Use a hard apple cider or apple and pear cider to both braise and make a sauce for this delicious autumn entrée. Rosy-colored Pink Lady apples are my favorite for this recipe but Honeycrisps also work great!
Pork Roast With Pink Lady Apples
Use a hard apple cider or apple and pear cider to both braise and make a sauce for this delicious autumn entrée. Rosy-colored Pink Lady apples are my favorite for this recipe but Honeycrisps also work great!
Yield
6 Servings
Prep Time
45 minutes
45 min
Cook Time
1 hour 20 minutes
1 hr 20 min
Total Time
2 hours 5 minutes
2 hrs 5 min
Ingredients
Pork dry rub:
Pork Loin Roast:
Hard Apple Cider Gravy
Instructions
In a bowl, make the dry rub. Combine the dried herbs, salt and pepper. Rub the pork roast with the dry rub mixture. Place pork loin in a roasting pan. Drizzle pork with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove the pork from the pan. Discard the marinade. Place onions, sweet potatoes, and apples in the bottom of a cleaned roasting pan. Make six ½-inch slits along the width of the pork roast. Insert a whole garlic clove into each slit. Heat a large sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When hot, add the pork. Sear on all sides.
Remove and place the seared pork in the roasting pans. Surround pork with the vegetables. Deglaze the sauté pan with 2 cups of the hard cider and the 1 cup of stock. Simmer for 2 minutes. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, scrape up any bits of pork from the pan. Pour the cider/stock mixture over the roast. Roast for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees. Roast an additional 45 minutes to 1 hour. Baste roast periodically with the pan juices, adding additional cider as needed. Roast the pork until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees on an instant-read meat thermometer. Remove the roast and tent loosely with aluminum foil. Allow the roast to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Prepare the sauce: Transfer the onions, potatoes and apples to a serving platter. Strain the pan juices into a measuring cup. Add additional cider as needed to make 2 cups. Place in a saucepan and heat to a low boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until mixture is reduced by ¼. Add the cream, maple syrup, parsley, rosemary, salt, and pepper. With sauce on low heat, drizzle in cornstarch mixture to slightly thicken.
Slice the pork roast and place on a serving platter. Drizzle pork with sauce, serving extra sauce on the side.
Prep time: 45 minutes plus 6 hours to marinate the pork loin
Cook time: 1 hour and 20 minutes (includes roasting the pork and preparing the sauce)
Extra Bits
If you would like the roasted apples to be a bit firmer, add them during the last 30 minutes of roasting. It’s all about what you like! Either way, this is one terrific fall recipe.
Use a hard apple cider or apple and pear cider to both braise and make a sauce for this delicious autumn entrée. Rosy-colored Pink Lady apples are my favorite for this recipe but Honeycrisps also work great!