This pork stew slow cooker recipe is easy, delicious, and Paleo-friendly. All you need is pork shoulder, veggies, marinara sauce, and some seasonings. Just dump everything in the slow cooker and enjoy!
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The easiest slow cooker pork stew!
In other words, this is a dish I cook on a typical day in my life. I don’t brown the meat or vegetables and all the ingredients are dumped into the slow cooker to simmer on low for 8-10 hours. Poof! Dinner is ready in less than 10 minutes of prep time!
Important caveat: Try to use the best ingredients you can find because when you’re just chucking stuff into the Crock-Pot or slow cooker, you’ll end up with crap if you start with bad ingredients.
Can you make this in an Instant Pot?
You’re in luck! Get the step-by-step Instant Pot Cheater Pork Stew recipe right here!
INGREDIENTS
- Pork shoulder roast or pork butt: This is my favorite cut of pork for stew because it gets super tender and shreddable when cooked low and slow. I don’t recommend using pork tenderloin or pork loin because they’re both too lean for this dish.
- Onions
- Garlic
- Baby carrots: Feel free to use other vegetables (e.g. potatoes, celery, or turnips) but I love the convenience of tossing in pre-cut baby carrots.
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Sunny Paris seasoning (or your favorite salt-free seasoning blend)
- Red Boat Fish sauce
- Small green cabbage
- Rao’s marinara sauce (or any other Paleo-friendly marinara sauce): Again, I choose a high quality store-bought marinara sauce in place of fresh tomatoes because it has already been seasoned and I want to pack on the flavor with minimal effort.
- Aged balsamic vinegar
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Fresh Italian parsley (optional garnish)
How to make slow cooker pork stew
Slice up the onions and smash the garlic cloves…
…and add them with the carrots to the slow cooker liner. Season liberally with salt and pepper.
Grab some high quality pork…
…cut it into uniform cubes…
…and toss with Sunny Paris seasoning (or your favorite salt-free seasoning blend) and fish sauce.
(No Sunny Paris? No problem. Just use an herb blend you like.)
Add another sprinkle of salt and pepper and toss to combine.
Pile the seasoned pork on top of the onions and carrots…
…and tuck the cabbage wedges on top.
Drizzle on the marinara sauce and some more salt and pepper.
Put on the lid and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
When the pork and veggies are fork-tender, adjust the stew for seasoning with balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Stir well to distribute the seasoning. Transfer the stew to a serving bowl and if you’re feeling fancy, top the stew with fresh Italian parsley.
I love it when meals cook themselves!
How do you save leftovers?
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 days or in the freezer for 3 months.
What do you serve it with?
Some of my favorite veggie side dishes for this stew are Cauliflower Colcannon, Instant Pot Crispy Potatoes, Microwave Spaghetti Squash, Whole Roasted Cauliflower, Roasted Green Beans with Lemon and Garlic, Instant Pot Mashed Sweet Potatoes.
If you’re not paleo, you can serve this pork stew with rice, noodles. or cornbread!
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2022).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
Slow Cooker Cheater Pork Stew
Ingredients
- 2 small onions thinly sliced
- 6 garlic cloves peeled and smashed
- ½ pound baby carrots
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3 pounds pork shoulder cut into 1.5 inch cubes or a 4 pound bone-in pork shoulder roast
- 1 tablespoon Sunny Paris seasoning or your favorite seasoning blend
- 1 tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce
- 1 small cabbage cut into 8 wedges
- 1 cup Marinara sauce or any other Paleo-friendly marinara sauce
- 1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup finely chopped Italian parsley optional
Instructions
- Slice up the onions and smash the garlic cloves. Add them with the carrots to the slow cooker liner, and season liberally with salt and pepper.
- Cube the pork and toss with Sunny Paris seasoning and fish sauce. (No Sunny Paris? No problem. Just use an herb blend you like.) Add another sprinkle of salt and pepper and toss to combine.
- Pile the seasoned pork on top of the onions and carrots, and tuck the cabbage wedges on top. Drizzle on the marinara sauce and some more salt and pepper.
- Put on the lid and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
- When the pork and veggies are fork-tender, adjust the stew for seasoning with balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Top the stew with fresh Italian parsley.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I am trying your recipe today. I did substitute taco seasoning that I had made, oyster sauce as suggested and homemade marinara sauce. Looking forward to tasting. Sounds really interesting. Thanks.