Name: Slow-Cooker Pork Grillades
Total time: 5 h 55 min
Cuisine: Creole & CajunUS & Canada
Ingredients: 1/2 cup vegetable oil; 1/2 cup all-purpose flour; 1 onion , chopped; 1 green bell pepper , stemmed, seeded, and chopped; 1 celery rib; 2 slices bacon , chopped; 2 garlic cloves , minced; 2 tablespoons Louisiana seasoning; 1 (3-pound) boneless pork butt roast trimmed and cut into 1½-inch pieces; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes , drained; 1/2 cup water; 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce; 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce , plus extra for serving; 4 cups cooked white rice; 3 scallions , sliced thin

Why This Recipe Works

Pork grilades is a Louisiana favorite of sliced pork (usually chops) braised in a spicy tomato gravy. To make grillades, you cook a roux of flour and oil until it’s dark and fragrant to help form a rich, toasty sauce base, and then you add the trinity (chopped bell pepper, onion, and celery), plenty of garlic, and Louisiana seasoning. You thin it out with broth and tomato to make a sauce that you then braise the chops in. To adapt this classic recipe for a slow cooker, we used cubed pork shoulder (aka pork butt roast) instead of chops, yielding tender chunks of pork (thin chops eventually fell apart during cooking). We started our slow-cooker version of grillades by making a roux in a saucepan on the stovetop; there’s simply no way to shortcut this process and still have the grillades taste right. Once the roux was browned to the color of milk chocolate, we added the trinity, garlic, and some chopped bacon for another layer of smoky pork flavor. When the vegetables had softened, we scraped this mixture right into the slow cooker along with the hunks of pork shoulder and then let them cook low and slow until the meat was succulent and tender and the sauce was rich and fully flavored. NOTE: This recipe has been updated to reduce the saltiness. This update was made in January 2021.

Before You Begin

We developed this recipe using Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning. Pork butt roast is often labeled Boston butt in the supermarket.

Instructions

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat until just smoking. Carefully stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, until roux is color of milk chocolate, about 5 minutes. Add onion, bell pepper, celery, bacon, and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.

Stir in 1 tablespoon Louisiana seasoning and cook until fragrant, about 1½ minutes. Transfer roux mixture to slow cooker.

Season pork with pepper and remaining 1 tablespoon Louisiana seasoning. Add pork, tomatoes, water, and Worcestershire to roux mixture in slow cooker and stir to combine. Cook until fork slips easily into and out of pork, 5 to 6 hours on high or 7 to 8 hours on low.

Skim excess fat from surface of grillades. Stir in Tabasco sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice, sprinkled with scallions, passing extra Tabasco sauce separately.