Instant Pot Smoked Pulled Pork
I have been a fan of slow smoking pork shoulder for quite some time now. I started out with a cheap electric cooker that was dead simple to operate. Soak some chips, put some water in the pan, and check in on it every 1/2 hour or so. Simple. Of course, this takes time (~12hrs) to get to the proper temperature so I would set my alarm to get up and get the smoke going. I would then sweat it until the proper temp was reached and then scramble to get dinner on the table it time for guests to arrive (always celebrate a good smoke!). This was fun the first few times, but I honestly started to wonder if I was just following the herd or if this was all really necessary.
So, I started looking for a different, hopefully more efficient, way of delivering awesome results. I pretty quickly learned to smoke for the first few hours in the smoker and then transfer it to the oven to finish slow. After all, you can really only smoke a piece of meat so much before the smoke ring is as thick as it is going to be and the bark is well formed. This allowed me time to clean up outside while the pork did its thing. However, the total time was always about the same. I ended up upgrading my grill to a kamodo style one and found that smoking on this beast took things to a whole ‘nother level and that poor electric grill went into storage. While the results were excellent, and the grill can really hold a low-and-slow temp, I found that the length of time to finish was still long and was just becoming an annoyance. I would often avoid making the culinary perfection known as pulled pork because I did not feel like being chained to the smoker all day. There had to be a better way.
Enter the Instant Pot. I know, I know, sacrilegious. Raw pork shoved into a pot and drenched in sauce, steamed under pressure, and then calling itself pulled pork. But hear me out! I wanted to combine methods to deliver an authentic smoked pulled pork in a third of the time. I started my research and was a bit disheartened by the lack of postings on the subject. Was this a stupid idea? Undeterred, I combined ideas from various forums and came up with a plan.
The Plan:
1.) Prep an 8-10 lbs pork butt/shoulder as you would normally do. I like trimming the fat and using a simple dry rub and letting it rest in the fridge over night. No getting around the prep work!
2.) Place in the smoker for 4 hours until a beautiful bark was developed. Shoot for ~165 degrees in the center.
3.) Add ~1 cup of apple juice to the IP and put in the little rack.
4.) Chop the butt into smaller chunks so it can fit in the pot.
5.) Cook on high for 40 minutes and let it naturally depressurize (takes about an hour, total).
6.) That’s it. Roughly 4-5 hours from start to finish. Beautiful.
Results:
I came in as an optimistic skeptic but left as an enthusiastic fan. Honestly, I am not sure I have had pulled pork this good. The smoke flavor was nice and intense and the bark ended up moist and edible. The meat was extremely moist and shredded like a dream. I got to tell you, I don’t see myself going back to the “smoker only” method. If I can’t tell a difference between the long way and the short way, I tend to go the short way. No points for needless pain. I would not invest in an Instant Pot JUST to shave time off a smoke, but if you are planning on using it for other dishes (and you absolutely should) then I say go for it!
Next up: How about ribs or a brisket? I need to get on it!
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Hey,
So glad I found this! I have family coming over Saturday that want my pulled pork but I have to work the night before and would not have near enough time to smoke it the traditional way. I have a question for you. Normally when I smoke a Boston Butt I smoke until an internal temperature of 165°F then foil wrap it and return to the smoker (without the smoke, just heat) until an internal temperature of around 200-205°F, then remove it and let it rest in a sealed cooler for a few hours, then pull.
You said you smoked your butt for 6 hours, is that when you hit 165° in that particular butt? Or do you just do a 6 hour smoke despite the internal temperature and take it to the Instant Pot and finish until you hit the “pulling temperature?”
Thanks and I can’t wait to try this!!
Yep, I was in the same boat when I gave this method a try. I don’t mind a long smoke, but sometimes life gets in the way! The goal is to smoke it long enough to get a good crust going and to reach that point where you can’t add any more flavor from smoking. This is mostly a time and visual thing, not an internal temp thing, so I honestly don’t check the temperature. If I had to guess, I would say that it is somewhere around 165 when I pull it because the meat is cooked, but tough, when I go to chop it up. Even if you are a bit low, the pressure cooker will finish it off. So I just smoke it nice and low for 5-6 hours and then move it to the pressure cooker to reach the pull temp. I have repeated this recipe many times now and the results never disappoint. Good luck and let me know how it turns out!
Found this article by googling “instant pot” “pulled pork” and smoker as I was wondering the same thing. Thanks for sharing it and the tips.
I am currently at the end of a 19 hour 225 degree pulled pork night smoke in an electric smoker. Will try your IP method next time to compare results. Hoping my conclusion will be the same as yours!
Whoa! 19 Hours!? You have the patience of some sort of pork loving saint. Please let us know how the two compare. BTW, I love my electric smoker too, though between my kamado grill and instant pot I really haven’t looked back.
This was great. I was thinking I could do this and your post confirmed it. I smoked my meat until it hit 190 degrees. About 6 hours at 300 degrees. Then popped into pressure cooker for 20 minutes on high with some chicken stock liquid. It was perfect!
Thank you! This may be too late to get a reply (I’ve already started smoking), but can you give advice on how to use the IP for this application? Just hit “meat” and 60 min, with “sealing” on?
No need for liquid, right? I was going to transfer around the stall, ~165 (to your point)
Thanks again! Looking forward to trying this technique
Sorry, very late response. Must have missed this on. But just in case anyone else is wondering: Just use the manual setting for the instapot, add a cup of liquid (apple juice or even water), and seal it. As a side not, I have starting using the instapot on my deck for this recipe rather than inside the house. This will release a ton of steam when it is done. This smells awesome…but might be a bit much inside your house. Just do it outside.
So, I love this post for a variety of reasons! I’ve been playing around with hybrid smoking/pressure-cooking since I’ve gotten my instant pot, and I completely agree that there’s a frustratingly small amount of information on how to do it *right*.
I’m planning on doing a beef brisket at some point over the weekend, and I know I want to smoke for a few hours, then finish in the instant pot with a bit of flavored liquid. The sticking point is that there is absolutely no guidance on how to time your pressure cooking once the meat has been partially cooked. How did you determine the best amount of time to cook the pulled pork in the instant pot? As a fellow engineer and cook, it’s hard to balance the determination that comes from “you can tell by looking, smelling, feeling and knowing” that comes kitchen training vs. the “this is a matter of heat transfer” that comes from engineering.
Hey Steven – I totally understand your comment like only a fellow engineer could. The instant pot is not very precise, in terms of cooking time, so it is hard to guess right the first time you try something. However, I have found that it generally doesn’t matter if you overcook cook it. You don’t look moisture in the cooking process so you can’t end up with dry meat or burned meat…but you can end up with mush if you go WAY to far. The main failure mode would be under cooking, which can be remedied by repeating the cycle for a a few additional minutes. Annoying, but you learn from it and still have a great meal. Of course, if we are talking about hard boiled eggs then timing is everything. The good news here is that the instant pot is both repeatable and reproducible instrument. So, 10 medium size eggs and 1/4 cup of water cooked at high pressure 5 minutes and then chilled in an ice bath should give all of us the same result (just over soft boiled). Now, if you have slightly larger eggs, or want to do 4 eggs, than things have to be adjusted. So you need to figure out what works for you by taking measurements, adjusting, and writing it down (and share it with others!). Now, as far as the brisket is concerned, start from a responsible spot (I don’t know, something like 25 minutes on high, depressurize for 10) while also noting the weight of the meat you are cooking, how much liquid you added, and that pressure/cook/sit time. Repeat for 10 minutes if you don’t like the results. Once you dial it in, or find someone else’s dialed in process, then you could be able to reproduce. Thanks for the comment. Hope this is helpful. And share a recipe once you dial it in.
I have used the smoker/Instant pot with pulled pork, ribs and brisket. I have yet to be disappointed, and have saved many Saturday afternoons with this process.
What do you think that impact would be of reversing this process, doing the Instapot 1st and then smoking for 4-5 hours? It seems that when I put the meat with the nice bark in the Instapot, after it steams, the bark loses some of its flavor and there is less smokey flavor. It would mean that the smaller pieces would have to go on the grill, which could lead to some drying, especially since some of the fat would have rendered out in the Instapot.
What do think the impact would be of reversing the order, doing much of the cooking in the instapot (IP) and then finishing on the smoker so that the bark is crispy and the rub doesn’t “wash off” in the steam? The smaller pieces would go on the smoker, and some of the fat would have rendered out in the IP. Do you think that this would lead to drying?
Hi Greg. Interesting question. My initial thought was “no way”, but then the engineer in me started to kick in. Here are my concerns and what you might be able to about it:
1.) It is tough to time the instapot to cook to a precise temperature. You typically just overshoot the final “done” temperature without any risk of drying out because of all the moisture. If you overshoot in this case then the the butt would likely fall apart as you try to get it to the smoker. So you would need to figure out how to cook it to ~165 degrees before removing from the pot.
2.) I would expect the smoke quality would be significantly reduced because of the difference between how raw meat and cooked meat when it come to smoke penetration. I could be wrong here since I have never tested it, but this has to make a difference. We would need to experiment and find out. I wonder of the loss of bite here is greater than the loss of bite coming out of the instapot.
3.) I would expect the meat to be dried out because you would now be dealing with several smaller chunks of meat rather than a whole butt. Plus, as you said, some of the fat may get rendered out before have a chance to impact the meat. Again, we won’t know until somebody tries it.
Let us know if you went for it. I would love to know how it turns out.
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been using sous vide prior to smoke with excellent results. Sous vide actually adds time (24 hrs), but its completely unattended and reliable so it’s significantly reduced the stress of a long smoke. Also, most of the fat renders in the bag so there is minimal mess in the smoker. I’ve found that a 3-4 hour smoke after sous vide provides plenty of smoke flavor and great bark. Was planning to use this method for a Labor day smoke but was notified that our power company will be shutting power off overnight due to wildfire danger and it could be off for a day. I have a backup generator but not for 24 hours. This should save my smoke. Thanks.
What a great idea. I like to Sous Vide as well and admit that I never thought of trying it for pulled pork. I will have to give this a shot and see how it turn out.
I would have to try it out and see how it went. But according to another poster, sous vide then smoking seems to work well. So it is worth a shot.
This worked perfectly for me! 5 hours on the Weber, 40 minutes in the Instant Pot produced what I have been trying to achieve since we sold the Green Egg! Thank you for the post. Sous Vide interesting as well. I may try that in the future to get the bark back.
Glad it worked! Thanks so much for the feedback.
This is an awesome method. Tried it over Labor Day weekend and it was delicious. Smoked pulled pork in a single day is crazy. Thanks again.
I season my pork butt with a coat of mustard and a generous amount of Meat Church Honey Bacon Bbqand refrigerate overnight. Tomorrow I’ll fire up my pellet smoker using Lumber Jack Maple-Hickory-Cherry blend along with a smoke tube for extra smoke to 225. I’ll put a water pan in and smoke for 6 hours or between 155-165 whichever gets there first.
I’ll pull it and cut it into 3 pieces while I’m preparing the 8qt instant pot with 1 cup apple juice, 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce. Turn pressure on high for 30 minutes with a natural release, remove the top, bone and the pork. Shred the meat and add a sprinkle of the Honey Bacon rub then eat until you can’t eat any more
Okay, this sounds awesome. I might follow this recipe the next time I fire up the grill. Thanks for chiming in!
I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while and have it in the works now. I have my butt on the BGE. Plan is go till around 140-150F and then move it to the Instant Pot for the big finish. I’ve done this with Corned Beef Briskets to make Pastrami. If you are looking for a good Pastrami recipe that uses a similar method to this, check out Third Eye’s recipe on his Playing with Fire and Smoke blog. Thanks for the tips!
Actually doing this right now after reading this article. I wanted to save time, and I knew from doing a brisket a couple weeks back that I could start in smoker and finish in oven. My curiosity kicked in and thought to search “finish pork shoulder in instant pot”. So glad I found this bit of info. It’s in the pot right now, Thanks.
Today is the 4th time I have come back to your site to read the specs for Instant Pot Smoked Pulled Pork. We LOVE it and it turns out amazing every time! We smoke it on our Green Mountain Grill at 265 degrees. We most commonly use the boneless pork shoulder butt from Costco. Thank you!