Instant Pot Pork Adobo
Adobo is often referred to as the Filipino national dish, an irresistible medley of rich tangy sauce and meltingly tender meat. The Instant Pot is ideal for making Pork Adobo because you can sauté the ingredients, cook the meat in minutes instead of hours, then reduce the stock without using a second pot. You could even use the Instant Pot to crisp the optional garlic topping but that’s a little risky because you don’t want it to burn; I use a separate nonstick pan for this. Serves 8.
Ingredients:
3 lb pork shoulder or pork butt, cut into 1 ½ cubes (roughly; follow the separation of the muscles when cutting)
1 T cooking oil
1 large onion, sliced thin
4 garlic cloves, chopped
½ t peppercorns
¾ t Kosher salt
¼ c water
¼ c soy sauce
¼ c white vinegar or Datu Puti cane vinegar*
2 bay leaves
Additional salt, ground black pepper and possibly vinegar to taste
For the optional garlic topping:
5 cloves chopped garlic (a bit less than ¼ c)
A bit of cooking oil
Method: heat oil on Sauté Normal setting and sauté pork cubes in 2 or 3 batches, turning frequently, till all sides are lightly browned and crisp. (This helps them keep their shape in the advanced stage of tenderness.) Reserve meat and add sliced onion and garlic and cook till softened, 3-4 minutes. Add peppercorns, salt, water, soy sauce, ¼ c vinegar and bay leaves; if your polk shoulder has bones then add them too and pick the meat off after.
Seal and cook on High 25 minutes with natural release. When pressure has released, remove meat from pan and cook down stock with Sauté Normal setting till reduced by half. Taste for seasoning; I deliberately used less vinegar for a very slight sour note and will typically add another ¼ cup at this point, plus ½ t of ground pepper.
For optional garlic topping, cook the chopped garlic in oil in a nonstick pan over low heat so it becomes fragrant and browned but not burnt. You could also clean the Instant Pot and sauté the garlic in there but the heat is a little high and you will have to watch it like a hawk, stirring constantly.
Serve Instant Pot Pork Adobo over white rice and top each portion with fried garlic, if using. Serve piping hot.
*Pinoy cooks like Lalaine, who was partly the inspiration for this recipe, recommend cane vinegar but I’ve found it to have a mild taste not too different from distilled white vinegar. If you want to be authentic, you can order Datu Puti from Amazon.
