How to Make Instant Pot Pulled Pork (or slow cooker)

Pressure cooking pulled pork in less than an hour? Yes, indeed! The barbecue sauce is made “from scratch” in no time at all. The pork is incredibly tender, and is so easy to pull apart with two forks. You can definitely adapt this to a slow cooker, but it’ll take at least 8 hours to achieve what my Instant Pot can do in less than an hour!

If I had to pick a recipe that “my men” are always game to enjoy, “Pulled Pork” ranks right up there with my “Meatloaf” recipe and “Homemade Sloppy Joe’s (sorely in need of updated photos)”. Craig has barbecued/smoked genuine Smoked Pulled Pork on our Weber. It’s incredibly delicious, but it takes a few hours to achieve that beautiful pink smoke ring.

Since my son was driving down to join us on Easter Sunday I decided to make Grilled Leg of Lamb and all the side dishes. However, my son asked if I could make pulled pork for him to take home. What does a mom do when he asks so sweetly? Pressure Cooker to the rescue! SPOILER ALERT: This recipe was so easy to do that it didn’t cause chaos for me in the kitchen.

If you don’t own a pressure cooker, you can adapt this recipe to a slow cooker.

As luck would have it, I had a pork butt (aka pork shoulder) roast in the freezer. It wasn’t boneless, but removing it wasn’t difficult at all. The idea is that I’m going to cut up the meat into sections so that it can easily fit into my Instant Pot AND so that I can apply the rub all over.

The rub uses spices I always keep in my pantry: chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt & pepper and some brown sugar.

It took just a few minutes to make the rub, and coat each piece of pork, and I didn’t even break a sweat!

Liquid smoke is an ingredient you might not keep on hand (as I do). I find this ingredient to come in handy with several of my pressure cooker/slow cooker recipes. The barbecue sauce uses basic pantry ingredients: ketchup, cider vinegar, brown sugar and liquid smoke.

Here’s a little trick that I’ve learned about my pressure cooker: I made the sauce, first, before I prepared the rub. I turn my Instant Pot on the sear cycle, pour in the liquid and that allows it to come to temperature before I add the pork. Why in the world would I do this? The answer is, I’ve discovered, that once I lock on the lid and set the pressure cooker timer, the Instant Pot comes to pressure much faster! Make sense?

So, what if you don’t own an Instant Pot (or any kind of pressure cooker)? Get one! I get it. I’ve heard countless times that people are afraid that they’ll blow up. This is so not true!

ELECTRIC PRESSURE COOKERS, IN PARTICULAR, ARE DESIGNED THAT THEY WILL NOT “COME TO PRESSURE” UNLESS IT IS PROPERLY CLOSED AND SEALED. THEREFORE, THEY CANNOT BLOW UP! THEY ARE SAFE!

Once the sauce is made, the seasoned pork is nestled into the pot. I simply locked on the lid (making sure that my sealing ring was correctly positioned. Using the manual setting, I set it for 45 minutes. Unless you use my little trick of preheating my cooking liquid, it could take 15-20 minutes before the pressure cooker starts the cooking process. Either way, just sit back and relax. BEEP! It’s been about 55 minutes, and I used the QUICK PRESSURE RELEASE and then opened up the lid.

Oh yeah! Falling apart tender cooked pork!

I had to take a taste test. Eye roll. Buttery tender! Wow!

The final step is the sauce. I decided to strain the sauce, in case there were bits of pork in it. To finish the sauce, I added about 1/2 cup of brown sugar and allowed it to simmer for about 15 minutes. I wanted a thicker sauce, so I ladled out some sauce into a bowl, and thoroughly whisked a tablespoon of cornstarch (this is optional) and then return that to the pot. Perfect!

I added some of the sauce to the pork…

…and it was perfect! I made a secret plan to reserve a couple of portions for us to eat the next day, and packed up the remaining pulled pork for my son to take home.

The next day, I heated up the pulled pork and toasted some whole wheat buns. REWIND: On a visit to Texas, a few years ago, ours was served on white bread with a pickle on the side. Our preferred way to enjoy pulled pork is with coleslaw. NOTE: I have a recipe where I like to make the dressing in a jar so that I can make a small batch for one night, and then another batch a day or two later. (Recipe is here).

TASTING NOTES: As we dug in, I kept an eye to watch my husband’s reaction. He was quiet, at first. Then, we both agreed that this was really, really good! We both lamented that there wasn’t enough for seconds. Then again, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing? My husband adores pulled pork, and slow barbecuing with smoke is definitely our first choice. But, if you don’t have time, or the equipment to do that, this recipe will do just fine.

One more thing– when my husband took me to visit his birth home of Kansas City, Missouri he introduced me to “Burnt Ends“. Holy moly! I was smitten with them, and I longed for them. We have a recipe that comes close, and you can find that recipe here. However, there is nothing like Kansas City barbecue, in our biased opinion. Slow-cooked for hours, the burnt ends have a crunch exterior and have a smoky flavor that is out of this world. This summer, we’ll definitely be making those again.