Pressure Cooker Garlicky Cuban Pork Recipe (2024)

Can you prepare this recipe in a slow cooker?

Using a blend of orange and lime is more authentic - closer to the sour orange that would be used in the real deal.

What if you don't have a pressure cooker or slow cooker? Can someone give me oven setting and timing?

I have made this dish many times and love it. I am in the process of browning the meat for a batch right now while I write this. Melissa says in the recipe to brown it in the Instant Pot on the high saute setting. Yes, that is too hot. I learned many batches ago to use the saute function for this on the medium setting.

My husband loved this! We don’t have a pressure cooker, so I used crockpot at one hour on high, three hours on low, then dumped all into a wide, shallow pot on medium-high and reduced until juices almost gone. At that point, it all caramelized nicely. Used three pounds of meat and served four. Served with pico, hot sauce, avocado crema, fire-roasted salsa, cilantro, tortillas, and lime slices. Keeper!

A fantastic recipe with incredible flavor. I followed the pressure cooker instructions exactly. However, I hand-prepared the marinade (grating the garlic and fine-chopping the oregano; no need to dirty a food processor, just whisk it in the bowl you plan to marinate in). It came out incredibly tender and flavorful. A+!

If you don't have a pressure cooker or instant pot, after browning the pork on the stove, add the reserved marinade, cover pan tightly with foil, and bake in the oven at 225 degrees for 4 to 5 hours. Works just as well.

It was really good — I ended up putting the shredded pork under the broiler on a sheet pan with the separated fat, similar to carnitas. Nothing but rave reviews from my friends.

Delicious! Next time I will add some heat...a jalepeno, fresno or even a thai chili. As I have no multi-cooker I cooked it for 6 hours on high in my slow cooker...perfect. I served this with a citrus slaw made with napa cabbage and red bell pepper, Cuban-style black beans & rice. A spicy salsa was a good compliment. A complete fan-fav!

Fantastic. Had about 3.5 lbs of pork shoulder but kept proportions the same, cooked in instant pot for 70 min, manually released pressure after 15 minutes of natural release. Used dried oregano and added a whole sliced onion on top of the pork. The onion pretty much disintegrates and adds some sweetness and body to the sauce.

Yep, why are so many Cuban dishes confused with Mexican dishes? The recipe in and of itself is very similar to a ropa vieja or pernil dish my family used to cook. It’s definitely not an authentic Cuban dish to eat it with tortillas. Eat with Cuban rice and beans instead. So delicious!

I have made this recipe several times and love it. I've gotten increasingly lazy and skip both the steps to marinate the pork ahead of time and browning it in chunks before pressure cooking - still completely delicious and so much faster on a busy weeknight!

I am a bit surprised no one has mentioned the problem of "browning" the marinated meat on high temp in the pot. We brown meat all the time, but the marinade just created a totally blackened instapot and a smoky kitchen. Half way through, we switched to our usual browning pan, and it became totally coated with scorched marinade too. Not sure we'll be able to recover the pan. *Otherwise* the recipe is fine.

My husband is Cuban, and loves this! I serve it with rice and black beans (in the pressure cooker: fry some chorizo, add black beans, half an onion, cumin, salt, cover liberally with stock and cook on high pressure for 60 minutes) and everyone is very happy.

The pork came out delicious in the end but browning the meat left a layer of black char stuck to the bottom of the instant pot. I'm guessing this is due to the brown sugar in the marinade burning. Next time I'll either brown the meat in a different pan or just skip the sear process altogether.

For those who are having trouble with the meat scorching while searing: another option is to marinate after searing. Sear the meat, scrape up brown bits with a bit of water (optional), stick the seared meat in the marinade, adding the water with brown bits. Then follow the recipe.

Delicious. Good on a sandwich, tortilla, and over rice. Will make again.

This is a family favorite recipe I pull out for many of our large family gatherings (who include several foodies and big meat eaters). It feeds so many (sometimes I double it) and has so much flavor for not that many ingredients or active work time. I follow the cooking note to heat it up in a sheet pan with some of the jus to crisp it up. Serve with corn tortillas, salsa, guacamole, and cheese.

Fantastic. Easy to spoon the fat off the jus after pouring into a measuring cup. Made as written.

What happens if pork marinates for longer than 6 hours in fridge?

This is SO Yummy - every time I pair it with something it compliments it so nicely. Must cook again

Really good, maybe add more garlic and oregano

I am obviously an outlier here, but I found this to be quite bland in taste and blah in texture. Certainly not terrible, just ... fine. Might give it a second chance and increase the spices and garlic and then put the shredded meat under the broiler to get some brown and crispier bits. I'm really disappointed ... I expected to love this based on all of the positive reviews.

A keeper!

This is one of my favorite recipes to make for potlucks or freezing for taco nights. I agree with the comments of using orange and lime and I use a combo of orange and lime zest, too. If you have a Kitchen Aid, the paddle function does a perfect job of shredding the meat.

This might be my favorite recipe for this dish. I have tried it with grapefruit juice but prefer only mildly more to use fresh squeezed orange juice instead for authentic flavor. When we run out of fresh oregano we use dried Mexican oregano and it's good enough. Italian or standard dried oregano would be fine.My family uses this fir Cubano sandwiches and love it them use leftovers for tacos or breakfast burritos.

I made this to use on Cubano sandwiches and it was great. But it was so good that I need to find other dishes to incorporate it into. My younger son tasted it and couldn’t believe that I made it myself.

This recipe was delicious and easy to follow. I am new to the pressure cooker game, so this recipe was a great way to break myself in. The flavor was delicious. I substituted the grapefruit juice for Goya Citrus Mojo because it's what I had on hand. With that being said, this is the wrong pairing for tacos. The pork is "Cubanish" which does not necessarily pair well with tacos since Mexican and Cuban are distinct flavors. This would be best served with Cuban Moro rice etc.

This is delicious. It may not be authentic Cuban but it is GOOD! This will be in our regular rotation. Such a versatile meal. We had it with tortillas but I’ll be making rice bowls with it later on. Sandwiches are also a good use.