Easy Pulled Pork Pressure Cooker Recipe

Our Instant Pot pulled pork recipe makes perfectly juicy and tender BBQ pulled pork in a fraction of the time as grilling or slow roasting. Coat the ribs in a savory pork rub, sear to lock in moisture (and to get those burnt ends!), and then pressure cook for just 1 hour. It's a Whole Lotta Yum! 

This is the best Instant Pot Pulled Pork recipe!

We're sharing all of our tips and tricks to making succulent yet easy pulled pork, whether you're trying to make pressure cooker pork butt (either bone-in or boneless) or pork shoulder to use for shredding for sliders or served straight onto a plate.

Our recipe even gives you the prized crispy "burnt ends" by doing a quick sear of the seasoned meat before cooking it under pressure. Once you make our shredded pork, you'll never go back to any other method!!

These are great served on a bun, served as pulled pork sliders, or make them lower carb by using lettuce wraps. Get inspo from, our pulled pork sides and leftover pulled pork ideas too.

Whether you want to sear or not sear, use a different cut of pork, make shredded pork without sugar, add BBQ sauce before or after, or cook your roast bone-in or boneless....get all of your questions answered!

While many serious meat masters slow cook or smoke meat all. day. long. many of us don't have time for that. Making pulled pork in an Instant Pot is the next best way to get meat that will have everyone believing you slow cooked it like a grill master! 

Main ingredients

• 4 lb pork butt, bone-in (or pork shoulder roast). 3 lb if boneless
• pork rub mix - our homemade recipe or your favorite store-bought brand
• avocado oil or olive oil
• liquid (chicken broth, beef broth, apple or pineapple juice)
• BBQ sauce
• optional- liquid smoke

Pork Rub Ingredients

We highly recommend making your own pork rub, once you start making it in bulk, you'll never go back to less tasty store-bought versions!

Our rub recipe will make MORE than you need for this batch of instant pot BBQ pork, which is a good thing! It keeps for months in a jar and that means you already have some on hand for the next time you make pulled pork.

• 1 tablespoon cumin 
• 1  tablespoon chili powder
• 1 Tbsp ground garlic
• 1 Tbsp  ground onion powder 
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika 
• 2 tablespoon sea salt 
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper 
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper 
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar (or 2 tablespoon golden monk fruit for a no sugar option)

Supplies Used

• Pressure Cooker- For the Instant pot pulled pork recipe, you'll need a pressure cooker. It doesn't need to be an IP brand, but here's the Instant Pot model we used for the recipe.
• Meat shredded claws - A fork or electric mixer works too
• Rubber Handled Tongs

Cooking instructions

Take the pork butt/pork shoulder out of the fridge 30 minutes before cook time. Starting to bring the roast up to room temperature means the meat cooks more evenly and simply, turns out even better!

Step 1. Preheat the Instant Pot to Saute High and add 2 tablespoon of oil to the pot. While you're waiting for the pot to give you the Hot signal, you'll want to cut your meat into large chunks and add the dry mix.

Step 2. Cut the pork roast into 4 large pieces. If it's boneless pork that's really easy to get similar sized hunks of meat. If you have bone-in pork roast you can do this one of two ways: either leave the bone attached to one of the large chunks of meat OR carefully cut the bone off of the meat.

Step 3. Sprinkle the pork with the rub mix. Press the rub into the pork with clean hands to help make sure the seasoning stays on the pork butt and doesn't just fall to the bottom of the Instant Pot.

Step 4. Sear the pork roast pieces on each side for 3-4 minutes until brown. It'll be a snug fit in the pot, but all pork pieces will fit. Do not peek at the pork until you're ready to flip it over, you won't want to keep it from browning to a nice crisp. And be sure not to fry it on each side for too long, otherwise the pork rub will start to burn.

Step 5. You'll need to deglaze the pot to avoid getting the burn signal during cooking. Press the Cancel button to stop the pot from cooking before you deglaze. To do this, remove the pork pieces and set aside on a plate.

Add the half cup of liquid-like chicken broth, beef broth, apple juice or pineapple juice and scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Basically, just deglaze the pot with whatever liquid you're planning to add to help bring the pot to pressure.

Add the 1 teaspoon of optional liquid smoke now if you're using it.

Step 6. Add the pork back to the Instant Pot and pour ½ cup+ of BBQ sauce over the top. Turn the pot to Manual High (or Pressure Cook depending on your model) for 60 minutes. Our pot took about 15 minutes to come to pressure.

Step 7. Natural release for 10  minutes before doing a quick release of the remaining pressure in the pot. Once the pin drops, you can open your lid.

Step 8. Shred and serve. Let the pork cool down slightly for 5-10 minutes before shredding. Shred the meat in a large bowl, and some liquid from the pot for extra moisture.

We served the pulled pork with a simple homemade coleslaw on Hawaiian rolls to make pulled pork sliders for a family party, these are also terrific as lettuce wraps when you're cutting back on carbs. A super easy meal that's always everyone's favorite! 

Jenni's tips

• Cutting the roast into 4 pieces when the bone is attached can be a little tricky. Some of the meat hunks will have the bone attached and others won't. Just cut them into as equal sizes as you can. Trust me, it'll work!
• You can skip the searing, but if you have the time it gives the pork roast the "burnt ends" crispy pieces; plus helps to lock in moisture and flavor.
• Adding liquid smoke is totally optional. We actually didn't add it but many people love that smokey flavor. Just 1 teaspoon is all that's recommended.
• Making this a sugar free recipe - use golden monk fruit in place of brown sugar in the rub. There are also multiple sugar-free BBQ sauces on the market, our favorite is this brand.
• Be sure to scrape up the meat bits on the bottom of the pot after searing to avoid the burn signal.

Storage and leftovers

Having shredded pork, beef, or chicken on hand makes putting together a last-minute meal so easy! Use it for pulled pork sandwiches, sliders, on tacos, on nachos, topping a pizza, as lettuce wraps, or in salads.

• Leftovers will keep in the fridge up to 5 days.
• Freezing- We recommend dividing the shredded pressure cooker pork roast (seasoned or unseasoned) into 4 quart-sized bags or split the batch in two and put it into 2 gallon-sized bags. It'll keep in the freezer for up to 2-3 months.
• For longer storage, it's worth it to invest in something like a Foodsaver that preserves meat even longer, like 6-12 months.

Reader questions

Serving ideas

Our favorite pulled pork side dishes

• Instant pot corn on the cob 
• Mexican street corn salad 
• Healthy coleslaw
• Warm German potato salad (no mayo)
• Buns - pretzel or sweet buns

More Instant Pot pork recipes

• Instant pot bratwurst
• Instant pot sausage and peppers
• Instant Pot boneless pork ribs
• Pressure cooker baby back ribs

Recipe