Monday Meals: Balsamic Pork Roast

Happy Labor Day, Cool Dads fans! We thought we'd celebrate this important holiday by providing you with a meal that's practically labor free. Get it? Get it? Oh, we're hilarious...

So with the long weekend, the Wisconsin Test Kitchen was looking forward to spending time together as a family, relaxing, and eating some delicious food. Cooking is a lot more fun when it's not a race to get a meal on the table quickly, before all parties need to go to bed. This weekend was a chance for us to have fun cooking again. 

We had a nice sized pork shoulder in the freezer; and decided to make a roast with vegetables. The end result was pretty spectacular.

Balsamic Pork Roast
Recipe courtesy of www.skinnytaste.com


Ingredients

2 pound boneless pork shoulder roast (sirloin roast)
kosher salt, to taste
1/2 tsp garlic powder
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/3 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon honey

Season the pork with salt, garlic powder and red pepper flakes and place it into the slow cooker. 

 Mix together the broth and vinegar and pour it over the pork, then pour the honey over and set the timer for 4 hours on High or 6-8 hours on Low.

Once the pork is cooked and tender (it should shred easily with a fork), remove from slow cooker with tongs into a serving dish. Break apart lightly with two forks and put back into the slow cooker and ladle 1/2 cup sauce over the pork and keep warm until ready to eat.

Notes from the Test Kitchen:

-Instead of the red pepper, garlic powder and salt; we sprinkled barbecue seasoning over the pork roast. Not sure it made a world of difference; but honestly we were out of red pepper flakes, and it was just easier to grab the jar of pre-mixed seasonings.

-Once the pork roast was cooked all the way through, we  let it rest for a few minutes, and added a little bit of cornstarch to the liquid in the slow cooker, and thickened it up into a gravy that was delicious drizzled over the top of the pork. Be careful with the cornstarch! Start with a few tablespoons and whisk it into the drippings. If you add too much, you'll end up with paste instead of gravy. 

We hope you enjoyed the long weekend with your family- and good luck with the back to school crazies this week!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew