Easy Pulled Pork Recipe made in the Instant Pot or pressure cooker with only 5 ingredients. The pork shoulder is cooked in a smoky bbq sauce and comes out tender and juicy — just like our broiled pork chops. You may serve it over mashed potatoes, as a topping for nachos, or to make a pulled pork sandwich. The recipe is from my book, The Complete 5-Ingredient Cookbook.
Wouldn’t you love to make pulled pork at home? Well, with this Easy Pressure Cooker Pulled Pork Recipe you can do just that!
By using your pressure cooker or Instant Pot you can get all the flavor of slow-cooked pulled pork in just a fraction of the time you might normally spend.
This pressure cooker pork shoulder recipe makes some of the best pulled pork sandwiches. The meat comes out tender and juicy, infused with a smoky flavor. Because the pressure cooker makes quick work of cooking the pork, you’ll have tasty pork meat in about 2 hours! This is really one of those easy 5-ingredient recipes that you’ll be making again and again.
Pulled pork is great to eat in so many ways: in sandwiches, nachos, burgers, wraps, or served over rice or mashed potatoes. These are perfect as appetizers, lunch, dinner, and for parties or cookouts.
Why Use an Instant Pot to Make Shredded Pork?
- Making Pulled Pork in a pressure cooker will take you about 2 hours, which is a fraction of the time it would take in a slow cooker, oven, or smoker.
- This quick-cooking method is a great option if you don’t own a smoker or slow cooker.
- This is one of those one-pot meals in which you use only one pot to brown the meat, cook it until tender, and then sauté it with the barbecue sauce before serving. Much less prep and clean up!
Ingredients for Instant Pot Pulled Pork
Here is what you’ll need to make this Pulled Pork Recipe:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 pounds pork shoulder, cut into two equal pieces
- 1 ½ cups barbecue sauce, divided
- ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth
How to Make Easy Pressure Cooker Pulled Pork Recipe
- Select the sauté function to preheat a 6-quart pressure cooker. When hot, pour in 1 ½ tablespoons of oil and brown half of the pork on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Repeat the process with the other half of the oil and pork. Transfer the pork to a platter.
- Add ¾ cup of barbecue sauce, the soy sauce, and broth to the bowl of the pressure cooker and stir to combine. Add the browned pork and any pork juices. Lock the lid in place. Select high pressure, close the pressure release valve, and set the cooking time for 75 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally, which will take about 20 minutes. Remove the lid, transfer the pork to a large bowl or platter, and shred it using two forks (SEE PIC. BELOW). Discard any excess fat. Strain the cooking liquid, reserving ½ cup.
- Put the shredded pork back into the pressure cooker with the remaining ¾ cup of barbecue sauce and the reserved ½ cup of cooking liquid. Stir, then select the sauté function and bring it to a simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring often (SEE PIC. ABOVE)
Curious about how does a pressure cooker work? Get our cooking time charts!
Best Tips for Making Pulled Pork
- Fat Separator – A fat separator will help you quickly separate the fat/oil from the BBQ sauce so you can add back just the most flavorful part of the sauce, removing the excess fat.
- Shredder Claws – Meat shredder claws look like bear claws and make quick work of shredding the meat. You can also use the claws to pick up the meat when it’s hot. But you can also shred the meat using 2 forks.
- Browning the Pork Shoulder – It’s very easy to burn the pork shoulder, so be sure to flip the meat once it browns on one side.
- Skin on vs. Skin Off – Leaving the skin and fat cap on will keep the meat very moist. Make sure to place the meat with the skin side facing up when you put it in the Instant Pot. The downside is that the barbecue sauce will be much more oily if you leave the skin and fat cap on. This is where a fat separator can really be helpful!
What to Serve with
Here are some delish side dish ideas to serve along with pulled pork:
- Coleslaw
- Potato salad
- Potato chips
- Tossed salad
- Kale pasta salad
- Italian corn bread or Irish soda bread
- Microwave mac and cheese
What Type of Pork to Use
The best cut of pork for the most mouth-watering pulled pork is the shoulder, which you might see called pork butt or Boston Butt. It has the perfect fat content, making it incredibly flavorful. Pork shoulder is also a really inexpensive cut of meat, so this is a great recipe to feed a crowd if needed.
Why Brown the Pork?
Browning the meat is a great flavor booster. It also improves the texture of the meat. Browning is a key step, so don’t skip it, OK?!
Can I Make Pulled Pork from Frozen Pork?
If you forgot to thaw the pork shoulder, no worries! You can cook pulled pork from frozen pork! You’ll have to skip the browning step because frozen meat doesn’t brown, which means you’ll miss out on the flavor bump from the browning, but it still works just fine.
You will also need to add 5 minutes of pressure-cooking time per pound of meat. So that means increasing the cooking time from 75 minutes to 85 minutes for the 2 pounds of pork shoulder.
How Do I Know the Pork is Done Cooking?
The pork will be very tender and easily shred with a fork. A meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat should read at least 205°F.
What is the Best Barbecue Sauce for Pressure Cooker Pulled Pork?
The answer is pretty simple: whatever you like best! One of the great things about making your own pulled pork is that you can choose the sauce that suits you. Some may like a very sweet, thick sauce, like a Kansas City-style barbecue sauce. Others may like a sauce with a lot of spicy heat. You may even wish to use your own homemade barbecue sauce.
How to make this recipe gluten-free
This pulled pork can very easily be made gluten-free. Simply use gluten-free soy sauce or tamari and be sure the barbecue sauce you use is also gluten-free. The meat can be served by itself or on a gluten-free bun.
Doubling the Recipe
Doubling the recipe is quite simple! Here are the doubled ingredient measurements:
- 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 4 pounds pork shoulder, cut into four equal pieces
- 3 cups barbecue sauce, divided
- ½ cup low-sodium soy sauce
- ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
Use some of these cooking conversions to convert cups to ounces to grams or volume conversions.
First, brown the meat in four batches instead of two, then continue on with the recipe, as usual, using the doubled ingredient amounts. Since the pressure cooker cooks everything evenly, there is no need to increase the cooking time. However, with more ingredients in the pressure cooker, you might notice it will take a bit longer to reach the pressure to begin cooking.
Moreover, keep in mind that you should not fill your Instant Pot above the maximum fill line inside the pot. If your pressure cooker is on the smaller side and you won’t be able to double the recipe without going over the fill line, consider preparing the meat ahead of time and cooking it in small batches. You can easily make the pulled pork in several batches the day before, then heat it with the barbecue sauce and cooking liquid the next day.
Halving the Recipe
Halving this recipe for a small batch is also possible. However, it’s not quite as straight forward as simply cutting the ingredients in half. The reason is that an Instant Pot (or any similar pressure cooker) needs a certain amount of liquid in the pot to work properly. For a 6-quart Instant Pot, that amount is 1 ½ cups of liquid, so when halving the recipe it’s best if you use a 3-quart pressure cooker or just be sure there is enough cooking liquid in the pot (the inside of the pot should provide a minimum fill line marking). The meat will also release juices, which will add to the liquid in the pressure cooker. With this in mind, here are the suggested measurements for halving this recipe:
- 1 ½ tbsp olive oil
- 1-pound pork shoulder
- 1 cup barbecue sauce, divided
- ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth
You’ll notice one of the only ingredients truly halved is the pork shoulder. There will be no need to cut the pork into two pieces and brown separately since one 1-pound piece of meat should fit nicely into the Instant Pot.
When adding the barbecue sauce to the Instant Pot, add just ½ cup and reserve the remaining ½ cup for the end of the recipe. Then add ¼ cup of soy sauce and ¼ cup of chicken broth and check the minimum fill line inside the Instant Pot to be sure there is enough liquid. You can add more broth if needed.
You can see that the ingredient ratios are a bit off and you’ll have a slightly different final outcome when it comes to taste and the amount of cooking liquid, but this method ensures a good amount of cooking liquid in the pressure cooker, which is imperative.
My personal choice would be to follow the recipe as directed to make a full batch of pulled pork, then simply freeze the extra pork for later. That way you can follow the recipe and get the best result. Bonus: you have dinner all cooked and ready for another time!
How to Store Instant Pot Pulled Pork
Fridge: Store the pulled pork in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Freezer: Freeze the pulled pork for up to 3 months. You can freeze all of the pork together in one container or divide into small individual portions and freeze in zip-top bags. These are perfect for a quick meal at any time!
How to Reheat Pulled Pork Other pork recipes:
Reheat the pork in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl stirring often until hot. Another great option is to heat the pork in a skillet over medium heat. Add extra barbecue sauce if needed.
Other pork recipes:
- Pan-seared pork chops
- Stuffed pork loin
- Pressure cooker sweet and sour pork
- Pan-fried pork chops
- Pan-grilled pork chops
- Brazilian pork ribs
- Garlic pork loin
PIN & ENJOY!
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Instant Pot/Pressure Cooker Pulled Pork Recipe
Equipment
- Instant Pot or pressure cooker
- Kitchen tongs
- fork
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil divided
- 2 pounds pork shoulder cut into two equal pieces
- 1 ½ cups barbecue sauce divided
- ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce for a gluten-free recipe, use a GF soy sauce
- ¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth
Instructions
- Select the sauté function to preheat a 6-quart pressure cooker. When hot, pour in 1 ½ tablespoons of oil and brown half of the pork on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Repeat the process with the other half of the oil and pork. Transfer the pork to a platter.
- Add ¾ cup of barbecue sauce, the soy sauce, and broth to the bowl of the pressure cooker and stir to combine. Add the browned pork and any pork juices. Lock the lid in place. Select high pressure, close the pressure release valve, and set the cooking time for 75 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally, which will take about 20 minutes. Remove the lid, transfer the pork to a large bowl or platter, and shred it using two forks. Discard any excess fat. Strain the cooking liquid, reserving ½ cup.
- Put the shredded pork back into the pressure cooker with the remaining ¾ cup of barbecue sauce and the reserved ½ cup of cooking liquid. Stir, then select the sauté function and bring it to a simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
Aarthi | Prepbowls says
Such a great shot, Denise! look of it ,makes it so tempting. Love the pulled pork made with Instant pot , so easy and quick. So helpful tips , thanks for the share!
Denise Browning says
This instant pot pulled pork is truly easy to make and saves a lot of money because it uses an inexpensive pork cut and calls for only 5 ingredients. The meat comes out tender and juicy!
Raymund says
Ohhhh I wanna big bite of that