While Max was working on the chili for the SuperBowl Party (see blog entry below), I decided to make pulled pork in the insta-pot.  The hardest part of this recipe was cutting the fat off the pork shoulder…there was a lot of it and it took a while.  After that it was easy: rub a good spice mix on the pork, sautee it and put it in the insta-pot for about 60 minutes.  Usually this takes hours in the oven or crock pot, so it was amazing how quickly it cooked.  We served it with brioche buns.

The ingredients are pretty simple: whatever spices you want to rub in (I used paprika, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder and salt and pepper); vegetable oil to sautee the pork in, tomato paste, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar to cut the pork in (along with water)…and that was it.  Like I said the hardest part was getting the fat off the pork though.

(Me cutting away)  After I finally got the fat off, I decided to cut the shoulder up into a couple pieces so it would be easier to sautee…and would fit in the insta-pot.

Then I rubbed my spice mix on,  gave the pieces of pork a quick sautee.  After Imixed the tomato paste/brown sugar/vinegar/water mix in the insta-pot, I added the meat.  One key thing to remember when using an insta-pot is that you have to use rubber utensils so you don’t scratch the non-stick surface of the pot (we even bought a special teflon whisk since all the other whisks we had were metal.)

The pork cooked for 63 minutes, then I removed it and shredded it.  The last step was to separate the fat from the cooking liquid (so I could add the cooking liquid back to the pork if necessary).  I served it with barbecue sauce on the side.