I was wary of pressure cooking when the craze started, but since I’ve started using a pressure cooker in my kitchen I’ve fallen in love with it. There are many benefits to pressure cooking, but my favourite is that it takes some of our favourite cuts of tougher meats, like pork shoulder, and cooks them in under an hour.
Typically I’ll slow cook pork shoulder to make pulled pork, but I’ve started opting to use a pressure cooker to speed things up--hello flavourful weeknight dinner! And while it’s definitely not a new method of cooking, it’s having a bit of a renaissance with the modern busy cook. And I totally get it.
For this easy pressure cooker pork carnitas recipe, all of the ingredients get simply dumped into the pressure cooker, cooked on high pressure for 40 minutes and then crisped up in a pan under the broiler. You could skip the final step, but it adds amazing texture to the final burrito bowls!
I like to serve these with all of the fixings--avocado, tomato and red onion for me. You could definitely add some cheese or make a guacamole and salsa--bonus points for whipping up cilantro lime rice like everyone’s favourite burrito spot.
Yield: Serves 6-8
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 4 lbs Ontario pork shoulder, excess fat trimmed, cut into 2” pieces
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 cup water
- Juice of 1 orange
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 tbsp minced chipotle in adobo
Cooking Instructions:
- In small bowl combine chili powder with brown sugar, salt, cumin, oregano, paprika and garlic powder. Set aside.
- In a 2-cup measuring cup, whisk water with orange juice, lime juice and chipotle. Set aside.
- In pressure cooker (must be a minimum of 3qt), season pork shoulder with spice mixture, tossing to evenly coat all pieces of pork. Pour liquid over top.
- Close lid securely and set vent to “sealing”. Choose manual setting and cook on high pressure for 40 minutes. Cook and let pressure release naturally, about 15-20 minutes. Once done releasing, carefully turn the vent to “venting” to release any extra pressure. Remove the lid.
- Heat broiler to high. Remove pork from liquid and shred with two forks. Arrange pork in an even layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Spoon about 3-4 tbsp of liquid from pressure cooker over top of the shredded fork. Discard any remaining liquid.
- Broil for 5-7 minutes or until pork is crispy--keep an eye on it as broilers vary in temperature.
- Serve with your favourite burrito bowl toppings
| Nutritional Information |
| Instant Pot Pork Carnitas Burrito Bowls |
| 1/8 of recipe (just the pork) |
| Protein |
45 g |
| Calories |
424 |
| Sugar |
3 g |
| Fat |
24 g |
| Saturated |
8 g |
| Monounsaturated |
|
| Polyunsaturated |
|
| Cholesterol |
157 mg |
| Sodium |
725 mg |
| Potassium |
690 mg |
| Calcium |
46 mg |
| Carbohydrate |
5 g |
| Fibre |
1 g |