BEEF & PORK

Instant Pot Carnitas

Name: Instant Pot Carnitas
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 4 lb pork shoulder, cut in large chunks; ¾ cup orange juice; 1 yellow onion, cut in quarters; 4 cloves garlic, smashed; 1 tbsp ground cumin; 1 tsp dried oregano; 2 bay leaves; salt to taste

Pork shoulder cooked in orange juice and cumin until it pulls apart, then broiled until the edges crisp. Soft middles, crisp edges.

About 1 hr 30 min 8 servings Easy

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The broiler is not optional

Carnitas lives or dies at the end. The pressure cook makes the pork soft and juicy, and that is only half the job. Skip the broiler and you have pulled pork with cumin on it. Fine, but not carnitas.

The orange juice is the quiet worker here. It stands in for the long simmer in lard that carnitas usually gets, and it leaves a faint sweetness behind. Nobody will guess it is in there. It just tastes right.

Slow down at the release

Let the pressure fall on its own after the cook. That is a natural release, and it keeps the pork juicy while the pot cools down a little. Open the valve in a rush and the meat can turn out dry at the edges.

Then pull it apart, spread it out, and give it those 4 or 5 hot minutes under the broiler. Crisp edges, soft middles. That contrast is the whole reason this recipe exists in my kitchen.

THE RECIPE