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!
This is my kind of Friday night dinner when it’s been raining and miserable all day and you just want something really tasty to warm you up from the inside.
I’d contentedly scoff every bit of this dish, but that sauce over mashed potatoes? Yes, I could eat that for the rest of my life and not get bored.
The meat is browned and then slow cooked with stock and cider until lovely and tender. I like to chuck a few veggies in – just to make it a little bit healthier, and then it’s served on creamy mashed potatoes, and finished off with crispy fried bacon lardons or pancetta.
Sometimes referred to as Somerset Pork casserole (which is generally made using a dry Somerset cider, and with the addition of apples in the sauce – this is my version of Somerset Pork Casserole) or Normandy Pork (made using french cider or brandy, apples, crème fraîche and bacon lardons, sometimes dijon mustard too), I like to pick a few flavours from both. So for me it’s:
- Dry cider (alcoholic version)
- Cream rather than crème fraîche (sometimes crème fraîche can split, so I prefer to use cream – make sure it’s double/heavy cream though – the higher the fat content, the less likely it is to split.)
- Crispy bacon lardons – Often these are crisped up, then cooked in the casserole with the pork, but I prefer to sprinkle them on at the end so they retain all the crispy saltiness.
- I sometimes make it with apple slices. If you do, just add them for the last 15-20 minutes of cooking so they don’t go mushy.
📋 What do we need?
- I use pork shoulder steaks because they have a little bit of fat running through them – which keeps the pork lovely and tender. Cut off any large sections of fat, then slice the rest into bite-size chunks
- You can also use a boneless pork shoulder joint and chop into bite-size chunks if you prefer.
- 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.
- Mushrooms – use your favourite. I like chestnut mushrooms, as they have a nice flavour.
- Bacon – you can use lardons/diced-pancetta, or chopped up streaky bacon.
📺 Watch how to make it
Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.
👩🍳PRO TIP Rather than adding the cooked bacon lardons in the dish, sprinkle them on at the end. This helps them to retain their salty crispness. The heat of the casserole will warm them back up if they’ve cooled too much.
🍽️ What to serve it with
- Potatoes! Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Potatoes with garlic, Crispy Roast Potatoes, or perfect Jacket Spuds
- Garlic Green Beans or Roasted Broccoli or some buttered kale
- Fresh Homemade Bread or lovely Garlic Bread
- It would even work with Rice or Pasta!
So long as you’re mopping up that lovely sauce with something – that’s the main thing. You really don’t want that sauce to go to waste!
This pork casserole is a really good meal to make ahead and then reheat later. It’s also great when you’re cooking for lots of people – a large batch that everyone can spoon out onto their plates is ideal. Plus it’s easily made gluten free too (using gluten-free stock and cider).
🍲 More fantastic Pork recipes
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Creamy Slow Cooked Pork Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 500 g (1.1 lbs) 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+3/4 cups) chicken or vegetable stock water + 2 stock cubes is fine
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 150 g (1/2 cup) bacon lardons or chopped streaky bacon
- 1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) mixed with 3 tbsp cold water
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) double (heavy) cream
- 2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
To Serve:
- mashed potatoes
- steamed kale or other green veg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170C/325F (fan).
- Heat 1 1/2 tbsp of the oil in a large casserole dish, over a high heat, until hot.2 tbsp sunflower oil
- Add the pork, salt, pepper and celery salt and brown on all sides – it should take around 6-8 minutes.500 g (1.1 lbs) diced pork shoulder, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp ground black pepper, ¼ tsp celery salt
- Turn the heat down to medium and add in the onion. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion softens.1 onion
- Add the mushrooms and cook for a further two minutes.12 baby mushrooms
- 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.2 carrots, 250 ml (1 cup) dry cider, 420 ml (1+3/4 cups) chicken or vegetable stock, ½ tsp dried thyme
- Place a lid on the pan, and place in the oven for 2 1/2 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.
- Just before the casserole comes out of the oven, heat the remaining 1/2 tbsp oil in a frying pan and cook the bacon lardons until crispy. Turn off the heat.150 g (1/2 cup) bacon lardons or chopped streaky bacon
- Remove the casserole from the oven and stir in the cornstarch and water mixture to thicken, if needed.1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) mixed with 3 tbsp cold water
- Stir in the cream. Taste and season with a little more salt and pepper if needed. Sprinkle on the bacon lardons.60 ml (1/4 cup) double (heavy) cream
- Serve with green veg on top of mashed potatoes. Sprinkle on a little chopped parsley before serving.2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley, mashed potatoes, steamed kale or other green veg
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was first published in March 2017. Updated June 2022 with some new photos, video and some housekeeping.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links – which means if you buy the product I get a small commission (at no extra cost to you). If you do buy, then thank you! That’s what helps us to keep Kitchen Sanctuary running. The nutritional information provided is approximate and can vary depending on several factors. For more information please see our Terms & Conditions.
Equipment:
In order to make this Creamy Slow Cooked Pork Casserole recipe you will need:
- A good Kitchen knife. I have recently bought this Dalstrong one and love it.
- Chopping Board
- Casserole pan
- Measuring Spoons
- A frying pan/skillet
- Wooden or Silicon Coated Spoons. We have just bought these and love them.
- Potato Ricer HINT: Using a potato ricer makes the smoothest mash potato you will every taste. I recommend getting one!
I’ve now made this dish five times … it’s my go to easy weekend recipe. It’s so TASTY 😋
What do you mean by cider for this recipe ? I put a bit of apple cider vinegar but certainly not the 250 mls like recipe said. It’s cooking now
Hi Jenni – sorry we’ve been on holiday. The recipe is regular alcoholic cider. Are you in the US? I think they call it hard cider over there. I’ll update the recipe to make that clear to anyone else from the US.
I found this recipe when wondering what to do with pork which must be soft and tender. This recipe was fantastic. And will now be one of my favourite recipes. Had some home made cider to use but no celery salt, so added a celery stick.
Love this recipe. Very easy and extremely tasty😀
Made this yesterday using the slow-cook method. Not sure if the sauce thickened as much as it should have, However, it tasted lovely and went down well with the whole family (includes an elderly Mum and two teenage boys), which can’t be a bad thing!!
I served it with mash and shredded cabbage and they all cleared the plate. Even wanted more.
This will be marked as a favourite for us.
A great recipe which worked very well for 4 servings. I quadrupled ingredients for 16 servings but the result although still very tasty had far too much liquid. Can you advise best way to adapt recipe from 4 to 16 servings please ?
Hi Nigel, so glad you enjoyed it!
I would go with 1200mls of stock (rather than quadrupling to 1680mls), but then keep everything else the same. The cornstarch slurry added at the end should help thicken it up so it’s not too liquidy. Since you’re going to be adding more cornstarch slurry, I would suggest stirring it in a splash at a time until the sauce has thickened.
Hello,
Can I substitute cider with anything else? I work In outback and we have only beers and cooking wines in here :/ or can I leave the cider out?
HI Sandra,
This is a difficult one as i haven’t tried this dish without the cider. You could try substituting the 250ml cider for 125ml of white wine and also increasing the stock by an additional 125ml.
If you do give it a try, please let me know how you get on.
Many Thanks
Chris & Nicky
I used a splash of apple cider vinegar by mistake, added a bit of brown sugar to balance the tart and ended up tasting like veal masala
Hi, thanks for this recipe. Just wondering which cut of pork you would recommend using?
I used pork fillet cause was on special, was delish
We have just had this for our tea tonight. Wow it was really tasty.. I have half of it ready to Freeze but did not put the cream in that. I really recommend this dish.
Love this pork dish, such a wonderful family comforting winter dish. Great crowd pleaser.
Made this recently but omitted the cream as I was freezing for quick midweek meals which unfortunately also meant it wasn’t as thick a sauce as I presume it should have been.
Not sure if it would be ok to freeze with the cream, does anyone know?.
Hi Shelia, I’ve tried freezing with cream in an it worked fine after heating through. However the results can be different if you heat over to high a heat or if you’re not using heavy cream.
I’d suggest omitting the cream for freezing to be on the safe side, then adding it later, when reheating the meal.
If the sauce is a little runny, sometimes I mix 1 tsp of cornstarch with 3 tsp of cold water and stir it through to thicken the sauce up.
Hope that helps!
Many thanks, will either add cream or cornstarch when reheating as suggested, thanks.
I made this and it was delicious! My husband said it was the best porn dish he has ever had!
Good lord, I’ve been cooking this for the last five hours and now I find out it’s a ‘porn dish’. I’ve had to throw the whole thing out before father saw.
Hi Simon, sorry, I’m not sure what you mean. I’ve cooked this dish many times, and it always turns out great. Did you change anything in the ingredients or cooking process? Perhaps we can figure out where it went wrong for you.
😂