Slow roast pork that’s caramelised on the outside, ultra tender on the inside, with syrupy sweet-savoury-buttery juices. You could totally make this using a whole roast, but using large pieces means more surface area = more golden sticky caramelised goodness!
This is an ideal recipe for pork neck / collar butt – also known as pork scotch roast. Brilliant pork cut for both fast and slow cooking!
Slow roast pork recipe
As I was thinking what to say about this recipe, a feeling of deja vu swept over me. I freaked out, wondering if I had already published it….
And then it suddenly dawned on me. This recipe is almost like the baked non-Asian version of Vietnamese Coconut Caramelised Pork!
The same sweet-savoury flavour with incredible caramelised surfaces, but this doesn’t have the Vietnamese flavours.
Also, this Roast Pork is also a bit more hands off because it’s roasted, rather than cooked on the stove. No stirring, just pop it in the oven and set the timer.
“This roast pork is slow roasted so the flesh becomes tender and the outside is caramelised. By using smaller pieces, we keep the roasting time under 2 hours!”
Best pork for caramelised pork roast
Ultra tender insides and golden caramelised outsides calls for a slow cooking cut of pork and for this one, I use pork shoulder aka pork butt.
It also works brilliantly with pork scotch roast aka pork neck / collar butt. It’s a brilliant pork cut widely available in Australia that’s suited to both fast and slow cooking. I throw pork scotch fillet steaks on the barbie, and I slow cook it for things like this pork roast and Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siu). Here’s a photo of this Brown Sugar Garlic Butter Pork Roast made with scotch fillet roast cut in half lengthwise (see note 1 of recipe)
That brown sugar braising sauce!
Four ingredients – brown sugar, butter, vinegar (to balance out the sweet) and garlic, plus salt & pepper. Simmer to dissolve the sugar, then pour it all over the pork.
Pop it in the oven and out comes this:
THIS being the most incredible deeply golden, caramelised crust enclosed around juicy, tender pork, sitting in a buttery syrup that you want to drown the pork in.
Sweet? Yes. If you don’t like sweet-savoury foods, this recipe isn’t for you.
And it needs to be paired with the right protein. Sweet works brilliantly with pork. But this recipe would probably be too sweet for chicken. For beef, I think it would need a kick of something else to work with the strong beefy flavours, perhaps a good hit of cracked pepper.
I’m rambling. I’ll stop. Recipe time! – Nagi x
PS Pictured in the top photo with this Everyday Cabbage Salad peeking out of the corner. Extra recipe for today, goes great with this pork!!
More pork roast recipes to try!
-
Pork Carnitas – Mexican Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
-
Char Siu – Chinese BBQ Pork
-
Cuban Mojo Roast Pork (from the Chef Movie!)
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Brown Sugar Garlic Butter Pork Roast
Ingredients
- 1.75 - 2kg / 3.5 - 4lb pork shoulder / butt , cut into 8 equal pieces (Note 1)
- 1 tsp each salt and pepper
Sauce:
- 100 g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup / 80g brown sugar , loosely packed
- 1/4 cup / 65 ml cider vinegar (white wine or red wine vinegar also fine)
- 4 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160C/320F (standard) or 140C/290F (fan).
- Place Sauce ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Once better has melted, stir to combine then leave for 1 - 2 minutes until sugar is melted. Remove from heat.
- Sprinkle pork pieces all over with salt and pepper.
- Line pan with foil then parchment / baking paper, place pork in pan.
- Pour Sauce all over pork. Cover with foil. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven, remove foil. Turn pork. Return to oven uncovered for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Turn pork, spoon pan juices over. Return to oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until pork is golden and sauce has reduced to a thin syrup (thickens more when it cools).
- Stand for 5 minutes, then turn pork to coat in sauce. Serve pork with syrupy pan sauce. Pictured in post with this Everyday Cabbage Salad.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Next Hollywood blockbuster – The Great Toy Heist.
I make this very frequently now. The only difference is that I add a splash of soy sauce. So good!
Not sue what I did wrong. This was my first RTI ‘failure’. Followed the recipe exactly and ended up with tough pork in a watery sauce.
So… I had a scoth fillet, just under 1.5kg, so I only cut it in half and reduced all times, but ended up reducing the syrup in the oven while resting the meat. I could have eaten that sauce by the spoonful!
I would probably try to use pork shoulder next time, and I wonder if Nagi uses dark brown sugar…
Don’t be afraid to give it another go!
Hi Kate, I’m planning to make it tomorrow, with pork scotch fillet, which I’ve always cooked in an hour at most and with good results, so I’m very curious about which cut of pork you used, if you still remember!
Hi AE, I’m pretty certain I used the pork scotch fillet, I followed the recipe exactly, it tasted lovely but was super chewy. Hope you have better luck than me!
Very tasty even though we only just threw the shredded meat on buns/barm cakes or what ever they are called, too many names over soft rounded bread 🙂 very filling and our 9 year old daughter missed out big time, been out trick or treating and stuffed out of her face with sweets, well, more for the rest of us 🙂 Thank you and happy Halloween x
Hi Nagy – delicious recipe! Pork was tender and we served it with the no mayo coleslaw. One thing – I used a scotch fillet and the sauce didn’t really thicken. A lot of moisture came out of the meat so we had to decant it into a saucepan and thicken it on the hob with some cornflour.
Hi Nagi,
I silent Filipino fan here! Just wondering if this recipe can be done in an air fryer?
I haven’t tried that yet, sorry Sarah! N x
Hi Nagi, I wanted to make this and ordered a pork slow cook scotch roast from coles, but they substituted it for a ‘pork mini leg roast boneless’ which is approx 1.1kg. Could I use that for this recipe
Sorry I wasn’t meant to click the stars for the review!
Love your site, it’s my go-to for most everything. Question – I’d like to do a variation of pork shoulder slow roast with a local sweet chili ginger sauce – what is your final Temp?? Thanks, Dan
Making this for the first time, and my entire house smells AMAZING!!! My husband even came out of his office (works from home and usually glued to his seat) just to see what I was cooking! Making a double recipe to feed our three growing boys, and I know they are going to LOVE it! This is my first time using a recipe of yours and I’m adding the everyday cabbage salad as suggested. Can’t wait! Thank you Nagi!!!
That sounds like the BEST dinner!! Wish I was eating at yours!! N x
It was both delectable and scrumptious!!! NO LEFTOVERS!!! The only thing left after dinner was my husband and our three boys, RAVING about dinner! They don’t even like coleslaw, but they couldn’t stop eating the pork and cabbage salad!!! Thank you for helping me provide a home cooked meal for my family to enjoy. I mist say, it’s served best with a large helping of quality family time ❤️
No caramelization. I followed the recipe to the dot.
too much liquid.
I love this recipe. Been making it for years and years except I do onions not garlic . As far as too much liquid. I put all ingredients in a skillet. Bring to a boil and saute for about 10minutes or more. Reduces liquid and makes a sort of caramel sauce already so when you dump it over pork it really sticks to it. Bake an 1hr covered then the rest as instructed. Caramelizes ever time
I love this recipe. Been making it for years and years except I do onions not garlic . As far as too much liquid. I put all ingredients in a skillet. Bring to a boil and saute for about 10minutes or more. Reduces liquid and makes a dirt of caramel sauce already so I ce you dump it over pork it really sticks to it. Bake an 1hr covered then the rest as instructed. Caramelizes ever time
Just wondering how best to cook a 1kg piece of scotch? Should I just do exact times as per recipe but not cut the piece in half?
I have tried this recipe before and ended up with the tough meat, no caramelisation situation, but as its the ONLY recipe that hasnt worked first time on your site, I’d like to try again!! Any suggestions?
I made this and the pork was delicious but like the others my sauce did not caramelize for some reason. I placed the roasting pan under the broiler for about 10 min too. I think it might have needed more brown sugar and less vinegar. I will def make again, though.
Hi Olivia – Did you cut the pork in 8 pieces last time as per the recipe? N x
Hi Nagi, thanks for your reply! Yep I did cut it last time… dunno what I did wrong haha.
This time I left a 1kg scotch whole (coz u said chop a bigger piece in half), made half sauce qty accordingly, and cooked exactly per recipe, and it was absolutely perfect…. probably the tenderest pork Ive had apart from your carnitas :)…. and delicious flavour, I think I did the happy dance. I was keen to try again coz I’ve never had a recipe of yours fail yet….. thanks so much for all you do!!
Hi! Just finished dinner. Was very yummy! I added sliced charlotts (onions). They were very yummy. As side dish we had some mashed pumpkin/potatoes.
Thank you for your website!!!
Love from Germany
Maria
I forgot to add – I actually really blasted it in the oven @220°c to get a some lovely caramelisation happening.
Hey Nagi, I made this one yesterday and followed your slow cooker suggestion – perfect and delicious! 6hrs on low and then I removed the pork and reduced the sauce for 10mins, poured over the pork and baked for about 20mins to finish. Thank you!
I love every recipe I’ve tried here but this one didn’t work well for me. Flavour was nice but i had trouble with the sauce caramelising. I measured everything correctly, cut the meat in portions (7). After the 1st stage of cooking sauce was very watery, then didn’t improve after taking cover off.
I have the exast same issue! There seems to be too much liquid. I had to turn the temperature WAY up (much higher than the recipe) to get any reduction at all.
Hi Nagi! I love your blog and have tried a bunch of recipes … but i did something wrong here. My roast pork didn’t end up with a glaze but was soupy and anemic. I used a large pork collar which i cut up into 8 pieces. But perhaps too much butter? Everything else of yours I make looks like the pictures … but this time it was nothing like the video or pictures! What did i do wrong?
Hi Su, sorry you had issues here – sounds like your sauce didn’t reduce or caramelise – did you measure everything correctly? Did you cook with the cover off as well so the sauce can caramelise? N x
Thanks Nagi! Yes that’s right. It didn’t caramelize.
I had a 2.2kg collar and cut it up and cooked it covered for the first part (1+h) and then uncovered after (~40 min).
I know I had too much butter (maybe 20% excess).
There seemed to be a lot of sauce and the pork also released a lot of liquid which made it soupy.
I ended up taking it out and reducing the sauce on the stove so it became a (thin) gravy.
I’d like to try it again …
1) Should I increase the temperature and cook it for less time (is 160C for ~2h total too long and too low so it is more like braising than roasting?) I’m worried it will overcook and be tough …
2) Should I use less butter? Perhaps 2/3 the recipe?
Hi Nagi, I love this recipe as well as all your other recipes I’ve tried. They are all super PERFECT!!! I’M going to make this tomorrow. Can’t wait…
Oh, and FYI, Dozer is my all-time favorite Star!!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart (or belly…? haahaa)
Nany
Hi Nagi! I tried to make this yesterday and it didn’t caramelize at all. There was too much sauce so it was oily. And the pork had no crust at all and was just swimming in a thin sauce. I was concerned that 160C would be too low a temperature to caramelize and I think it was. My pork was also too chewy/tough and I think ended up a bit over cooked (internal temp was on the high side when I took it out). What did I do wrong?