Instead of braising in the oven all day, enjoy healthy Pressure Cooker Pork Roast with Apple Gravy.
This is the perfect fall dinner that is ready in little more than an hour.
Why this recipe works:
Instant pot recipes are the absolute best when it comes to dinner time. I have a serious love affair with my pressure cooker. It has completely replaced my crockpot.
- Pork and apples one one of the best pairings!
- A pork shoulder (or pork butt) roast would typically take all day to cook in a slow cooker or in the oven. When using the Instant Pot, however, one hour of pressure cooking creates the most tender and moist pork that just falls apart!
- The saute mode allows you to get a nice brown sear on the meat before you pressure cooking it. This not only adds a wonderful crispy texture, but it creates amazing flavor.
- The roast is cooked with onion, apple, broth and herbs. This combination gets infused into the meat. It is also the base for the gravy.
- The gravy gets made right in the Instant Pot, so no additional pots to dirty!
Ingredients needed:
- Pork shoulder roast (also known as pork butt)
- Salt, pepper, olive oil
- One onion and two apples
- Equal parts chicken broth and apple cider
- Fresh rosemary and sage, plus a bay leaf
- Butter and flour for the gravy
How to make this recipe:
- Step one is to sear the meat until it is nicely browned.
- Then you add onion, apple, apple juice, chicken broth, and a whole bunch of fresh herbs. A little savory and a little sweet is the right flavor profile for this meal. Any time you cook in the pressure cooker, you must add liquid!
- Secure the lid and cook on high pressure for 60 minutes with a slow pressure release.
- I cooked down all those wonderful apples and onions along with the juices from the meat, then I strained out all the solids and thickened it up.
- Finally, create a roux using butter and flour. To that you add the strained liquid. The result was a beautiful savory gravy that tasted like a fall harvest. It reminded me of when I was a kid and we had pork chops with apple sauce for dinner, only much better.
Cooking tips:
- If your meat is frozen or cold, that may increase your cooking time. An additional 10-20 minutes should work. Sure beats the 6-8 hours it would take to braise this meat to tender perfection in a dutch oven or crockpot!
- Any kind of apple will work, but I prefer apple that are both tart and sweet. Pink lady or honeycrisp are what I recommend for this recipe.
- I served this dinner up with some wild rice and fresh green beans sauteed in garlic - YUM! Healthy, fast, and fall flavor for the win!!!
Related recipes:
Love the convenience of cooking a roast in the pressure cooker? You'll have to try these recipes!
- Barbacoa Beef for the best quesadillas
- Shredded Beef for enchiladas, burritos, or tacos
- Pot Roast
- French Dip Sandwiches
If you’ve made this or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out. I love hearing from my readers!
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Pressure Cooker Pork Roast with Apple Gravy
Instead of braising in the oven all day, enjoy healthy Pressure Cooker Pork Roast with Apple Gravy as a perfect fall dinner in little more than an hour.
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Scale: servings
Ingredients
- 1 pork shoulder roast (3-5 pounds, bone-in recommended)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion (sliced)
- 2 apples (core removed and sliced)
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 3 fresh sage leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
Instructions
- Rinse and thoroughly dry roast. Any moisture will prohibit a nice crust from forming. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Cut into large chunks that are no larger than about 4 inches wide.
- Heat pressure cooker to browning (saute mode) setting. Heat oil and once hot, add pork roast chunks. You may need to brown them in batches to avoid over crowding. Brown for 5 minutes on both sides. If browning in batches, set the seared pieces aside on a plate and once done browning all the meat, transfer them back to the Instant Pot along with any juices that have accumulated on the plate.
- Add onion, apples, broth, juice, rosemary, sage, and bay leave. Close lid and set to high pressure. Cook at high pressure for 60 minutes. Allow to naturally release pressure once done cooking.
- Once you can remove the lid, carefully remove roast, set on plate, and loosely tent with aluminum foil.
- Strain out all the solids from the liquid by pressing through a fine mesh sieve. Discard solids and reserve the liquid for the gravy.
- Using your the Instant Pot on the saute setting, heat butter and flour in the empty hot pot and allow to cook until golden brown while stirring constantly, about 3-5 minutes. Whisk in the hot liquid to form the gravy and stir well until thoroughly mixed and thickened.
- To serve, shred the pork roast away from the bone and remove any remaining fat. Smother it with the apple gravy.
Notes
- If your meat is frozen or cold, that may increase your cooking time. An additional 10-20 minutes should work. Sure beats the 6-8 hours it would take to braise this meat to tender perfection in a dutch oven or crockpot!
- Any kind of apple will work, but I prefer apple that are both tart and sweet. Pink lady or honeycrisp are what I recommend for this recipe.
- I served this dinner up with some wild rice and fresh green beans sauteed in garlic - YUM! Healthy, fast, and fall flavor for the win!!!
NUTRITION INFORMATION
Calories: 417kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 37g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 138mg | Sodium: 724mg | Potassium: 793mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 220IU | Vitamin C: 8.7mg | Calcium: 41mg | Iron: 2.7mg
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This post was originally created in Sept 2016 and has been updated with more helpful information and cooking tips. Don't worry - I didn't change the recipe!
Paula
Awesome!!
Nancy Espinosa
When a pressure cooker is used for.a recipe, what would be a substitute for cooking on.stove or oven?
Krissy
For this particular recipe, I would braise in a dutch oven on the stove or in the oven for a long time if I didn't have a pressure cooker.
tomo
hi i am tired of pressure cooker recipes lets get over this and go back to how food should be cooked
regards tomo
ps no body answers this so why do i bother
Krissy
What is your question? Happy to answer once I understand what you're asking me.
Lizzy
Unfortunately, not everyone has the time or capability to be home cooking all day long. The fact that the pressure cooker recipes are decently quick and rather DELICIOUS, makes the pressure cooker a brilliant resource for the people who have a busy and/or hectic lifestyle.
Melody S.
We tried this a couple days ago. OMG! it was absolutely awesome! Thanks for sharing the recipe! I'm looking forward to more of them!
Melissa
Really delicious! Followed recipe as written and served with homemade apple sauce, Brussel spouts, and a parsnip-potato mash. My son, who doesn’t love gravy, said this was delicious! He had seconds on the gravy, and then thirds!
Lauren
I have a 5.86 lbs bone in roast I’d like to use for this. Rather than trying to figure out how to cut through the bone for 4” chunks how would I adjust the time if I did it as a whole roast?
Krissy
My rule of thumb for a whole roast is at least 60 minutes on high pressure. Then I see if it is cooked all the way through by inserting a high quality meat thermometer. If it needs to continue cooking, just secure the lid and continue cooking. Super easy!
Michele
I have a 1 pound boneless pork loin roast. What are the things I should modify in terms of the time. This sounds great! thanks 🙂
Michele
actually it's almost 2 pounds...1.6 lbs correction from above
Krissy
You could cut all of the other ingredients in half. Keep in mind that a pork loin roast will need to be sliced and will come out more like pork chops. You won't be able to shred it like in my photos because a pork loin is much more lean than a pork shoulder. I would also reduce the cooking time. Maybe start with 20 minutes and check the meat with a thermometer. You'll want it to be 145-165 degrees. The pork shoulder needs to cook to a much hotter temperature in order to shred, but this cut would just need to hit 145 and then let it rest.
Donna
When you talk about the recipe you talk about using cider. But in the instructions of the recipe and the ingredient list you list apple juice. Since there is a difference in the spices and the tartness between apple cider and apple juice which is the one that you use?
Krissy
Thanks for pointing that out. I changed the recipe to say cider since I only ever use cider. Juice will work, but I find cider yields much more flavor.
Chelli Whelan
Would like to give this a try. If my meat is frozen, I would imagine that searing won’t work— is that correct? Will it still turn out? Thanks!
Krissy
I've actually seared frozen meat. Not ideal and it takes longer, but it is possible. Enjoy! -Krissy
Julie
Great recipe, will do again! I strained the chunks from the gravy, added some more fresh apple juice and zested a half of a fresh peeled apple for a deeper apple flavor. Also, added some diet rootbear, read this from another web site.
Tyler
So simply first time making it turned out great defiantly making that again!!!
MHudak
Excellent. Used 7 lb roast, Next time I will try 4-5 Gala apples for more apple flavor. Such a nice change from pulled pork.
Eryn
I would love to try this... some recipes let you cook from frozen. What adjustments would you make here to allow for that?
Krissy
Hi Eryn, I cook frozen meat in the pressure cooker all the time. I usually just add time to the cooking process and check for doneness when I think it's done. If the internal temp of the pork is not yet at 145 degrees F when you open the lid, just close/lock the lid and add another 10-20 minutes. I've had a really hard time messing up recipes in the Instant Pot like that.