ALOHA from the Instant Pot!

More unbelievable goodness from the Instant Pot: Soft, sweet, pull-apart Kalua Pork that takes 75 minutes in the magic pot as opposed to eight hours underground! AMAZING!

Instant Pot Kalua Pork

3-4 lb. pork shoulder, seasoned liberally with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 cup beer
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke
2 large bay leaves

Brown the seasoned roast in the olive oil, then add it and everything else to the IP and cook 75 minutes on Meat/Stew with NPR. Remove bay leaves and shred the meat with two forks.

After making the Kalua Pork, I saved the cooking liquid (as I always do!), chilled it overnight, removed the layer of fat on top, and ended up with three cups of flavorful stock. Then I decided to try the rice function on the IP. I cooked two cups of long-grain white rice in the liquid for 12 minutes at low pressure (the default mode on the rice setting).

The rice came out perfect and very tasty, but it did scorch pretty badly on the bottom. I haven't had that problem with brown rice and other grains, especially when you grease the pot with a little oil first. Maybe it doesn't happen when you just use water, or maybe I should do the pot-in-pot method next time. I will keep experimenting with that and report back.

In the meantime, I fried this flavorful rice in a large skillet in a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil along with one shredded carrot, four sliced scallions, two cloves of minced garlic, a cup of frozen peas, a tablespoon of soy sauce, and one whole egg. Then I served the Kalua Pork on top. Make your own take-out, yo!