Instant Pot Pulled Pork is seasoned to perfection, and mouthwateringly tender! Make this easy and super flavorful pulled pork using a pork loin roast and have your family’s new favorite instant pot pork recipe on the table in an hour!
How Do You Make Pulled Pork?
Pulled pork is a very simple dish to make at home, and there are a few ways to make it even more quick and easy.
Pulled pork recipes start with basic seasonings that you probably already have at home. I like to use a mixture of brown sugar, salt, garlic and onion powder, paprika, pepper, and cumin.
Once you have seasoned your meat, you will mix up your wet ingredients. I prefer to use broth over water for added flavor. Use your favorite type of barbecue sauce, and then a bit of apple cider vinegar. The vinegar not only adds great flavor, but, the acid helps to tenderize the meat as it cooks!
After you have seasoned your meat, and mixed up your wet ingredients it’s time to get cooking!
This recipe, in particular, is for the Instant Pot. If you don’t have an instant pot, I highly recommend that you try out my Crockpot Bourbon Bacon Pulled Pork and you can find the recipe for that right HERE.
Instant Pot Pulled Pork Recipe:
As far as meat, I typically use a pork loin roast. You can also use a pork shoulder if that is your preference. A lot of people worry about a pork roast becoming tender enough. As long as you use the right method and ingredients, it turns out absolutely perfect every time!
My general method has always been to slow cook pulled pork, like in the recipe I linked to above. But, since I’ve become a huge fan of my instant pot, I wanted to try cooking it that way. Happy to say it turned out great!
If you have time you will add your rub to your cubed pork roast, seal it in a bag, and let it marinate for a good 30-60 minutes before cooking for maximum flavor. When I make pulled pork in my crockpot, I find that marinating isn’t necessary because all of those flavors slow cook together for hours. However, for instant pot pulled pork, marinating really is the way to go.
Next, you will heat up your oil right in your pot, sear the meat in batches until browned on all sides. It won’t need to be cooked through at that point.
Then, you will want to use a small amount of beef broth to deglaze the bottom of your pot. If you don’t you may end up with that dreaded “burn” warning during cooking.
To deglaze, you’ll simply pour the broth right into the bottom of the instant pot and use a wooden spoon to scrape all of those brown bits off. This also adds great flavor to continue seasoning your meat as it cooks.
After you deglaze simply add everything into your instant pot, close the lid and valve to sealing. Then, you will cook as directed below for 40 minutes. After your cooking time is up, allow the instant pot to natural release for 10 minutes, then you can quick release.
After your quick release, you are ready to shred your meat, and serve on soft hamburger buns, with your favorite toppings!
Remember if you are looking for the slow cooker method of making pulled pork you can find it HERE. I also happen to adore this Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Chili!
Enjoy!
~Nichole
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Instant Pot Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Packed Brown Sugar
- 2 Teaspoons Paprika
- 2 Teaspoons Garlic Powder
- 2 Teaspoons Onion Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Pepper
- 1/2 Teaspoon Cumin
- 1/4 Teaspoon Cayenne, Optional
- 3 Pound Boneless Pork Roast, Cut into 3-4 inch cubes
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Cups Barbecue Sauce, Divided
- 1 1/4 Cup Chicken or Beef Broth
- 1 Teaspoon Hot Pepper Sauce, Optional
Instructions
- In a small bowl mix together the brown sugar, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne.
- Season the cubed pork with the spice mixture and set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the apple cider vinegar, one cup of the barbecue sauce, the hot pepper sauce if using, and one cup of the broth.
- Turn your instant pot to the saute setting. Add the olive oil and allow it to get hot.
- Add half of the cubed pork to the hot oil and saute for 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove the browned pork to a plate and repeat with the remaining half of the cubed pork.
- Turn the instant pot off. Use the remaining 1/4 cup of beef broth and a wooden spoon to deglaze (scrape the brown bits) from the bottom of the pot.
- Add all of the meat along with the barbecue sauce mixture to the instant pot.
- Close the lid and set to sealing.
- Cook on manual high pressure for 40 minutes. Once the cooking time is up, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then do a quick release.
- Remove the meat from the instant pot and shred. Stir in the remaining cup of bbq sauce and serve on buns as desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Absolutely delicious! Makes very tender pulled pork. Thanks for the suggestion about the soup/chili idea for the leftover broth, I will try it!
My roast is smaller. Closer to 2lbs, do you think cook time should be the same??
I was missing some of the ingredients for the spice rub marinade, but I had a packet of sloppy joe seasoning which basically had the same spices listed so I just used that whole packet and added a tbsp of brown sugar. It was delicious and SO easy! We made sandwiches with homemade coleslaw on French rolls.
Fantastic recipe! We used a hawaiian sweet roll bun with homemade coleslaw. My husband loved it so much he asked for seconds.
Do not I REPEAT DO NOT toss the broth from this. It is simply too flavourful and amazing to waste. Tonight I used it this way: browned 1lb lean burger on saute, then added one diced medium onion, 1 diced green pepper, and two ribs of diced celery. Then added 1 tsp of minced garlic. Then added the leftover broth, one tin of diced tomatoes, and used to deglaze the pot – this is critical with the Instant Pot to avoid the burn notice. Turn off saute and use Meat/Stew button set for 35 minutes (I’m sure Pressure Cook or Manual buttons on same time do the same). NPR, then remove the lid and stir in 1 can of baked beans. I had hoped to make chili but it’s too thin so had soup. There is no reason to waste a single drop of this amazing recipe!
This pulled pork was AMAZING! I used a 4lb roast and followed the recipe exactly (except no cumin) and it turned out SO good. I made this along with your instant pot mac n cheese (which was delicious!) and my family raved all night about how good it was! I also used my kitchen aid to shred the pork, if you have one, use it! So glad I found this and tried it, definitely a keeper!!!
Delicious! I left out the apple cider vinegar and substituted 1 tbsp lemon juice, because that’s what I had on hand. Our small family devoured almost everything the first night!
I love the possibilities with this dish, we made wraps and stuffed crescent rolls.
It says to cube the roast before you cook it but it does not say what size cubes were talking about. I’m new to the instapot thing wanted to make this for dinner tonight but I don’t know what size cubes to cut it in!
Hi! I’ve updated the recipe to reflect that I typically cut the meat into 3-4 inch cubes. But, it truly doesn’t matter if they are not perfect. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
I’m lazy so that’s what I did anyway. This is officially my go-to recipe, I’ve made it twice now and for a single person I will say it freezes beautifully in individual portions for make ahead meals. Also the leftover broth as per my comment makes amazing savoury soup. Thank you for this IP recipe book staple!!
Great recipe! I gave this one a shot even though there aren’t many reviews yet, but I figured since the other recipes on this site have turned out fantastic so far, I would give this one a shot! The pulled pork turned out AMAZING, I cooked it on high pressure for 50 minutes instead of 40 since my pork shoulder roast cubes weren’t completely thawed yet – I did this recipe with my own BBQ sauce instead of store bought, and even my boyfriend who’s usually a little picky ate SO MUCH, saying it was REALLY GOOD (rare for him to say LOL). Only other thing i did instead of onion or garlic powder was to use regular garlic and red onion (finely chopped) just because I didn’t have the powder on hand.
Would highly recommend this recipe!
I would like to know if this can marinate overnight for more flavor?
Marinating anything overnight works as long as you keep it in the fridge. Don’t marinade in the sauce though. Only in dry rub because you need to brown the meat and you can’t do that in the marinade. It will burn