Crock Pot Korean Gochujang Pork
Crock Pot Korean Gochujang Pork is crazy tender and slightly sweet, smoky, and a little spicy. It's a super easy dinner recipe that can be served as a main, or on pizza, noodles, tacos, and more. You will LOVE it!
Crock Pot Korean Gochujang Pork. Ya, that. What I just said. You need this on your plate/ in your life/ in your mouth. Like, right now.
Also, what does that even mean? Can you picture it?
- Pork → tastiest meat ever. Hello, bacon!
- Crockpot → slow-cooked until that tastiest meat ever pulls apart into delicious, tender morsels.
- Korean gochujang → sweet, smoky, spicy Korean chili paste. my year-long obsession.
You know that I'm not one to declare my love and gush over every delicious meal like some borderline food obsessed … juuuuuust, joking!? That's totally me, and I'm afraid that this gochujang pork situation going on here isn't going to be any different.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
If you haven't yet met Gochujang, let me introduce you. He's spicy, a little sweet, and total umami flavor. Think miso, but spicy and so much tastier.
It's delicious on meat – roasted, grilled, or slow-cooked. I'm still crushing over these Korean Paleo Chicken Thighs.
But you don't need to stop at meat. Rub some on your potatoes before they go in the oven, whisk some into your scrambled eggs, make a stir-fry sauce, coat your veggies, spread it on pizza, (recipe coming soon! Here's the Gochujang Pulled Pork Korean Pizza recipe!), or mix some with your mayo for a spicy sandwich.
I guarantee you're going to fall in love with gochujang pork.
Easily fall in love with this gochujang pork.
It's super simple to make. As in 4 easy steps and you'll be in food heaven.
- Nestle everything into your crockpot.
- Shred the pork.
- Reduce the sauce.
- Mix and eat!
You can either serve this spicy, sweet, smoky, and super tender deliciousness by itself with some rice or potatoes and a salad and call it dinner (um, yes please!), or you can get all creative crazy and Korean-ize your latest obsession.
If being creative feels like too much work, don't fret, I've got lots of recipes coming up that will use this gochujang pork.
BTW: this recipe freezes very well. Simply cook, cool, then freeze in single-serving sizes.
And, once you tire of eating this gochujang pork (umm, like never), you should try these Grilled Gochujang Pork Chops with Mint Watermelon Salad.
Easy Crock Pot Recipes:
- Chocolate Guinness Crock Pot Beef Stew
- Crock Pot Tuscan Chicken Soup with Prosciutto and Parmesan
- Smoky BBQ Crock Pot Chicken Chili
- Mexican Crock Pot Pork Carnitas
- Crock Pot Sticky Paleo Ribs with Chocolate BBQ Sauce
Crock Pot Korean Gochujang Pork
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 5 lb pork shoulder or butt
- ⅓ cup gochujang, Use gluten-free gochujang, or homemade paleo gochujang, if needed
- ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce, Gluten-free, if needed. Coco aminos for paleo
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ cup chicken stock
Instructions
- Nestle the pork shoulder or butt into your crockpot. Whisk the gochujang, soy sauce, honey and chicken stock in a medium sized bowl and pour over the pork. Set your crock pot to low for 8-10 hours.5 lb pork shoulder or butt, ⅓ cup gochujang, ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce, ¼ cup honey, ½ cup chicken stock
- Remove the pork from the crock pot and place it in a large bowl. Pour the juice that is in the crock pot into a medium sized pot and bring it to a boil on the highest heat level. Let it boil hard until it reduces to about 2 cups, 15-20 minutes.
- While the sauce is reducing, shred the pork using 2 forks. Pull it across the grain so that you can long strands rather than short chunks. When the sauce is finished, pour it over the pulled pork and gently toss so that everything is well coated.
Hi, this recipe is amazing! The pork turned out very tender, smokey and delicious. I have some leftovers and want to serve it in steamed buns. Which vegetables would you recommend to pair it with? Thanks for a great recipe! 🙂
I like this with Asian-style vegetables like our garlic snap peas.
This recipe sounds lovely. However, I’m European. Any chance the meisurement in cups can be given in grams too? Don’t want to mess things up 😄 Thanks!
Sorry but we don’t have weights at this time.
So easy. So delicious. Have done it just before Christmas for the family. Minimal effort and so versatile.
Absolutely perfect meal !!!! This is now my husbands favorite. I had to use an 8 pound shoulder so I doubled everything and it was fabulous… thank you so much for sharing this treasure of a recipe
I used an 8lb bone in pork butt (I’m not actually sure as one label said butt and the other said shoulder, but I think the bone was a shoulder blade). I read the comments and wanted to instant pot it to save on time and electricity, so based on other instant pot recipes I read, I instant potted it for 1 hour 55 minutes. My instant pot got to pressure and then warned me it was burning— I opened it and there was enough liquid and realized the large piece of meat didn’t have any of the liquid underneath it so I lifted it and let the liquid flow under. Solved the problem. I love the sauce but it was a bit too spicy for me so good thing the meat takes in a lot of the flavor but not the spicyness. I jarred the sauce as an option on the side. Overall, it was super delicious and easy to make. I’ll add less gochuragang next time.
I must’ve done something wrong bc there was barely any liquid in the pot after cooking. The recipe says to cook the sauce down to two cups. I don’t even HAVE two cups to cook down.
I always find that the pork releases a lot of liquid as it cooks. Sounds like you get to skip the step of reducing the sauce!
I just someone’s post regarding cooking it on high; I did and it is perfect in five hours.
I made this for my husband today and he loves it. Today he is having over rice, tomorrow is pork sliders with kimchi or Korean slaw, and Tuesday will be tacos with pineapple salsa.
This looks awesome. I’m making this in a couple of days for 12 people and we’re going to do them as sliders. I was planning on doing it in two croc pots. Any recommendation for how to increase the recipe, i.e.: how much pork shoulder should I buy? Also, would you recommend making extra sauce or do you think the reduced “juices” will be sufficient.
If you’re planning on using 2 slow cookers, I would recommend simply doubling the recipe. And if you don’t end up with leftovers, it freezes very well. 🙂
This recipe has made its way into a monthly (if not more frequent) routine for me. The only reason I come back to the site at this point is to salivate at the pictures while my slow cooker does its job.
Oh I love it! That’s so great to hear!
I absolutely love this receipe!! I make it all the time. I’d love to cook it for a party this weekend but was curious if I could cook this on high for 5 hours if that would work?
I haven’t tried it but I suspect that it would work. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turned out!
Is the nutritional info provided for all 12 servings? I’m trying to calculate how many WW points this recipe will be. This looks so yummy and I’m hoping to try out your recipe. Thanks!
I’ve just updated the nutritional information to make it more clear. It is for 1/12 of the recipe or approximately 3 ounces of meat.
LOVE THIS RECIPE! I just made this using an instant pot in place of a crock pot. Only change was 1hr vs. 8hr cook time. Came out perfect, thank you so much for a flavorful recipe. I’d been searching and searching for a pork shoulder recipe that wasnt basic bbq pulled pork or pot roast. This is it! Served with a chopped cabbage salad w/honey ginger dressing and kimchee.
I recently got an Instant Pot so will have to try this recipe with that. I like the idea of being able to make it in only an hour!
I’m thinking this wants cabbage as a go-with, but probably not the cole slaw that we usually make with pork shoulder (North Carolina style). Doesn’t seem like that would be the right flavor profile. What do you recommend?
I think something like this carrot salad (only adding some cabbage) would be great. https://www.theendlessmeal.com/asian-salad-recipe/
I making this for the second time , but instead of soy using coco aminos and a tbs of lemongrass.. l have tried pork roast in the instant p** but it was rather rubbery . Ill stick with Mr Crock and enjoy the smell all day long this Sunday :)> .
Great recipe ,was a hit at church wednesday night too !
Thanks for letting us know about the Instant Pot results! I was actually thinking of trying it in mine but will stick to my crock pot. 🙂
i’d love to try this recipe
Have you ever done this in an Instant Pot? If so how long you!d you recommend?
I haven’t but I suspect it would work just fine. I’d recommend looking for an Instant Pot pork recipe and using the timing on that one and the sauce from this one. 🙂
Hi! Just curious about freezing this. I’ve never really saved leftovers by freezing them and would like to start doing it to reduce food waste. What are your suggestions for how long this could stay in the freezer and how do you usually thaw/prepare it after being frozen?
I freeze it in Ziplock freezer bags in portions that I would use for dinner then thaw it overnight in the fridge. If I’m in a hurry I’ll thaw it in a bowl of cold water – it makes it pretty quick but you do run the risk of water getting in the bag. If you have a microwave you could use that instead. From a food safety perspective, it will last nearly forever in your freezer, but the quality will decrease with time. Try to eat it within 3 months so it will taste the best. 🙂
I made this and it was amazing! I used some of the leftover sauce in my coleslaw and that made it 10x better! I had some leftover so I froze it and when I pulled it out later just as delicious!
I’m so happy you like the recipe!!
Love it, served on rolls with lime, ginger coleslaw
Such a great call on the buns and coleslaw!
We made this in a Dutch oven and roasted it for four hours at 325 deg F, a good substitute for the low slow cooker and it makes a more concentrated sauce. We added 6 cloves of minced garlic to the sauce before cooking, totally shocked none was called for in the recipe. We liked it but did not love this dish. It needs some acid to brighten it – we added rice wine vinegar after cooking which helped but it was still missing some punch. My recommendation would be to double the gochujang, add 6 to 8 cloves minced garlic, 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar and some black pepper, maybe some crushed red orpper as well.
Thank you for sharing your suggestions!
Love your site and recipes. Made this yesterday and it is really good.
I’m so happy you like the recipe! Hooray!!
Could I use a pork loin roast?
I wouldn’t use pork loin in this recipe as it’s too lean. You want a tough and fatty cut for anything crock pot or braising. If you’re wanting the flavors but have a loin on hand, you could try making a rub with the gochujang and then slow roasting it. It won’t turn out like pulled pork, but it would still be delicious.
Should this be on low medium or high heat?
You’ll want to set it on low heat for 8-10 hours. 🙂
Kristen – I cooked this yesterday and everyone was bowled over. My husband loved it, our friends loved it. Husband is enjoying the leftovers today…and will tomorrow…. 🙂
I liked it because it wasn’t sweet – we also piled on some more chilies after serving as we like it extra spicy – the Korean chili flakes are good for sprinkling over the top.
This will be part of my repertoire from now on.
I’m so happy to hear you like the recipe! It’s one of my favs, too. 🙂
This is by far my new favorite slow cooker pulled pork recipe. Thank you for introducing this new ingredient to me!
Isn’t gochujang the best?! Lately I’ve been basting roasted veggies in it. So delicous!
I love your blog and your enthusiasm but this pork dish? well….I think I just wasted five pounds of pork. blech
Oh no! I wonder what went wrong. Have you tried gochujang before? Maybe it’s a flavor you’re fond of??