InstantPot Carnitas!

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I love Mexican food. And I love that you can take any meat and turn it into several easy meals after cooking it. Now that I have an InstantPot, the possibilities are endless. My go to right now is Carnitas. It's shredded and crispy and delicious. There are so many ways to serve this shredded pork, I have some ideas after the recipe. This recipe is inspired by a recipe that was on the Instant Pot site a long time ago, it's no longer there, but thanks for the inspo!

This recipe makes about 6-8 servings and adds TONS of flavor and spice (not spicy, but spice flavor).**Since ground ancho chili powder and ground chipotle powder were not available at my grocery store, I ground my own. This sounds hard, but it was super easy. See notes at the end on how to do this. Also, if you do love heat spice, I would recommend adding a chopped jalapeño or habanero into the liquid or just have it as a garnish.

Enough chat, let's get to the good stuff!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon ground ancho chili powder **

2 teaspoons ground chipotle chili powder **

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon oregano

1 tablespoons salt

3 – 4 lb. pork shoulder roast, cubed

2 tablespoons oil (olive/coconut/vegetable...I use olive)

1 can/bottle of beer, use a pilsner or lager style (think corona!)

1 orange, juiced or ½ cup orange juice

1 onion, cut into large pieces (4-8)

3-5 garlic cloves

2 bay leaves

Directions

​​1. Mix the ancho chili powder, chipotle chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, and salt in a small bowl. Cut the pork into 2-3 inch cubes and rub the spice mixture all over

2. Set your InstantPot to Sauté, add oil and brown the cubed meat on all sides in batches so it goes faster and you can move the meat around. After all of the pieces are browned, remove and set aside.

3. Add the beer and orange juice to the pot and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom.

4. Add the onion, garlic and bay leaves to the pot and place the pork pieces on top.

5. Place lid on the InstantPot, lock into place and press the Meat/Stew button (make sure steam vent is closed).

6. When done, remove the pork pieces from the pot, leaving the cooking liquid. Turn the InstantPot back to Sauté and allow the cooking liquid to simmer.

8. Turn your oven broiler to HIGH. Shred the meat using forks, a knife or shredding claws. Place on a sheet pan with foil or parchment. Pour some of the leftover liquid on the shredded pork to keep it moist and broil until crispy and brown on top.

9. Prepare your favorite dish and enjoy!

This makes a lot of shredded pork so I always freeze half for later (we have 2 adults and 1 toddler). It freezes really well (TIP: I add a little bit of the leftover cooking liquid to bag/Tupperware for freezing to have when it thaws out).

Serving Suggestions

→Tacos: soft, crunchy, fried, you decide!

→Enchiladas

→Nachos

→Burritos

→Breakfast Burritos

**Grinding your own spices

This is my secret... my Krups coffee grinder. I do A LOT with this small gadget, included grinding my own spices. Here's how I did it:

1. I got a package of dried chilies, here is what it looks like:

2. I cut up the dried chili, put it in the grinder pulsed until it turned into a powder. It's that easy and it really works! The smell is amazing and it makes quite a bit of spice powder. I put it in a small Tupperware container, labeled it and added it to my spice cabinet for next time.

Enjoy your carnitas and let me know how you served them!

Always read the instruction manual that came with your Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker and follow all safety guidelines.

Cover Photo credit: Ingrid Hofstra on Unsplash