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Instant Pot Pulled Pork is a pork shoulder that has cooked long enough to become super tender, and it has a ton of flavor! Pressure Cooker Pulled Pork is made in a fraction of the normal time!
Delicious pulled pork made in the Instant Pot is good on tortillas, buns, and over your favorite starch (potatoes, rice, etc.).
Originally published on Jan 15, 2018
Instant Pot Pulled Pork
You may not think that pulled Pork made in a pressure cooker would be that great, but let me tell you that it is awesome!
This is an Instant Pot Dump and Start recipe so it is very easy, and takes a fraction of the time that pulled pork normally takes with other cooking methods.
You can make this pulled pork recipe just the way you like it, from spicy to a more mild and sweet barbecue.
The Steps to Make Pressure Cooker Pulled Pork
Start with a pork shoulder roast that you have trimmed most of the fat off of. Then cut it into 1-pound chunks. Pictured is a 3-pound roast, so I cut it in 3 equal pieces. This will ensure even cooking, and faster results. Use whatever size roast you have, but cut it into the 1-pound chunks.
Rub the spice rub mixture onto all sides of the pieces generously, and place in the pot on top of the onions and liquid (in this case, it’s Dr. Pepper® pop).
When finished cooking, remove the pieces of meat to a bowl and use 2 forks to shred the meat. It will be very tender. Then season a little more, add back some of the cooking liquid, and serve (with your favorite bbq sauce for even more flavor).
How to Serve Instant Pot Pulled Pork
• Make a fabulous Instant Pot Pulled Pork sandwich, served on a soft kaiser roll. Add any toppings you like, or just the meat.
• You can also serve over potatoes or rice.
• Make pulled pork tacos!
• Try Pulled Pork on Mac and Cheese, it’s amazing!
The meat is shredded after cooking and can be used for pulled pork sandwiches, tacos, served over rice, or with potatoes.
Instant Pot Barbecue Beef Roast
Instant Pot Simple Pot Roast
Instant Pot Beef Guinness Stew
Instant Pot Bone-In Ham
Instant Pot Baked Potatoes
If you make this delicious pressure cooker pulled pork recipe, please leave me a comment below. Let me know how you liked it!
Instant Pot Pulled Pork
Equipment
Ingredients
Spice Rub
- 3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 1 ½ Tablespoons Smoked Paprika
- 2 teaspoons Salt
- 1 teaspoon Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Onion Powder
- 3 teaspoons Chili Powder
- 2 teaspoons Cumin
- ¼ teaspoon Cayenne Powder (optional), for heat
Pork
- 3-4 lbs Pork Shoulder Roast (Pork Butt) Fat trimmed off, and cut in 1lb chunks
- 1 Onion, cut in eighths
- 1 (12 oz) can Dr. Pepper or Cola (or 1 ½ cups chicken stock or water)
- 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar (or more to taste)
- ½ teaspoon Salt (or more to taste)
Instructions
- Mix the spices together for the rub. Remove 2 Tablespoons of the mix and set aside for later.
- Rub all sides of the pork roast chunks generously with the spice rub. Set meat aside.
- Cut the onion into 8 pieces (cut in half, then cut each half into 4 pieces). Put the onion into the inner cooking pot of the pressure cooker.
- Pour the can of pop (or water/broth) into the the pot over the onion*.
- Set the pork chunks on top of the onions. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the pork.
- Place the lid on and lock into place. Set the steam release knob to the sealing position.
- Press the Pressure Cook/Manual Button (or use dial) and then the +/- button (or dial) to choose 65 minutes. High Pressure.
- After the cooking time has finished, let the pot sit undisturbed for 15 minutes. Then turn the steam release knob to the Venting position (or push button) to manually Quick Release the remaining pressure/steam.
- When the pin in the lid drops down, open it and remove the meat to a large bowl. Use a slotted spoon to get the onions out and add to the meat. Use two forks to shred the meat.
- Sprinkle the reserved spice rub and ½ tsp salt into the meat. Mix well. Taste and add more salt and/or brown sugar, if desired.
- Use a large spoon (or a fat separator) to skim off the fat from the cooking liquid that is still in the pot. Then add ½ - 1 cup of the liquid to the meat and mix in. You can add more of the liquid to the meat if you like it more moist.
- Serve on buns, or over rice or potatoes, or in tortillas.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Resources to Make Pulled Pork Recipe in the Instant Pot
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I’d like to double this recipe – would I double the meat, onions and spices but leave the liquid and cook time as is?
Yes, and be sure to cut the meat into the chunks to keep the cook time the same.
I chose this recipe because i was feeling lazy and it was the easiest one I could find. Little did I know that it would also become my favourite!
I’m new to instant pot cooking but will never use my slow cooker for pulled pork again.
The meat was tender, well cooked and delicious!
Awesome, Ola! Thanks for your review!
Does the coke or Dr. Pepper make it sweet?
I would like to know this answer too.
Not too sweet. I think the onion and the spice rub cuts it with the savory edge. But this is a little sweet. I would cut out the brown sugar before cutting out the soda.
I never leave comments, but I felt like I needed to for this one. This was AMAZING!! Perfect for street tacos and BBQ sandwiches! I followed the recipe exactly but used Coke instead of DP.
That’s great! Thank you for your review!
Hi can you stack the pieces on top of each other or do you only do the one layer? Trying to make enough for 40’people. And would I need to up the cooking time?
Also, what kind of onion do you use?
Thanks!
Yes, you can stack the meat. Use a yellow or sweet onion.
Hi Sandy! Thank you for sharing this recipe. We recently got our instapot and have not found a recipe we love- until now! Seriously the best pulled pork for our street tacos, ever!!! The cook time was perfect, the seasonings were perfect and the flavor was out of this world!!! We liked it better than when we use our crock pot!! I don’t normally comment on recipes but I just had to let you know how great it turned out!!!
Hi Nina (love your name, it was my great grandma’s name, also!). I am so thrilled that you enjoyed this pulled pork recipe so much! Thank you for leaving a review, too, I appreciate it!
This turned out perfect! My husband loved it and he is hard to please. Thank you!
Hi Sharee, yay! I’m so happy that you and your hubby liked this pulled pork! Thank you for your review!
Could you use pork tenderloin??
Hi Carla, pork tenderloin is very lean, and has such a short cook time, I’m not sure if this would dry out too much. I personally haven’t tried it with a tenderloin. If you do, cut the cook time down. Let me know how it turns out!
If this helps with time estimates, I did a half pork loin roast (2lbs) for 45 min pressure cook and it fell apart with just a push on top with a fork. I am trying the above recipe with a five lb pork butt roast… I too want feedback on tenderloin as I bypassed that cut for the roast this time. Thanks!
I have 3 tenderloin recipes. . Here is one.
Would I need to double the time cooked if doubling the meat amount?
Hi Brandon, if you cut the meat into equal 1lb sized chunks, you should be able to make pretty good sized batch using the same cook time. If you are concerned, give it a few more minutes, it won’t hurt it. Pressure cooking time depends on the thickness and density of the food being cooked. If you didn’t cut the roast at all, it would take closer to 90 minutes.
The best pulled pork I ever had. Added some chipotle peppers for some extra spice.
Hi John! I love this with chipotle! I’m glad you liked it too. Thank you for your review!
Delicious! Way more flavorful and moist than a previous recipe I tried. It’s great even without bbq sauce. Even the 3 kids all approved, so I will definitely be making this again! Which is a good thing because I actually made an 8.5 lb. pork shoulder/ butt because that’s what I had on hand thawed and wanted to freeze some for meal prepping. I prepared 2.5 times the rub recipe and kept the liquid the same as mentioned in a previous comment. I also added 15 minutes to the cook time as suggested. I wouldn’t change a thing!