Fall apart tender and juicy instant pot pulled pork is an easy recipe that gives you the base for different dishes all year long. Making it requires very little hands-on time so it's the perfect addition to your weekly meal prep plans!

Pulled pork is great served with these Parmesan Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes or these Steamed Carrots for an elegant yet easy weeknight meal. Add some more ground cumin and a squeeze of lime juice and it's a great base for tacos or burritos. Or use it to make these BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders for your next tailgate or summer BBQ.

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Initially, it took me a while to hop on the Instant Pot bandwagon but now, I use mine all the time. It's great for meal prep and for getting dinner on the table on busy weekdays. I use it for everything from making grains, think rice and quinoa, to hard-boiling eggs and making soup or chili.

While I had always liked smoked pulled pork it's something I had never really made on my own. The Instant Pot changed that. You can make wonderful pulled pork in the Instant Pot in just over an hour. Much easier than smoking it, especially since most of us probably don't have access to a smoker.

Pulled pork makes an amazing base for so many things - sliders, tacos, enchiladas - you name it. With all the flavor it has, it's also great just on its own with some mashed or roasted potatoes, as an easy, quick dinner. I created this version without BBQ sauce so you can customize it with your own flavors once you decide what you're going to use it for. By adding beer and pressure cooking it, the pork has plenty of flavor all on its own!

Making Pulled Pork in an Instant Pot

Since I'm mostly focused on small batch recipes, I use a 3 quart Instant Pot for all of my recipes. They should all also work in a 6 quart Instant Pot as well though I don't test all of them in that size.

You start with a boneless pork shoulder - about 2 to 3 pounds works best but you could do more if you are using a 6 quart Instant Pot. Pork shoulder works best for pulled pork as you want a bit of fat for flavor and to keep the meat nice and juicy. If it's an option, ask your butcher counter to trim any large sections of fat from the pork shoulder. If they won't do it at the store, you'll want to trim it at home before you start.

Next comes a bit of beer and some water, along with a few spices for some nice flavor. You'll cook it for 50 minutes on high pressure and then let the steam release naturally for 20 minutes. Once it's cooked you remove the pork from the Instant Pot and shred it then you are either ready to eat or add it to something else.

Storing leftovers

You’ll notice this is not my usual recipe for two. Since it's easy to make a big bigger batch and it keeps well, this reicpe makes about four servings. Refrigerate what you’ll eat in the next few days and then freeze the rest so you have it for next week or a few weeks from now! Reheating frozen pulled pork is pretty easy. You can always microwave it but I prefer to freeze it in foil and then reheat the foil packet in the oven or toaster oven at 225°F until the desired temperature is reached.

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