Instant Pot Carnitas - Dump and Go Dinner
Our recipe for Mexican style shredded pork with chiles, salsa, and cilantro makes an easy Instant Pot dinner you'll be anxious to enjoy again. Add on your favorite toppings for a stress-free meal that's fun for the whole family.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds quarter Pork Roast
- 1 ½ teaspoons mince Garlic, Cloves
- ¼ teaspoons Salt
- ¼ teaspoons Black Pepper
- ¾ cups Cilantro, Fresh
- ½ cups Salsa, Medium
- 2 ounces Mild Green Chiles, Diced, Canned
- ¼ cups Tequila
- ¼ cups Chicken Broth/Stock
Containers
Supplies
Cooking Instructions
Freeze For Later Cooking Day Directions
These directions help you cook or prepare this meal PRIOR to being frozen for serving later (see Serving Day Directions when you are ready to prepare it to eat).
Why would I want to freeze this?
- Trim the pork roast of excess fat and divide among the indicated number of freezer containers.
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Make From Frozen Serving Day Directions
These directions help you cook or reheat this meal AFTER it's been frozen for when you are ready to eat it.
- Prep from frozen
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Make It Now Cooking Directions
These directions are for cooking this recipe to serve immediately and NOT to freeze for later.
- **Due to the nature of pressure cooking there is always room for inconsistency. The times given here are based on 4 servings fresh. If you are using more servings you may need to increase your cooking time.**
- Trim the pork roast of excess fat.
- Place in the inner pot.
- Top with garlic, salt and pepper.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the inner pot.
- Lock the lid and seal steam nozzle.
- Cook on high pressure for 50 minutes.
- Naturally release pressure for 10 minutes. Quick release any remaining pressure.
- Remove lid and shred pork.
Nutrition Facts
- Servings Per Recipe
- 4 Servings
- Serving Size
- about 6 ounces Amount Per Serving
- Calories
- 333
- Total Fat
- 14g
- Saturated Fat
- 3g
- Trans Fat
- 0g
- Cholesterol
- 109mg
- Sodium
- 543mg
- Total Carbohydrates
- 5g
- Fiber
- 1g
- Sugar
- 3g
- Protein
- 37g
- WW Freestyle
- 7
24 Comments
Join the discussionSo are you saying the cook time from a frozen meal is the same as fresh just add 5 minutes of sauté first? Or do I have to defrost it first?
You can cook from frozen – that is why we added the saute step. But the answer to your question is yes. Just read our Instant Pot recipes carefully because not ALL of our Instant Pot cook from frozen recipes call for the saute step. Enjoy!
Are you sure that the directions for meals that are frozen solid are the same directions used to make fresh meals – that does not seem right. Seems like the frozen meals would take slightly longer to cook.
Yes, we’ve found that the time is typically the same because when the meal is frozen, the pot takes longer to come to pressure, so the total cooking time is actually longer even though the time under pressure is the same.
This looks more like pulled pork. The pork needs to be crisped up at the end for carnitas.
Thanks for your feedback!
Gently pull it into large chunks. Just pop it in the oven on broil to crisp it. I flip it and crisp both sides.
We shredded it, but it back into the juice in the instant por, and sauteed it until the juice was gone and it started to crisp. It was delicious!
This was YUMAZING! (Customized the recipe by using 2 lbs pork & increasing salt to a full teaspoon, & I increased cook time to 60 min) I reduced the sauce on Saute mode while I shredded the pork. Seriously one of the best recipes I have ever made in my 40+ years of cooking!
Fabulous!!!!
Is it low or high pressure for 50 minutes?
High.
When cooking in the instant pot you need to add about 1 cup water so the pot will come up to pressure. . I do not see this in the cook now or in the freeze recipe. Can you explain to me why it is not needed?
It doesn’t have to be water, it just has to be liquid and a minimum of 1/2 cup is enough. Between tequila, chicken broth, juice from the meat – you should be good. Happy cooking!
If I don’t have tequila, can I substitute with chicken broth, or does the tequila really add a lot to the taste?
Since it’s an Instant Pot recipe you could substitute extra chicken broth for the tequila just so there’s enough liquid for it to come to pressure. 🙂
I substitute orange juice for the tequila in this recipe. It also makes it taste more like the carnitas I’m used to having.
I am new to OAMM. Why doesn’t the recipe tell you to get tortilla wraps and rice if it’s an easy to assemble meal? If I go out to buy everything on the shopping list, I’ll be missing what I need for this and just have the meat.
Hi! We answered you over in the community. If you have any other questions we would love to chat with you in the right-hand corner.
Could I go ahead and make the meal for dinner tonight and then freeze what’s left for another meal? Does it freeze and reheat well? And could I reheat in my instant pot??
Thanks!
Jenn
Yes, yes, and yes! ?
This is a delicious recipe, but since first making it I have become aware that it is NOT SAFE to pressure cook hard liquor. (See Laura Pazzaglia’s consumer alert post from September 2016 https://www.hippressurecooking.com/forums/topic/omg-dont-pressure-cook-liquor-even-in-a-jar-even-with-vanilla/). I will use extra broth for the pressure cooking, then add tequila at the end and cook on saute to reduce the sauce and infuse the pork with the flavor.
Hi Dana, thank you so much for your feedback and link to the resource article. We do test cook all of our recipes before we published them to our site. We have forwarded your feedback to our Menu Builder team to review and put in a support request with Instant Pot to investigate further. We will update you and recipes after our review. Thank you again for bringing this to our attention!
Hello Dana, We just wanted to follow up on your note, and say we heard back from Instant Pot on using alcohol in the Instant Pot. The response we received was “Yes, you may cook with small amounts of alcohol in your Instant Pot. “