Pressure Cooker Pork Shoulder Stew

We got the Instant Pot based on our friend Hisami’s enthusiastic recommendation on Kit.com.

As it is winter here right now, I knew that the first thing I wanted to try was a hearty, spicy stew. Normally a stewed pork shoulder can take several hours- but in a pressure cooker it can be done in much shorter time. I’ve always loved Ruth Reichl’s recipes and tried to modify her pork and tomatillo stew.

To make it work in an Instant Pot, I had to modify some of the directions to make it a “one pot” meal, and modified the cooking time using the pressure cooker.

Ingredients

• 2 Lb. Pork Shoulder Roast
• 2 chopped red onions
• 2 diced jalapeños
• bunch of cilantro, chopped
• 10 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 Lb Tomatillos. (I couldn’t find Tomatillos actually so I used Ground Cherries, which are in the same family but smaller and sweeter). Remove the papery husk and quarter them.
• 28 oz. diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
• 1 bottle of beer
• 12 oz orange juice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf

Instructions

1. Turn the Instant Pot onto the Sauté setting and add the olive oil
2. Wash and pat dry the pork roast. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.
3. Sear the Pork Roast for about 4 minutes on all sides. While searing the pork roast, add the garlic cloves and stir them so they blacken a little on the outside and soften on the inside.
4. Remove both the pork shoulder and the garlic from the pot. Add the onions and cilantro and sauté until the onion is translucent.
5. Add the tomatillos or ground cherries and stir.
6. Add the beer, diced tomatoes, and orange juice and let it come to a simmer. Add the cinnamon stick and bay leaf.
7. Add the Pork Shoulder and submerge in the liquid. Add the cover to the instant pot, and change the mode to Manual Pressure Cooking. Set the timer for 50 minutes.
8. After the pressure cooking is done, remove the pork shoulder from the stew and put it on a carving board. Remove the bay leaf and cinnamon stick and discard.

9. Now comes the fun part. The pork shoulder should now be falling apart- you can just take tongs and pick at it to shred it into small bite size chunks.

10. While you’re doing that, put the instant pot back into sauté mode and add the can of black beans, drained, and the softened garlic. As you shred the pork, you can throw the chunks you pick off back into the stew.

Serve the stew over white rice.