Easy Pressure Cooker Pork Chile Verde Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is pork better in slow cooker or pressure cooker? ›

Slow cooking the meat means it never has the chance to toughen up and will be extra silky and tender. Pressure cooking is faster, though you may lose a little bit of the tenderness. If you're going for the pressure cook method, be sure to get a pork shoulder or pork butt, as opposed to a pork loin.

While it is possible to overcook pulled pork in the Instant Pot, it's very unlikely if you are using pork shoulder or butt. The pork should get more tender the longer it cooks. If using pork loin, which is leaner, you can overcook it.

In Spanish, chili verde means “green chili” and refers to the fruit people often use to give heat to dishes they are cooking. So, on the one hand, chili verde is an ingredient. On the other hand, green chili is a complete dish with which many people are familiar.

As a general guide, pork loin or tenderloin can be cooked in about 20-30 minutes on high pressure, while larger cuts like pork shoulder or ribs may need 45 minutes to an hour.

Overcooking can cause the meat to become dry, tough, and difficult to shred. Similarly, if you don't cook the pork long enough, it may be undercooked and tough. It's also important to avoid using a quick release or pressure, as this can cause the pork to seize and toughen.

The cut comes from closer to the shoulder (as the name implies!), where the muscles are a bit tougher and have more connective tissue. This is a good thing for slow cooking since it means the cuts become more tender as they cook.

And while many other recipes call to sear the meat before adding to the pressure cooker, I'm here to tell you that this step is unnecessary! No need to waste your time since the meat is shredded and enjoyed in that thick, rich liquid after cooking. Therefore, you won't even notice a sear, so don't waste your time.

Use the Right Ingredients: Tough cuts of meat, such as beef chuck or pork shoulder, benefit the most from searing before pressure cooking. However, you can also sear vegetables and seafood to enhance their flavor.

Brown it

Pressure cooked food doesn't brown so it's worth doing this at the start of cooking before adding liquid and putting the lid on. Meat looks and tastes more appetising with a little browning. Onions, garlic and spices also benefit in the flavour stakes from pre-cooking.

To thicken the chili, in a bowl mix together the masa harina with 2 table spoons of the chili liquid. Stir this back into the pot, along with the remaining 1/2 cup cilantro and the lime juice. Cook until the chili has thickened, 10 more minutes.

What is the best pepper for green chili? ›

Anaheim peppers are another suitable green chili you could swap for poblanos. You can also, of course, use fresh Pueblo or Hatch Green chiles if you have access to them too. Jalapeño Peppers. Since poblanos are the milder cousin to classic hatch, I reached for a few jalapeños to kick up the heat.

Serve the Chile Dish With Cream, Cheese, or Lime Juice

Acidic ingredients also neutralize capsaicin's burn somewhat, so squeezing some fresh lime juice on a spicy food can help a bit.

A brine is essentially just salt and water. It helps prevent moisture loss during cooking, and the salt also helps tenderize the meat from the inside out.

But there's a reason that food is cooked faster and becomes tender quicker in a pressure cooker. That pressure can be applied for too long, and in the extreme case with meat you may end up with either mushy or over-dry and fibrous meat.

Brine the pork.

Brining involves soaking your meat in salt water to increase the tenderness and moistness of the final dish. Brines always contain salt and water, but can also include other ingredients for added flavor like apple cider, brown sugar, rosemary, and thyme.

Nothing that a little sauce can't fix, and it does mean you get more of the pork flavor, but they're not as nuanced. And the winner is: The slow cooker, but just by a hair (by a rib?). If you're pressed for time, pressure cooker is the way to go.

Traditionally cheaper cuts of meat always slow cook better. Slow cooking breaks down the connective collagen in meat, which turns into unctuous gelatine. This creates that soft and tender mouth feel we all crave.

Tenderises Tough Cuts: Slow cookers excel at turning tough cuts of meat into fork-tender delicacies.

As for convenience, because a pressure cooker cooks so darn fast, you aren't sacrificing all that much on that front, either. Anything that takes eight hours to cook in a slow cooker can be cooked in about 45 minutes in a pressure cooker, and most things cook much, much faster even than that.