork lovers check out my playlist full of lovely pork recipes, see you over there!