After finding a huge, eight-pound pork butt on sale a few weeks ago, our first inclination was for Joey to throw it on his smoker, as he normally would.
Instead, we debated a bit back and forth about what kind of new recipe we could try, and it turned into what we deemed to be a “pork butt face off.” (Which doesn’t sound very nice, but when you’re creating a weird competition in your own kitchen, you can call it whatever you like.)
We each chose a recipe, and we went to the grocery store to get our ingredients.
Thanks to our love of hosting, we have two large crockpots, so we each claimed one and got to work.
We chose distinctly different dishes for our respective halves of the pork butt.
For mine, I decided I wanted something that was in the comfort food genre—something that was filling, belly-warming and made for great leftovers.
So I landed on a recipe from the blog “The Kitchen Magpie.” You can find the original post at https://fastandslowcooking.com/mushroom-gravy-slow-cooker-pork-butt. This was simple enough that I didn’t do much outside of swapping out the kind of mushrooms and onion the recipe called for.
Crockpot Mushroom Pork Butt
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 pounds pork butt roast
- 2 pounds large whole mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
- 1 large onion sliced (I used yellow)
- 2 cups vegetable broth or stock
- 21- gram packet mushroom gravy mix
- 21- gram packet pork gravy mix
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- mashed potatoes for serving
Instructions
- Add the pork butt to a crockpot, and place the mushrooms and onion on and around the meat.
- In a bowl or mixing cup, whisk the vegetable broth with the two gravy packets until it is well combined.
- Pour the mixture on and around the pork in the crockpot. Add salt and pepper, to taste. (Don’t forget that the gravy will likely have some built-in sodium, too.)
- Cook on low for eight to 10 hours or on high for four to five hours, until the pork butt is tender and easy to shred.
- When you’re ready to serve, transfer the pork to a separate plate or dish and cover to keep it warm, and then add all of the liquid from the crockpot to a saucepan. Heat it over medium-high heat.
- Whisk the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water, and slowly whisk it into the drippings in the pan.
- Once the gravy reaches your desired consistency, taste it and add more salt and pepper, if desired, and remove it from heat.
- Shred the pork and serve it with the mushrooms and onions over top of mashed potatoes and drenched in the gravy.
This recipe was exactly what I wanted to create. The mushrooms added a great, meaty flavor to the pork, and adding creamy mashed potatoes with a really flavorful gravy was absolutely perfect.
So, did I win the face-off?
Well, yes and no.
Joey and I both really, really liked this, but we both really, really liked his recipe, too. (Don’t worry; I’ll be sharing it with you later.)
I guess a tie, when it comes to homemade dinners, is a pretty great outcome, too.
This piece first appeared in print April 23, 2026.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
