“Huh-wha? Coffee rubbed pork?”
Yep, that’s what I said. I made a killer seasoning rub out of coffee (ground to a powder), brown sugar, cayenne, and the usual suspects (salt, pepper, garlic). Slow cooked pork is pretty much good anyway you fix it, but this rub adds just a touch of that deep, smokey, aromatic flavor that coffee has… plus a ‘lil sweetness from the brown sugar and a ‘lil kick from the cayenne. There really is just a hint of spicy from the cayenne that I think is necessary to balance the mellow coffee so I wouldn’t suggest skipping it this time.
I liked this so much that I actually made two of them this week. The first roast I bought was small and extra fatty so after I cooked it, there wasn’t much left. So, I went back to the store and bought a huge boston butt (or pork shoulder) and made another. And I’m so glad I did.
Pork shoulder or Boston butt is definitely the way to go for this roast. That cut has a decent amount of meat but still enough fat to keep it tender while it cooks. You can buy and cook it with the bone in if you’d like. My roast came bone in but it was about twice the size that I wanted. So, I cut half off and used it for this recipe and then froze the rest to make BBQ pulled pork on another day. You definitely get a discount if you buy the large roast as opposed to the smaller half size, so go ahead and buy it and freeze half. But please note, pork shoulder bones are a really crazy shape and unless you’re familiar, you might have a difficult time removing it.
Coffee Rubbed Pork Roast
Coffee Rubbed Pork Roast
Servings 6Ingredients
- 3.5 lbs. Boston Butt or Pork Shoulder ($5.84)
- 1 oz. approx 3 Tbsp coffee beans ($0.58)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar ($0.16)
- 1/2 Tbsp cayenne pepper ($0.15)
- 1/2 Tbsp salt ($0.10)
- 15-20 cranks cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 1 tsp minced garlic ($0.24)
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika ($0.05)
Instructions
- Grind the coffee beans into a powder. If using grinders in a grocery store or coffee house, choose the “espresso grind”. Combine the coffee grounds, brown sugar, cayenne, salt, black pepper, garlic, and smoked paprika in a bowl.
- Pat the mixed dry rub on all sides of the pork roast. It is okay if some falls. off. Place the pork roast in a slow cooker. Scoop up any of the rub that fell off and toss it in the slow cooker as well. Secure the lid, turn the heat on to low, and let cook for 8 hours.
- After 8 hours, the pork should be tender and should shred easily with a fork. Carefully lift the roast out of the slow cooker and transfer to a serving platter. Enjoy!
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Notes
Nutrition
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Step By Step Photos
First make the rub by combining all of the ingredients in a bowl: coffee (ground to a fine powder), brown sugar, cayenne, salt, cracked pepper, garlic, and smoked paprika.
Stir it up until it’s evenly mixed.
This is the pork roast that I bought. It was huge so I cut half off for this recipe and then I froze the second half (after removing the bone) for later use. You can cook it with the bone in if you’d like. The meat will be so tender after cooking that it should fall right off of the bone. If you’re leaving the bone in, cook it on high for the first hour to make sure the internal temperature reaches a safe zone quickly.
Pat the coffee rub all over the roast (even the underside). It should stick pretty well from the moisture in the meat. Some will fall off but you can just scoop that up and toss it into the slow cooker.
Place the pork roast in the slow cooker, secure the lid, and cook on low for 8 hours.
And then you have this. It looks black and scary, I know… but it’s totally delicious. Promise.
Carefully lift the roast out of the slow cooker and serve. It will be tender and delicate so lift carefully if you want it in one piece!
It was so tender and delicious….
If you want a higher flavor to meat ratio, you can cut the pork into large chunks before adding the rub. That way, more surface will be in contact with the seasoning. I kept mine in one piece mainly for the photographs.
This recipe can be made in the oven using a covered dish like a dutch oven, but heating an entire oven for 8 hours it much less energy efficient than heating a small slow cooker. The slow cooker is basically like a miniature oven!
I really want to try this recipe. I have a question about the cook time, I was also looking at the slow cooker pork recipe with the 3.5 lb Boston butt – this recipe calls for a 4 hour slow cooker and the coffee rubbed pork roast is an 8 hour cook time but they are essentially the same pork butt roast ? Can you clarify the difference? Thank you and I love your website and recipes, is there an app for iPhone? :-)
Hi! For pork butt like this you can usually do 3-4 hours on high, or about 8 hours on low. :) Unfortunately, we do not have a mobile app.
Just turned on the crock for a few hrs on high then to bed on low overnight. I ad lobbed: roast sitting on a bed of halved red potatoes unpeeled, 1/4 head each of green and red cabbage wedges, 1 thick sliced Granny Smith and same for sweeter Gala; cabbage and apples also dipped in rub; last a 1/3” slab of fat laid on top of roast for addl flavor plus remaining rub generously coved with lady of rub. YUM. If I’d had caraway seed they would have been incorporated also
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! My family loved it. The only alteration was the use of garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. Served it with rice and steamed broccoli. A great busy weeknight meal, and we look forward to leftovers. Might have to try it on slider buns with a little bbq sauce as well.
I’ve made this three times already, and the last time, I ended up making a double batch ~9 lbs. of pork. I brought it to a friends house for gameday and it was a huge hit. What I do is I buy a whole butt roast, debone it myself, and cut the pork into sandwich sizes. This gets the rub all over every side of the meat, and ensures thorough cooking. Some People in the comments didn’t love the taste, but I think that just a dab of BBQ sauce goes PERFECTLY with the pork. I took my sandwich size pieces, put them on Brioche rolls with some Coleslaw and BBQ sauce and they were loved!
could I use this rub on a beef rib roast?
Yes I think that would be delicious!
I was so excited to try this, between the photos and the reviews I was expecting a truly fantastic meal. I made it for dinner tonight and the pork came out perfectly tender and juicy. My husband and I enjoyed it but felt there was nothing to rave over. Honestly, I was expecting a lot more flavor from the rub and we found it kind of lackluster, there was nothing wrong with it just nothing all that special either. I will make this again in the future with a few tweaks since it was so easy and the meat really did come out nicely cooked, perhaps with some added heat I can get it to work more for our tastes. A good base recipe. I will be using our leftovers for tacos later in the week as another commenter suggested.
I kinda treat it like BBQ, and pretend the coffee grounds are char. I normally eat it with a dab of BBQ sauce on the plate to give it a bit more flavor, or I’ll make sandwiches with good rolls, coleslaw, and more bbq sauce.
Did you put a little water in your slow cooker?
Nope no need!
If anyone wants to adapt this for an instant pot, you can put calculate the time as 22 mins/lb. I put my 3lb roast on high pressure for 1h10m with one cup of water and it came out perfectly! Definitely do natural steam release.
The coffee is so so so good on pork, and after removing the roast I made rice with the leftover juice and it was amazing. <3 Thank you!!
I was so looking for the times on the instant pot so I could do this a bit quicker thank you!!
I was thinking about adding a little taco seasoning to flavor it up some more
Is there an option for cooking this in a Dutch oven?
It probably can be done, but I haven’t done it myself, so unfortunately I can’t offer specific directions. You might try Googling “slow cooker Dutch oven conversion” to see if there are general guidelines for converting slow cooker recipes to a Dutch oven.
This was an easy-to-make hit. Overall we really liked the flavor, but it was a bit too bitter. I’d probably do a little less coffee next time, or maybe try a lighter roast (we used Peet’s French roast which is no joke). The flavor reminded us a lot of a smokey molé, so I‘m going to try making tacos with the leftovers.
Love that french roast! Thanks Brian!
WOW it was very delicious and I’ll definitely be using it in the future!! Thank you Beth!!
Honey… I just finished eating this using a beef roast and… Oh My… this was so good. I was skeptical about it but this must be put in the rotation. I even made a gravy from the broth that was sopped up with mashed potatoes and biscuits. I used a dark roast sumatra coffee.
Is there an advantage to using freshly-ground coffee as opposed to store-bought grounds?
Freshly ground tend to have more oils, whereas store bought are often dried out. The oil provides a great deal of the flavor.
Freshly ground may definitely be better, but it’s still amazing with pre ground coffee.
The smell while cooking was mouth-watering! I altered the recipe only a pinch. I was a little shy on the brown sugar, which was probably fine but decided to rub honey on the roast and then apply the rub. It was delicious! I’m happy we had two meals worth of leftovers (for two). I definitely recommend trying it!
I am an big coffee drinker amd when i seen this my husband and i said ues we have to try this so we made it for dinner tonight and did everything it said and even added potatoes to it as a twist. It smelled great all day my house smelled amazing but it tasetd nasty im not sure what it was but this isnt a recipe we will be doing again. We tried it and did everything right as the recipe said so im not sure what went wrong or if it did but my kids refused to eat it and they love pork roasts fron the crock pot they even said all day mom i cant wait till dinner is done.
“…did everything it said and even added potatoes to it as a twist.” “…did everything right as the recipe said…” may be try it again, but don’t actually alter the recipe and keep the potato out.
I was somewhat skeptical when I read this recipe. Even as it cooked, I could smell the coffee but the end product was delicious.
have you tried using leftover coffee ground (after brewing coffee to drink, you’ve leftover ground) instead of fresh ground that have not been brew for this recipe?
I have not, unfortunately.
After convincing the kids that it wasn’t covered in pepper they gave it a try and then devoured it! This was so yummy! I’m full but I can’t stop picking at it.
This was very yummy! We ate it plain and with bbq sauce and bith were good. Next up is using the leftovers for fried rice!
Could I possibly use a pork tenderloin?
Yes, although you probably won’t need quite as much rub and it might cook faster because it’s so much smaller. I think tenderloins are much more lean, too, which means that it won’t be quite as tender and juicy once cooked. Leaner meats are usually a little better for fast cooking methods.
Popped in to say that this dry rub works just as nicely with a roast – pork loin was on sale buy one get one free so I picked some up but had no clue what to do with it as it’s usually butt or bust for me with the price of meat around here. Didn’t want to slow cook it since it’s so lean so I went ahead and brined it in a salt/brown sugar solution all day then roasted in the oven covered in your dry rub. Was delicious, served up with some collard greens and bacon (well let’s face it, more bacon than collard greens). Thanks for the inspiration!
Beth, Could I cook two big pork butts, 10 lb each, in a roaster? If so at what temperature and for how long? I am wanting to cook for a large crowd. I love this recipe!
Hi Reva, I’ve never actually cooked a roast that big, so I’m not sure what the best time and temperature would be. I think you should definitely have a meat thermometer handy for the job and maybe Google it ahead of time to see if anyone else out there has any time and temperature recommendations.
Yum yum yum! Your recipes are hoodwinking my friends and family into believing I’m an excellent cook. I made this with your delicious corn pudding and some wilted silverbeet (collard greens aren’t easy to find in Australia) and am so overwhelmed by how delicious it is. Thank you Beth!
After having pinned this ages ago (and been re-pinned by everyone else it seems), I finally made this last night. The amount of pork I stuffed into my face was, well, suffice to say it certainly wasn’t ladylike. LOL My husband declared it amazing, and I even brought the whole slow cooker full of shredded pork to the neighbors to share. Now I’m just plotting how long to wait before I make it again.
This recipe looks interesting, and I might try it. But what’s really interesting is that I was just clicking around the internet…someone posted some list article on FB about coffee grounds, and this page was linked there. I clicked on it and thought, woah, I know this girl. That’s Jenni’s friend. She showed me your Budget Bytes blog several years ago. I always thought you did such a great job with it. Small world (wide web)?
Definitely! Hi Sheeny! I don’t think I’ve met you in person, but I see your name all the time through Jenni’s posts. :) Maybe at her wedding!
Looks so delicious! Can you do 4 hours on high instead of 8 on low?
You should be able to, yes. If it’s not fork tender after 4 hours, one more hour should do it.
Hi Beth … I love your BLOG! I’ve made several recipes over the past two weeks (Tandoori Chicken, Naan bread, Quesadilla’s, Oatmeal Banana Bread) .. all rave reviews from the family. Thank you so much! I’m making this pork shoulder tonight for dinner (can’t wait) .. was wondering in the photo what you are serving as side dishes? I always struggle with side dishes.
That’s the Corn and Cheddar Pudding and just some collard greens (those can be made without a ham hock if needed). :)
As nearly as I can tell, you slow-cooked this without any added liquid. I’ve never cooked any meat in a slow cooker without added liquid. Am I correct? Or did you add some water to the pot?
Correct, no liquid. I’ve always heard that you need liquid as well, but this seemed to work just fine. I can’t guarantee that all slow cookers will work the same, though. I think the reason they advise against cooking without liquid is that it can lead to uneven heating and may crack the porcelain in some poorer quality cookers.
I should have figured given the fact that pork needs to cook slowly to remain tender but you might want to change the cook time up top from 8 mins to 8 hours. It might throw some people off when they’re trying to make a quick dinner and get to the bottom and see they need 8 hours in a slow cooker
Woah, thanks for catching that! That typo has been up there for a long time! Fixing now, thanks. :)
Hi Beth!
I’ve made this a few times and it’s amazing!
My local stores only seem to have pork shoulder with the skin on and I’ve always removed it. Do you recommend leaving the skin on for any reason?
Thanks!
Oh wow, I don’t think I’ve even ever seen it sold with the skin on! It might help keep moisture in for some cooking methods, but for a slow cooker that’s not much of an issue.
This was delicious! Thank you.
Beth,
If I’m doing a 7 pound butt would you expect the timing too be longer than 8 hours? If so, what would you say the timeframe would be? Also cook on high the first hour with bone in correct?
I’ve never cooked one that large, but I would do at least the first hour or two on high to make sure the internal temp rises fast enough. Check it after 8 hours to see if it’s “fall apart” tender, and if not, let it go a couple hours longer.
I was really excited to make this, but my boyfriend doesn’t like pork. Is there another meat you’d recommend? Beef/a certain cut of beef? Thanks.
Hmmm, you could probably do the same thing with a beef roast. I haven’t cooked too many beef roasts, though, so I think I would ask the butcher which is best for the slow cooker (usually it’s a tougher, higher fat cut that is good for slow cooking).
Can I make this recipe if my pork is frozen or do I need to thaw it first?
You definitely want to thaw it first.
OMG! I made this for pulled pork sandwiches, ate it on the super thin burger buns you can get at Superstore (which i’m not sure what it is called in the states, maybe Loblaws?) with some sriracha mayo from your teriyaki salmon recipe and melted cheese, amazing! so freaking good, I’m so glad I found this website :D
Ooops, I somehow forgot the the brown sugar and it’s in the middle of cooking now. I’m sure that will affect the crust; crossing my fingers it still tastes ok.
Did you ever try freezing it? I wonder how it would hold up.
This is my new favorite recipe….. plus after a long day of work it was so nice to come home to the house smelling like coffee and pork!
I have made this three times in the past month and I can vouch that it’s excellent, easy, and doesn’t make a mess with a bunch of dishes to clean up in the kitchen! Thanks for the recipe.
I made this for dinner today and it was great! I added some potato halves, carrots, and a bit of an onion and it turned out really well. I used pork shoulder and it was perfect! My boyfriend and I were very happy! :) Leftovers are going to be his lunch and pork fried rice, yummy!
I am making this for dinner!
Just made this for the week and LOVE it! Thank you so much for your blog. I love the price breakdowns, the pictures, and most of all the food! Even if I didn’t get as good a price on my pork I know I am still saving money by cooking at home – and eating better in the process.
Made this recipe with chicken breast and it was amazing. Yum!
My sister (whom I introduced to this blog) told me to try this recipe. Problems: I hate coffee and my family does not eat pork. BUT I trust her food judgement so I altered this recipe to make a smaller amount, rubbed it onto two New York strip steaks and grilled.
Holy best steaks I’ve ever made, Batman! My children (2 and 6) wanted seconds (which means that in their land, this recipe ranks right up there with Kraft mac-n-cheese, scrambled eggs, and chicken nuggets)
Thanks for sharing. I will be making this again. I’ll probably even try it on a beef roast!
I made this this week and it was delicious! I didn’t use enough spice so it was quite sweet, but still amazing. It tasted a lot like the Chinese hong shao pork. Definitely going on the list of things to cook again.
What to you guys think of trying this with a whole chicken? Any thoughts? I have a fiend who does not like pork, but will eat chicken.
Finally got around to making this over the weekend! Best Pork Roast Ever and super easy. It was also the first time I brined it, so that could have a lot to do with it.
Thanks!
This was dinner tonight and it was amazing! Thank you!
I inadvertently used twice the spices because of an un-marked measuring spoon, but it was great. The meat was tender and juicy, the rub giving it a special flavor. I used barbecue sauce on the meat and it worked great with the rub flavoring. Great recipe!
I am so fascinated by this recipe! Delicious!
I’ve been using the leftovers of this in hash for the last several days – saute onions, diced potato, bell pepper in a big pan, pull apart chunks of meat and throw them into the pan once the veggies have started to get tender. Throw in some of the leftover sauce, as well. Cook until tender. Devour.
The roast itself was fantastic, though I ended up cooking it in the oven because I didn’t quite have enough time to do it in the crockpot. Next time I might use the pressure cooker, because again – time.
Looks great! So original. I would have never thought to use coffee with pork. I’ll have to try this in the oven as I don’t have a slowcooker. Thanks
Ma’am, are you aware that you are my savior? I am a college student on a tight budget and have been following your recipes religiously. I recently was able to get a 7 pound Boston butt for $12, and I have more pork than a know what to do with. I have a feeling that experimenting with pork roasts may be something I do a lot more of in the future. This will be the next on the list (I tried your pulled pork one last. INCREDIBLE).
That being said, would you be able to throw in a recipe every so often that, like the pork roast, is very easy to eat on for about a week and can be varied in many different ways? You probably have a lot more on here that I haven’t noticed, but here we are.
Thanks again. If you put these recipes into a book, I will buy them in a heartbeat as a thanks. Keep up the delicious work!
Made a couple nights ago, but just used regular coffee. Super tasty! Thanks!
That does it, I really need to get a slow cooker! I CAN’T WAIT to try this. As a college student, I just love Budget Bytes! Literally the last 5 meals I’ve made have been right from this blog. Thanks x1000000!!
This is the first recipe I’ve ever tried in a crockpot and it was so easy! I got so much tender meat from one $7 pork roast, and will be making soft tacos for days : )
This recipe sounds so interesting! I’ll be making this for sure!
Jessica – I actually didn’t put any liquid in. As long as your piece of meat is not too thick and your slow cooker has a ceramic bowl, I think it conducts and maintains enough heat to keep it safe and to cook it all the way through. Mine sure did! :)
Lora – I served it with the corn pudding (the last blog post before this one) and some simple collard greens. It’s been a fantastic meal all week!
This has absolutely nothing to do with pork, but I was making beef stew the other day, and used part of a fresh french press I’d just made to deglaze my stockpot!
It was so awesome!
Looks wonderful! What did you serve with?
I’ve been really wanting to try a coffee rub so I’m so glad you posted this. Did you put any liquid in the crockpot at all, or just the roast?