Pork Adobo Instant Pot Recipe

Pork Adobo Instant Pot recipe that comes out tender and delicious. Looking for an easy pork recipe? Make this in your Ninja Foodi, Crockpot Express or any pressure cooker this week.

Ninja Foodi Pork Adobo

Yes you can make this in your Mealthy, Crockpot Express or as an easy Ninja Foodi recipe too. They all work the same my friends, just with a different name on it. Okay the latter does have an added air fry function but you won’t need that in this case.

There are many ways to serve this. If you have eaten this over the years I am sure you already have your “must haves” as far as sides go, or maybe it’s always eaten as is. Either with rice or just in a bowl you’ll love this.

Filipino Pork Adobo Recipe

Now some people like a mixture of both. That would be just fine and the same cook time would apply. Just make sure that all the chunks are the same size so they cook at the same rate. Brown both at the beginning on sautés just enough for the outsides to no longer be pink.

You do NOT need to cook the meat all the way through, that will happen during the high pressure cook stage. This is what you’re going to need to get going on this one:

Ingredients

1. Chunks of fresh or defrosted pork roast is what I use
2. Onions diced or sliced
3. Soy sauce and rice vinegar
4. Minced garlic is great
5. Peppercorns or ground pepper works
6. Bay leaves are optional
7. Beef broth or any variety

What cut of pork do you use for adobo?

The most common would be to use something like in our Instant Pot pork shoulder or some like Instant Pot pork belly for this. If you follow the directions below you would need to really use any (not belly) variety and cube into large bite sized pieces.

Can you make pork adobo with frozen pork?

I would not use frozen pork butt in Instant Pot as explained here, no you couldn’t. If rock hard and not cut into bite size pieces initially it would take much longer. You could follow temperature and timing in the link above, shred and then just use the seasonings and sauce suggested here for the same flavors though.

There are two styles out there with different sauces. This is more of a Filipino version vs. one you’d eat at a Mexican restaurant.

If you want to try both then give this a whirl first. Then you could try it again using 3-4 Tbsp of this Mexican adobo seasoning blend and omit the soy sauce in the recipe card below. This will create a whole different flavor so you can see which one you prefer.

How to Make Instant Pot Pork Adobo

• First, set your pot to saute and add olive until hot.
  • Add cubed meat and cook on all sides so they are no longer pink but not cooked thru. Then turn pot off.
• Add all of your other ingredients. Close lid and your steam valve. Set to meat/stew function for 15 minutes.
  • If you don’t have this button you can just use high pressure.
• When done allow pressure to release naturally, this will take 15-20 min. Do NOT quick release.
• Careful when opening the lid, it will be hot. Remove bay leaves from this Filipino dish and serve in bowls.

Why do you need to deglaze a pressure cooker after sauteing meat?

Remember every time you sauté meat that you deglaze pot after you are done, and cancel the saute function so it can cool for a minute too. This is important so the burn notice doesn’t appear on your screen, that is no fun. I like to use a wooden spatula so I don’t scratch the pot.

Tips

If you are new to pressure cooking meat you may be worried because on the IP site it warns to not cook without 1 cup of water. Well you have to remember that all liquids = water in regards to what they are saying. I have had many questions regarding this so I wanted to address it here.

Many times with proteins I don’t even use a whole cup. This still works with just 1/2 c. because when it cooks there is liquid released as well. You can see above where it looks like a lot more than just one cup of liquid, well it is. You could even decrease the broth to 1/4 of a cup and it would be totally okay so it is less “soupy”.

Can you make this with chicken?

If you wanted chicken adobo that would be fine too but if only using this meat I might decrease cook time to less than 15 minutes, maybe 8. Since a natural release is used at the end that will continue to cook it too. Poultry doesn’t take as long because it isn’t as tough. The same timing would be fine but meat would fall apart.

What is Adobo Served With?

Typically you’d see this with Ninja foodi rice, a side of pressure cooker mashed potatoes or maybe some quinoa. Some like to add more liquid to make more of a soup and serve it like that with nothing else for more of a low carb meal.

Instant Pot Pork is best when pieces are bite sized. Like our Instant Pot pork stew it allows the protein to get really tender vs. when you leave it in a large chunk. I do this with other meats as well for the same reason. Smaller means less time and they come out more moist in the end.

Also, by precutting it that means that there is no work for you once it is done! Ok that sounds silly but I am always looking for ways to make dinnertime easier for me. That way I can actually enjoy my meal too without stopping to cut up someone’s pieces.