This North Carolina Instant Pot Pulled Pork recipe is flavorful, tangy, and delicious. Covered in a vinegar-based barbecue sauce and pressure cooked until it shreds beautifully.
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One of my favorite things about North Carolina is the bbq. Fact is, North Carolina has the BEST bbq... at least in my opinion.
I’m a huge fan of vinegar based bbq and prefer it over other kinds of bbq. There’s just something about the tanginess of vinegar and pork that makes my taste buds dance.
I used to make this recipe by placing a huge bone in pork butt in my slow cooker and let it cook all day on low. But now, I use my Pressure Cooker. It cooks much faster without compromising on the same great flavor and the texture is just as amazing.
How to make North Carolina Instant Pot Pulled Pork?
I start by cutting 3 lbs of pork butt into 3 large pieces. I don’t use the bone when making it in the pressure cooker and cutting it allows my meat to cook a little quicker.
I then rub my pieces with a nice homemade bbq rub. You can follow that recipe or buy some from the store.
Once my meat is fully covered, I set it aside and make my vinegar based bbq sauce. Vinegar based bbq sauce is very liquidy, so it’s the perfect sauce to use in your Instant Pot. Sauces that are too thick can cause the dreaded “Burn” signal in the Instant Pot. This sauce won’t do that.
Prepare the vinegar bbq sauce by whisking together apple cider vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, black pepper flakes, and water.
Place pork pieces in the Instant Pot insert and pour 1 ½ cups of the vinegar based bbq sauce over the pork, reserving the remainder of the sauce for later.
Cover and cook on high pressure for 60 minutes. Once done cooking, allow the Pressure Cooker to naturally release for 15 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure.
Remove pork from Instant Pot and serve. Pour reserved Vinegar Bbq sauce over meat for more flavor.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. Enjoy 🙂
Looking for more Instant Pot Pork Recipes? Try this Instant Pot Pork Chops with Gravy Recipe.
This recipe goes great with this Vinegar Coleslaw.
Pin Instant Pot North Carolina Style Pulled Pork for Later
North Carolina Instant Pot Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- 3 lbs pork butt cut into 3 large pieces
- 2-3 Tablespoon bbq rub
- 2 teaspoon liquid smoke
Vinegar Bbq sauce
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ cup water
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Whisk Vinegar Bbq sauce ingredients together, set aside.
- Rub bbq rub over pork pieces, making sure all pieces are fully covered. Place pork in Instant Pot and pour 1 ½ cups of vinegar bbq sauce and liquid smoke in insert. Cover and cook on high pressure for 60 minutes.
- After 60 minutes, allow Instant Pot to naturally release for 10-15 minutes. Quick release remaining pressure.
- Remove pork pieces from Instant Pot and shred. Drizzle with remaining vinegar bbq sauce when serving. Enjoy 🙂
Jennifer says
Hit with the family, they all ate seconds! Thanks!
Tanya says
Yay! So glad everyone like the recipe 🙂
Bryan says
I brought down the carb count for purposes of my low carb lifestyle. I substituted swerve brown sugar for the regular Bs and G Hughes sugar free ketchup for regular ketchup. This may not be everyone's cup of tea but it was still amazing!
Laura says
Excellent NC style bbq! I'm from the Durham area and it tastes just like home. I cheated for shredding and put it in the bowl of my stand mixer with the paddle attachment and shredded it that way.
Tanya says
Thanks Laura! So glad you liked the recipe 🙂 I miss Durham! I lived there for a few years while I attended school. Love that city.
Christina says
This was phenomenal! It was as simple to make as it was delicious. Next time we will definitely make more so that we can see what it's like the next day since we ate it all. It does make plenty of sauce, but it keeps and we will be using the juice to make shredded chicken. Thank you for making our Sunday dinner a roaring success!
Beverly says
Living in the piedmont region of NC, I know a lot about good barbecue. I had been making ours in the slow cooker and decided to try it in the Instant Pot. My local grocery store had boston butt on sale and the smallest one available was 7 lbs. I have an 8 quart and decided to give it a try. I cut the meat in small chunks and cut out the bone, and followed your recipe exactly, for the rub, the sauce and directions. My family loved this barbecue, and stated it was as good as the barbecue from our favorite local barbecue joint. I will use your recipe again and again. Thanks for sharing!!!
Tanya says
Thanks so much Beverly! Glad you liked the recipe 🙂
Sharon says
Is there a reason to make so much sauce? I threw half of it away. I suppose it could be cut in half and it would still be enough, correct? I used less salt in the rub and the sauce. It made good sandwiches.
Tanya says
Hi Sharon, You can cut the sauce in half. I like to have some leftover sauce to throw on the bbq once it's done and save some for later. As long as there's enough sauce to pour 1 cup of liquid into the pressure cooker.
Francesco says
Hi Tanya,
My partner is from North Carolina and I want to try to make this for her...but I don't have a pressure cooker. I do have a slow cooker tho, and it looks like I could use similar quantities here. My question is Do you know at what temperature I should cook it in a slow cooker? (i've only done pulled pork in a dutch oven so far)...thanks!
Tanya says
Hi Francesco, you can do either 8-10 hours on low or 3-4 on high in the slow cooker.
Tanya says
I should also note that if you're using the slow cooker, you don't need to cut the pork up into smaller chunks.
Carolyn G says
This is now a family favorite......great balanced spices and super juicy and tender.
Only one problem......not one bite of pork left!!!
Can’t wait to fix this again YUM 😋
Tanya says
lol, so glad you liked the recipe 🙂
Bill W says
This is amazing! I browned mine after applying rub on convect roast for 20 minutes and then cooked in instant pot. Amazing!
Tanya says
Thanks Bill! And great idea with the browning 🙂
Jami Ramey says
I absolutely LOVED this recipe! I made it in my instantpot tonight and couldn't believe how good it was in under an hour and 15 minutes! I could eat that sauce over ice cream. Heck! I could drink it alone! I loved it! Will definitely make this often!
Kevin says
As a NC expat living in California it’s certainly hard to find anything that resembles Carolina BBQ (which means vinegar based pork; I don’t recognize the rest). This was great- I used about half of the ketchup, and you don’t notice the mustard. Agree with other posters that more chili flakes will only help it. Definitely recommend this recipe!!! Thank you!
Tanya says
Thank you so much Kevin 🙂
Tessa says
Do you need to add the liquid smoke?
Tanya says
Hi Tessa, you can leave it out.
ian says
@Tanya, where do you add it? im very new to this
Jon says
How would recommend upping the cook time if you were to make 4lbs of pork instead of 3?
Tanya says
You would keep the time the same. As long as the meat is cut into large chunks rather than one whole piece it will cook in the 60 minutes.
Ashley says
I loved the well balanced flavor, not overly sweet with a little kick of spice. I used creole seasoning to give a little extra kick and it was great, I would even possibly put a bit more chili flakes. I always prefer a vinegar based sauce, so this will definitely be a new staple in our kitchen!
Tanya says
Thanks so much Ashley! So glad you enjoyed it. I like the addition of that creole seasoning.
KATHERINE says
@Tanya, What would the time be if the meat is not cut up and has the bone? Thank you
Tanya says
Hi Katherine, a good bit longer. The last time I did that, it was about 90 minutes, but it depends on how large it is. If it's not done. I would just add it back and add more time. The machine comes to pressure quickly if you have to add more time.
Elizabeth says
My grandparents on both side lived in the south and so I have had southern bbq before. Now I live in Kansas and so don't have access to this kind of bbq in restaurants. I made this probably six months ago and it was great. My grocery store did not have pork butt and so I used pork shoulder I think and it worked out fine. If my grandfather were still alive I would make this for him. I plan on making this again, I just need to find an appropriate cut of meat in my grocery store.
Angela says
@Elizabeth, pork butt is pork shoulder. It's not literally the porks butt