How to cook frozen pork chops Instant Pot style. From rock hard to perfectly tender in minutes. A healthy dinner with vegetables you can make even if you forgot to defrost! Try this in a Ninja Foodi pressure cooker or Crockpot Express too.
We experimented with making frozen pork chops Instant Pot style until we got it just right! Now we can share this easy InstaPot recipe with all of you so if you are forgetful too you can have dinner ready and nobody will be the wiser. 😉 (affiliate links present)
Instant Pot Frozen Pork Chops
Actually, I wrote an entire post about cooking frozen meat in Instant Pot because I did it so often! From a frozen pork shoulder Instant Pot recipe to chicken and more you’ll be surprised how well it turns out.
If you need easy Ninja Foodi recipes, you can use that pot instead with the lid that is not attached and the pressure cook button. The other directions remain the same as far as the cook time.
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Here are a few questions you might have before you get started:
Can you put frozen pork in Instant Pot?
Absolutely. We’ve made Instant Pot frozen pork loin before and that came out great. Then we moved on to chops which we share with you here. Tender and juicy in no time.
Frozen pork roast Instant Pot style is amazing too. Now this isn’t something I do on purpose. I still would recommend cooking from raw instead of rock hard, but stuff happens. In a pinch it’s nice to have this information handy so you can still eat.
Any other method other than the slow cooker works fine. Steaming them essentially in a pressure cooker is our favorite way. Follow our steps here so you can try it too.
It will take about 50% longer than if you had defrosted pork chops. In the oven it is close to 50 minutes, in an Instant Pot it is only 12 minutes!
Ingredient Notes
When it comes to choosing your Frozen pork chops I prefer boneless when possible because they will get more tender and they are easier to eat. Bone in will work too, either way you want medium sized pieces that aren’t too thick. Ours were 3/4 inch or so. With thin pork chops I might decrease timing by 1 minute.
And with every meal I do like to add vegetables if at all possible. In this case I added some baby Carrots or chopped into large bite size pieces.
Celery is a really cheap other option that holds up well under high pressure.
Broth or water is needed to steam the meat and get it to nice and tender in no time. You will want a Trivet with handles as well.
Pork dry rub
We typically use our steak dry rub on almost everything no matter what type of meat it is, or how we cook it.
- Brown sugar
- Garlic salt
- Salt and pepper
- Smoked paprika
Can you cook bone-in pork chops from frozen?
It doesn’t matter if you have bone in pork chops or boneless, these are the latter. The cooking time seems to be the same when you pressure cook these. Of course you won’t be able to brown them beforehand, but you could do 2 minutes per side at the end if you wanted. I personally want them as tender as possible so I don’t.
If you have really small pieces I might adjust the time to 10 minutes but I tend to buy medium size and thickness and 12 is just right.
The biggest thing to remember is that these need the steam to release naturally and slowly. Do not do a quick release or it won’t finish cooking slowly at the end so they’re nice and soft. To get the rub to stick you could rub a bit of olive oil on the outsides. If you need instructions for air fryer frozen pork chops we have that too.
Time needed: 12 minutes
Frozen Instant Pot pork chops recipe
- Prepare
Chop vegetables into large chunks. In a small mix dry rub ingredients together. Rub on both sides of frozen chops generously.
Put trivet into pot. Add vegetables on top, then pour chicken broth over the top. Place meat on top of everything.
- Cook
Close lid and pressure valve. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes.
When done allow pressure to naturally release, this will take about 15 minutes. Release any remaining pressure, should be gone. - Enjoy
Remove meat and vegetables, enjoy together with some white rice.
How Long to Cook Frozen thick cut pork chops Instant Pot
If yours are more than 1 inch thick that would be considered larger than the norm and you would want to increase the timing by 1 minute, that is all. 2 inch thick pork chops typically need a fraction of time longer no matter which way you cook them.
Frozen Pork Chops Instant Pot Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 medium pork chops, frozen
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 3 stalks celery, cut into large chunks
- 2 large carrots, cut into large chunks
- 1/2 small onion, sliced
Dry Rub
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
Instructions
- Chop vegetables into large chunks.
- In a small mix dry rub ingredients together. Rub on both sides of frozen chops generously.
- Put trivet into pot. Add vegetables on top, then pour broth over the top. Place meat on top of everything.
- Close lid and pressure valve. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes.
- When done allow pressure to naturally release.
- Remove meat and veggies, enjoy together.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Looking for more Instant Pot recipes? We have over a hundred of these! They don’t always have pork either. Mix it up and enjoy chicken, seafood and beef the other nights. A few of our favorites are:
- Instant Pot casseroles are the best because if you have any leftovers you can just throw them in.
- Need to know how to cook a frozen Instant Pot roast too? We have instructions for that.
- We have cooked thawed and frozen Instant Pot shrimp. Eat as is or in some fettuccini.
Already defrosted? You can make pressure cooker pork chops with gravy this way. We’ve made a pork stew Instant Pot recipe that’s amazing too.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wring but I’ve tried two different recipes for instant pot pork chops and they both came out so tough we couldn’t eat them. I cooked them for 12 minutes, natural release. The first time the pork chops weren’t frozen, tonight they were but both time they were tough. What am I doing wrong? I didn’t want to give a bad review as I’m sure it’s something I’m doing. I love cooking with the instant pot but for some reason the instant pork chops aren’t working for me.
Well my first guess is you aren’t allowing for a natural release at the end. If you don’t then the moisture will be sucked out when you quick release. #2 could be that yours are too thin thus they are overcooking during this time and need less time. #3 could just be your preference since “tough” is subjective and this method may just not be for you. Try our https://temeculablogs.com/best-baked-pork-chops/ next time in the oven, they are VERY popular.
I’m writing this review as I’m eating this, it is that good! First off my grocery store substituted the thin chops I had ordered on my pick up order for very thick ones! My porkchops always turn out dry when frying them so gave this a try. I only used 2 of the thick chops but other than that I followed the rest of the recipe including the same cooking time in the instant pot. They are fall off the bone tender! Will be fixing my pork chops this way from now on! Thanks for a great recipe!!
Yay, glad it was a hit with y’all too
can u make this w chops that are not frozen???
Do I increase the time for extra thick boneless chops? I have 2. I’d like to try these tonight.
Hard to say how thick they are but I would try the time listed and check, can always add 1 – 2 minutes after if necessary.
It is very hard to have all four kids, my spouse and myself love the same dishes. I have to say a huge thank you as this dish hit it out of the park. Thank you
So glad
Wonderful recipe. Are used a quart package of frozen homemade tomato sauce And we had one cup Of broth left from homemade soup. I used cut up sweet potato and onion. I did not have celery. Then after everything had cooked I added a can of whole kernel corn. I did not want the sweetness Of your rub and I was really pressed for time so I used seasoned salt. What I love about your recipe if it’s encouraging! And I followed the cooking directions exactly. I had 2 pounds of frozen pork chops. I cooked 13 Minutes and let it natural steam release. The family raved over this recipe. Keep making these easy to do recipes and encouraging people to substitute what they have on hand. I love my instant pot
Glad it was a hit
Anyone do this recipe with extra thick boneless pork loin chops? I’ve got 3 frozen but I wonder if I should increase cooking time.
I was wondering how I would adjust the time if I had more than 4 pork chops? I’m planning to try this very soon.
@Gail, I added one minute to the 12 so I ended up cooking my pork chops for 13 minutes. Then I let it naturally release. Don’t add too many minutes are you will dry out your pork chops
These were delicious!! Tasted just like pot roast! I made carrots and potatoes with the chops. Definitely a keeper!!
I fixed this and did the slow release but it’s taking a long time. How long is the slow release? The silver thing has gone down.
My teenager took one bite and said in his best Gordon Ramsey accent: “Well, now, that’s delicious.” Thank you for praise I never expected. 😉
If the pin has gone down there is no nore pressure remaining lol
Yes, that means it is done.
@Sharon, if your pressure valve has gone down and steam is done releasing, your natural release is done.