Here’s a version that I threw together based on a couple of recipes I had been seeing. I also used the pressure cook function on my Insta Pot for the first time. I was not impressed as a slow cooker, but man this was done in 30 minutes in that thing! Call me a believer, at least in the pressure part. These can be customized to what you like, so take this just as a formula. Feel free to add more/less peppers, extra spice and cheese if that is how you rolls. Here’s what I did:
- about 2 -3 pounds pork shoulder/butt
- 1 medium yellow or white onion
- 1 each poblano pepper, Anaheim pepper, jalapeno pepper (or mix of your choice)
- 2 tbsp. minced garlic
- 1 can pineapple juice (12 oz.)
- about 2 cups chicken stock
- seasonings: 1 tsp. each – cumin regular chili powder, 1/2 tsp each – oregano (Mexican if you have it) chili lime salt, ancho chili powder, chipotle chili powder, salt, pepper.
- for serving: Corn or flour tortillas plus whatever you like – cilantro lime sour cream, any cheeses, pickled jalapenos, salsa, etc. These might even be good as nachos!
I am starting to freeze larger pieces of meat into smaller sizes since it’s just me and hubs here usually. I had half a pork butt in the freezer and I wasn’t up for much cooking this weekend so I thought I try something new in my Insta Pot. Good choice by me! I sliced it up into about 2 inch chucks. I seasoned that up with the cumin, assorted chili powders, oregano, salt and pepper. I left that in the fridge for a couple of hours, but if you are in a rush, you can just mix them up and move on.
Next up, I cut up my veggies. I was going to have a couple of hours before dinner, so I just threw those in the fridge. I have a ton of Anaheim peppers coming in from my garden and I have some jalapenos hanging around, so I threw those in. None of those were too spicey, but you can jump down to any kind of bell pepper if that’s more top your liking. If you kick it up that would be great too! Go with your preferred heat level.
I’m not an expert on the Insta Pot. Here’s what I did, but refer to your machine’s user guide to cook your carnitas. There is a “sauté” function on this little machine, so that’s what I started with. My machine has a “normal” setting so that’s what I went with. It heats up pretty fast, so I added about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and let it heat up for less than a minute and it was ready to go. I added a layer of pork and let it brown for about 6-8 minutes, stirring to get all the sides. It took 3 batches for me to get through all the pork I had prepped. Once all the pork was browned, I added the onions and peppers and sprinkled a little salt and pepper over them. Let those sweat out for about 6 minutes before adding the garlic. After about one more minute, add the pineapple juice and scrape up the bottom of the pot. Add the pork and any drippings back to the pot and add enough stock to almost cover all the ingredients.
Now it’s time for pressure cooking. I was a little afraid of this I’ll admit, but these models usually have safety features that will not allow you to open one under pressure, which in my opinion would be the wort thing you can do. I set the lid and made sure it was closed/locked and set the vent to “sealing”. The I set the pot to “pressure cook”, high pressure and 30 minutes on the timer. What I learned is that the pot will build up pressure and then the 30 minute timer starts. Once the time is up, I let the cooker sit there another 10 minutes before I manually released the rest of the steam/pressure in the pot. Use a wooden spoon to move the value so you don’t have to get into all that steam.
I made enough to do a carnitas pizza later this week, so I just took some of the meat and veggies out and put them on a foil lined baking sheet. I put them under the broiler for about 7 minutes until they just started to crisp up on the edges. To serve them, I warmed up some large and small flour tortillas and served with some cilantro lime sour cream (just what it says – chopped cilantro, lime juice and zest, all mixed into some sour cream and a little salt). I pickled some of those peppers coming from my garden, so I added some of those too. Feel free to add some salsa, queso or shredded cheese. Anything goes as far as I’m concerned. I’ll post a pic of the pizza later this week – Enjoy!
Amy’s Kitchen 