Slow Cooker Pork Leg Joint. Introducing you to the best way to slow cook a pork leg joint. A pork joint is cooked until tender in the slow cooker with potatoes and vegetables in a creamy apple juice sauce.
You will love how this pork leg recipe comes together in the slow cooker and how it’s such an easy way to get a roast pork dinner on the dinner table.
Table of Contents
Pork Leg Joint In Slow Cooker
Many, many years ago, at different times, both myself and Dominic worked at restaurants that served the famous Sunday roast carvery.
I was a waitress, and he was a chef.
The one thing we both loved was free access to the leftover food. The food that didn’t quite get eaten. The food that was forgotten about.
It was the real perk of the job.
But because people would rather have the roast lamb or the roast turkey or the roast gammon, the roast pork often got forgotten about.
It was such a shame because slow cooked pork leg is amazing.
Whilst living in Portugal it was impossible unless you paid three times what it was worth, to get a boneless pork leg joint to cook at home. It was one of those foods we craved and was excited to be able to buy again when we moved back to England.
We headed to Aldi, grabbed a boneless pork leg joint and with excitement made you this yummy slow cooker pork leg joint in apple juice.
Can You Put A Raw Pork In A Slow Cooker?
Yes, you can. Raw pork is perfect for cooking in the slow cooker and you are using the slow cooker to cook your pork.
If you are new to cooking in the slow cooker with pork I recommend you follow this pork leg joint recipe and then do our slow cooker Asian pulled pork.
Does Meat Need To Be Submerged In Slow Cooker?
No, it doesn’t. There are many meats that I have cooked in the slow cooker without being submerged in liquid.
BUT you can make your meat more flavoursome and more tender when it is submerged or partly submerged in liquid as it cooks.
Though note, pork is a very fatty piece of meat and therefore generates its own liquids. Therefore, don’t fill a pork recipe in the slow cooker with so much liquid that when the extra juices come, it would overflow.
Can You Cook A Pork Leg Joint In The Slow Cooker?
Yes, you can! The slow cooker is ideal for a pork leg joint. And once you have done a slow cooker leg of pork, there will be no going back.
You can also do many variations of a pork leg recipe including:
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Leg Joint – Simply increase the cook time by 2 hours and your pork will be tender enough to transform into pulled pork.
Slow Cooker Rolled Pork Leg Joint – Do you want to use a rolled pork leg that is stuffed with stuffing or already seasoned? Well, you can, and you can also keep the same cook times and the same recipe and ideal for when you want stuffing too.
Slow Cooker Pork Roast With Vegetables – You can ditch the potatoes and simply load up your slow cooker with meat and vegetables. You can also swap the apple juice for apple cider or vegetable stock.
Pork In Apple Juice Recipe Ingredients
Pork – The most important ingredient of them all is the pork leg joint as you want tasty yet tender roast pork. But because your pork is being slow cooked it doesn’t need to be an expensive cut. In fact, we used a boneless pork leg joint from Aldi.
Apple Juice – Next is the apple juice that you will be cooking the pork in. Any will do and of course any that is left over you can have as a drink!
Vegetables – I recommend any vegetables that cook well on a slow cook. Avoid the likes of broccoli and cauliflower and focus on root vegetables. Swede, parsnips, carrots, turnips, and potatoes all work well in this pork roast.
Potatoes – I also recommend adding in potatoes. They can be a natural thickener to make an apple sauce and fill you up.
Apples – For the ultimate pork and apple taste sensation, I recommend peeling and cubing some apples too.
Seasoning – There is nothing worse than bland boring pork roast in the slow cooker. I recommend mixed herbs, and rosemary. Along with salt and pepper. You can also add extra seasoning at the end if it doesn’t taste like it has enough flavour.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this pork leg joint in the slow cooker, it has just been our Crockpot. We have this one and it does an amazing job and is also ideal for sauteing on the stovetop first.
How To Cook Pork Joint In Slow Cooker?
- Prep. The boring part….prepping your fruit and veggies. Peel and dice everything that needs it and load it into the slow cooker.
- Mix. Add your seasoning, your butter and any other extras and mix well. Add your pork leg joint over and pour in your apple juice.
- Cook. Next slow cook for four hours or until your pork leg is fully cooked.
- Blend. Make an apple sauce (see below for details) with your juices and some of your vegetables, whilst your pork rests.
- Carve. Slice your pork and serve up your pork roast dinner with the potatoes, vegetables, and apple juice gravy.
Your Apple Juice Gravy
This is my favourite part of the recipe as it saves buying a separate gravy or going to the trouble to make a regular gravy.
You’re going to use juices from your pork, some potatoes and some vegetables and blend it all together.
I recommend you add half the liquid from the slow cooker, drain the excess fat, then add in a handful of potatoes, apples, and vegetables from the slow cooker. Then blend.
You can do this in the slow cooker with a hand blender or move it to the main blender.
Low Fat Pork Leg Joint
I know that crackling and the fat on a pork leg joint is not for everyone. If that is YOU then note you can slice off the fat and then cook the pork leg as normal.
This can save a few calories.
Or if you would like crispy crackling, you can take this off and air fry it separately.
How To Long Does A Pork Joint Take In The Slow Cooker?
If you would like a traditional pork leg joint that you can carve like you do at the carvery, then you need to cook for 4 hours on high.
However, if you are transforming your pork leg joint into pulled pork, I would recommend adding 2 extra hours to make it easy to shred with meat claws.
Listen To Slow Cooker Pork Leg Joint
Want to learn more about our Podcast? Then click here and you can browse through past episodes and subscribe to the Magic With Gadgets Podcast.
More Slow Cooker Roasts
I LOVE cooking my Sunday roast dinner in the slow cooker. You can dump the ingredients in after a Sunday sleep in, then come back at late lunch time to a perfect roast.
Here are a few others I recommend you try:
Slow Cooker Pork Leg Joint
Ingredients
Kitchen Gadgets:
Slow Cooker Pork Leg Joint Ingredients:
- 1.2 kg Boneless Pork Leg Joint
- 1 Medium Swede/Rutabaga
- 1 Medium Parsnip
- 3 Medium Carrots
- 3 Medium White Potatoes
- 2 Medium Green Apples
- 500 ml Apple Juice
- 28 g Butter
- 1 Tbsp Rosemary
- 1 Tbsp Mixed Herbs
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Peel and dice your potatoes, carrots, swede, and parsnip. Peel, remove the core and then dice your apples.
- Load fruit and veggies into the slow cooker, add seasonings and mix with your hands. Add some chunks of butter.
- Pour in apple juice over the fruit and veggies.
- Add your pork leg joint on top either with or without the crackling.
- Then slow cook for 4 hours on high or 7 hours on low. When the pork leg is done, remove from the slow cooker and put to one side to rest.
- Next load half of your stock, a handful of your fruit and veggies and place in the blender. Blend until smooth and this is your gravy.
- Slice your pork leg and serve with your potatoes and vegetables and your gravy.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
