Instant Pot Shredded Pork

Amber | Friday, March 20, 2020

this is one of my go-to ways to cook shredded pork to use in carnitas, bbq, whatever when i don't want to think about things. I think I have the smallest size IP so this much capacity is kiiind of pushing it but it's fine, i cleaned all the gaskets after.

method:

• get a pork shoulder (mine was like 3+ lbs), cut it into big cubes
• trim off some of the biggest pieces of fat
• season with salt + pepper + whatever you're feeling
• a few pieces at a time, brown the pork on all sides
• I usually use the sautee function on the IP but tbh my pot is too small and it kind of doesn't work well and i just give up, but I should prob try doing this in a pan sometime first.
• add all your meat to the IP
• add 1 cup of some kind of liquid
• I used brother for this and tbh the pork let off so much liquid I think I could've used less? but i think the ~manufacturer wants you to use at least 1 cup, up to the max fill line.
• when i made carnitas I think i added salsa or tomatoes or something to the liquid so it has some flavor
• seal up your pressure pal and turn on the pressure cook function for 40 minutes (it'll take like 20 minutes to get to pressure so. it takes a while.)
• natural release 10+ minutes, release the rest of the pressure
• use a slotted spoon to get your meat into a bowl or dump trough a strainer
• use some forks to shred it up; it should prettymuch fall apart
• do whatever you want with it

for this, i cooked it in some bbq sauce and made cornbread (jiffy) with some leftover diced jalapeno and honey butter. found some green beans in the back of the freezer. quarantine, baby.

we also used this pork for a sorta shepards pie situation, which was...surprisingly good.