Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot) Green Chile Pork Carnitas Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is carnitas better in a pressure cooker or crock pot? ›

Both. The meat will be just as tender and delicious either way. Choose the slow cooker option if you want to get the carnitas started and then take off for the day. If you want the meat to be done in a couple of hours, pressure cook the meat in an Instant Pot.

Slow cooking the meat means it never has the chance to toughen up and will be extra silky and tender. Pressure cooking is faster, though you may lose a little bit of the tenderness. If you're going for the pressure cook method, be sure to get a pork shoulder or pork butt, as opposed to a pork loin.

Overcooking can cause the meat to become dry, tough, and difficult to shred. Similarly, if you don't cook the pork long enough, it may be undercooked and tough. It's also important to avoid using a quick release or pressure, as this can cause the pork to seize and toughen.

This recipe for authentic Mexican carnitas makes super tender meat with a bacon-like crispiness on the outside. The secret? Cooking the pork slowly in lard, water and milk. Today's recipe is a classic old-school rendition of carnitas prepared traditionally: cooked slowly in lard.

Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there's no going back. You'll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat.

Traditionally cheaper cuts of meat always slow cook better. Slow cooking breaks down the connective collagen in meat, which turns into unctuous gelatine. This creates that soft and tender mouth feel we all crave.

Cooking the pork low and slow makes it incredibly tender. If you'd prefer to make this in the oven, see our oven pulled pork recipe.

Unlike the more lean tenderloin and chops, pork shoulder is an incredibly forgiving cut of meat. It becomes more tender as it cooks and benefits from a lengthy cook time, so even if it stays on the heat a few minutes too long, you won't suddenly end up with something dry or rubbery.

Close the lid and bring the pressure up to high pressure over a medium-high heat and cook for 50 mins. Leave the pressure to drop naturally. The meat should be pull-apart tender. If it's still a bit tough, put the lid back on, return to high pressure and cook for a further 10-20 mins.

Carnitas doneness temps

The connective tissue needs to be heated to at least 170°F (77°C) to start to dissolve properly. If pulled at 145°F (63°C), pork shoulder will be inedibly tough.

Can you fix tough meat in pressure cooker? ›

Both slow cookers and pressure cookers do a good job of tenderizing tough meat, but each makes meat more edible in a different way.

"In reality, Instant Pot's owners borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars and spent a significant chunk of that money on R&D, developing new products and employing lots of people in the process." This was a high-risk strategy — one that failed, but it's not necessarily all bad for everyone in Instant Brand's orbit.

To perform a natural release, simply let the Instant Pot sit until the pressure naturally releases and goes back to normal. It's the most common release used in Instant Pot recipes and can take as little as five minutes and as much as 30 minutes.

Slow cookers are much better for cooking root vegetables and tough cuts of meat because the long, low-temperature cooking process is great for adding moisture and breaking down fat. Pressure cookers can get hot enough for meats and vegetables to brown in them when cooking, but slow cookers can't.

This completely depends on the type of meat you are planning on cooking. Because slow cookers take longer to cook, they are better suited to breaking down fat in meat while adding moisture. So if you are planning on cooking a whole rump beef, then a slow cooker is a better choice.

Traditionally cheaper cuts of meat always slow cook better. Slow cooking breaks down the connective collagen in meat, which turns into unctuous gelatine. This creates that soft and tender mouth feel we all crave.

Pork ribs take closer to four hours in a slow cooker. Now that it's a little hot to have an oven on all day, I prefer cooking ribs in a multicooker, aka an Instant Pot, and then finishing them under a broiler for three to four minutes to crisp up the edges of the meat.