Instant Pot mojo pork is a citrus garlic pork that’s packed with flavor! This tender Cuban pork recipe is delicious with rice and beans.
If you haven’t tried mojo, then you are in for a treat! Mojo is a citrus garlic sauce or marinade that works really well with chicken and pork.
This Instant Pot mojo pork is a version of the Cuban favorite, and the pressure cooker helps to make the pork super tender and really infuses the meat with all of the delicious mojo sauce!
How to make mojo pork in the Instant Pot
To make the spice blend, stir together the cumin, paprika, oregano, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Set aside.
Press SAUTE on the Instant Pot. When HOT, add oil and swirl to coat inner pot.
Add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook, stirring the entire time, for 30 seconds.
Press CANCEL.
Add the pork and 1 cup of the orange juice. Stir to combine.
Sprinkle the seasoning blend over the pork.
Close and lock the lid. Turn the pressure release valve to SEALING. Press MANUAL high pressure and adjust the cooking time to 40 minutes.
When cooking time has finished, let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. Carefully turn the pressure release valve to VENTING, to release any remaining pressure.
Unlock and remove the lid. Remove the pork to a bowl.
Shred with two forks. Skim fat from the cooking liquid and discard any chunks of fat.
Press CANCEL.
Press SAUTE, and bring the cooking liquid to a boil, stirring regularly, until liquid has reduced to 1 cup, about 10-15 minutes. Press CANCEL.
Stir in the remaining ¼ cup orange juice and the lime juice. Return pork to cooking liquid, and toss to coat.
Serve with fresh cilantro.
Tips
- Kosher salt: Sea salt makes a good substitute. If you don’t have kosher or sea salt, you can use ½ teaspoon of table salt in place of the kosher salt.
- Pork: A pork shoulder roast, or similar cut, can be substituted.
- Trimming the pork: I trim off big pieces of fat to keep it from being greasy, but I don’t remove all of the fat. The fat helps to keep the meat from drying out as it cooks.
- Olive oil: A similar neutral oil, like vegetable or canola, can be substituted for the olive oil.
- Serving suggestions: I have additional serving suggestions listed above the recipe.
Serving Suggestions
The pork is great served with white rice and black beans. I top it with pico de gallo, fresh cilantro, and fresh diced avocado or guacamole.
You can also serve it with a slice of fresh lime to squeeze over the top of the meat.
More Cuban-inspired Instant Pot recipes!
If you’ve tried this Instant Pot Mojo Chicken recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!
You can FOLLOW ME on PINTEREST or FACEBOOK even more delicious food.
Instant Pot Mojo Pork
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 pounds boneless pork butt trimmed and cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion finely chopped, about 1 cup
- 8 garlic cloves minced
- 1 ¼ cups fresh orange juice divided
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- To make the spice blend, stir together the cumin, paprika, oregano, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper.
- Set aside.
- Press SAUTE on the Instant Pot.
- When HOT, add oil and swirl to coat inner pot.
- Add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, until softened, about 3 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic and cook, stirring the entire time, for 30 seconds.
- Press CANCEL.
- Add the pork and 1 cup of the orange juice.
- Stir to combine.
- Sprinkle the seasoning blend over the pork.
- Close and lock the lid.
- Turn the pressure release valve to SEALING.
- Press MANUAL high pressure and adjust the cooking time to 40 minutes.
- When cooking time has finished, let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes.
- Carefully turn the pressure release valve to VENTING, to release any remaining pressure.
- Unlock and remove the lid.
- Remove the pork to a bowl.
- Shred with two forks.
- Skim fat from the cooking liquid and discard any chunks of fat.
- Press CANCEL.
- Press SAUTE, and bring the cooking liquid to a boil, stirring regularly, until liquid has reduced to 1 cup, about 10-15 minutes.
- Press CANCEL.
- Stir in the remaining ¼ cup orange juice and the lime juice.
- Return pork to cooking liquid, and toss to coat.
- Serve with fresh cilantro.
Notes
- Kosher salt: Sea salt makes a good substitute. If you don’t have kosher or sea salt, you can use 1/2 teaspoon of table salt in place of the kosher salt.
- Pork: A pork shoulder roast, or similar cut, can be substituted.
- Olive oil: A similar neutral oil, like vegetable or canola, can be substituted for the olive oil.
- Serving suggestions: I have additional serving suggestions listed above the recipe.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutritional values were calculated using a third-party tool and are provided as an estimation only.
Sharing this recipe with a link is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying/pasting and/or screenshots of full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Content and photographs are copyright protected.
Did You Make This?
Don’t forget to leave a rating below below and make sure to follow on Pinterest and Instagram for more!
Can you use pork loin instead?
Hi! I wouldn’t recommend pork loin for this recipe. Pork loin is much leaner than pork butt or pork shoulder, and it tends to dry out with longer cook times.
I’m a little confused. None of the juices or seasonings added any flavor the pork, and I feel like taking the time to cook down the liquid just made it less tender. This is a lot of time and extra ingredients to get the same result you would get if you just cooked the pork normally with something acidic and then drained and seasoned/sauced it up later.
Hopefully this will clear up some of your confusion!
It sounds like you’re looking for plain pulled pork. You could certainly cook pork with no seasoning and then sauce it later, but then you wouldn’t have mojo pork because ingredients like the seasonings and garlic are what make this dish mojo pork, as opposed to just pulled pork.
Cooking the meat with onion, garlic, and spices adds more flavor than cooking the meat without any sort of seasoning; however, you can always re-season and adjust the flavors after cooking.
Also, the meat is removed before you boil down the liquid. Boiling down the liquid helps to concentrate the flavors, and adding the shredded pork back into the concentrated liquid, gives the meat even more flavor.
I’ve made mojo pork in the Crock-Pot, and mojo chicken in the oven, but this recipe was SO much better than either of them. This was juicy and full of flavor where previous attempts were almost bland. I made this as part of a Cuban night with fried plantains, ham croquetas, and guava pastries. Tomorrow night I plan on using leftover pork as taco filling.
Thank you! I’m so glad that you liked the pork!