Classic tender Chinese sweet and sour pork with vegetables is a breeze to make in the instant pot or pressure cooker using homemade or bottled sauce.

Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Pork

Sue Lau |  Palatable Pastime

My recipe of the day is for the classic Chinese take-out dish of Sweet and Sour Pork, made quickly in the instant pot or electric  pressure cooker using a quick and easy homemade sweet and sour sauce (or you can use bottled if you like).

More Instant Pot Recipes

For some time, I have been meaning to use my Instant Pot more often – and also,  I am on  sort of a Chinese kick- I joked to my husband that he can consider it “Chinese Week”. I really do make a lot of  Asian food during the cooler months, especially after Christmas, but the bug seems to be biting me hard a bit early this year.

The Turn  of Seasonal  Cooking

I mean, I have gone though my autumn sauerkraut, apple,  and  pumpkin phases. And I have already been doing a bit of holiday food (I have to do it early being a blogger) plus I have started on holiday baking and also lots of soup. So I  guess it  seems natural  to turn the corner with the seasons and make some Chinese.

On  a Chinese Kick

Yesterday I had gone out for lunch to a local  place  and  snagged  some Dan  Dan noodles, Chengdu chicken,  plus some   Szechuan green beans which I shared. I was wanting to go to the larger of the Asian markets nearby to see if I could snag some green Szechuan peppercorn oil  to do a  soup for Fish Friday next month. It was in stock, and I did grab that so hopefully it works out.

I am also planning  to do some  Mongolian Lamb tomorrow-  as I speak I have the meat bathing in a marinade overnight.

The hubs is very  pleased at all the Asian.  I  think he  has been missing it. I know I have!

Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Pork

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Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Pork

You will  likely see a wide range of cooking times for pork  in the instant  pot. The pressure on this one   is at a mere one minute.Of course that doesn’t include the time for the cooker to heat up and build steam. Pork tenderloin cooks wildly fast under pressure. Just trust me on the time- it checks out with the probe and  perhaps even exceeds what I would  roast  it to,  but the meat is still tender and juicy.

Tenderloin itself  is slightly different from pork  loin, which is bigger in diameter and is a different  cut of pork entirely. Of course, you can chop a pork loin for this, but it is slightly more tough than the tenderloin. I  really rather would do  a pork  loin as a pork roast  or you can also  slice those and butterfly for beautiful chops. If you do buy the whole loin  to slice, you can save money and get your chops as thick as you like without paying premium. They will then be perfectly  thick  for stuffing, as in my stuffed  pork  chops.

The sauce is made from scratch here- and  comes together quickly.  Or you can use bottled. It’s not really a big deal. You  will  save a bit of money making it yourself.

Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Pork

Sue Lau

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Inactive Instant Pot Activity (heat and Pressure Release) 20 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Equipment

• Instant Pot or Electric Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

  

Sweet and Sour Sauce :

• 6 ounces canned pineapple juice
• 6 ounces canned tomato paste
• 1/2 cup ginger ale
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch

Pork Cooking Ingredients:

• 1-3/4 pounds pork tenderloin cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 large onion chopped

Cooking liquid:

• 1 cup ginger ale
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Other Ingredients:

• 1 green bell pepper chopped
• 2 cups diced fresh pineapple
• steamed rice for serving

Instructions

 

• Whisk together the ingredients for the sauce in a small saucepan.
• Bring to a boil and stir until thick; keep warm.
• Cube pork and toss with salt and black pepper.
• Heat oil and sesame oil in in the instant pot on the saute setting or use a skillet; brown meat and chopped onion together. If you use the instant pot it probably won't brown as well as the skillet but just turn opaque and that's fine. Just don't overcook the meat here.
• Add the ingredients for the cooking liquid (cup of ginger ale with soy sauce and sesame) along with the chopped bell pepper to the pork and onion in the pot.
• Cover the instant pot, set the valve to seal; cook pork at pressure using the manual setting for one minute; release the steam using the quick release valve and wait for the steam to subside before opening.
• Strain out the meat using a slotted spoon and discard cooking liquid.
• Toss cooked pork and vegetables with the pineapple and the warmed sweet and sour sauce. (We didn't cook the pineapple here and it warms fine by just stirring it in).
• Serve with steamed rice.

Notes

Sauce yields 2-1/2 cups
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com

Keyword Pork Tenderloin, Sweet and Sour Sauce

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Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Pork

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