Instant Pot Freezer Carnitas

Carnitas from a frozen bag — pressure-cook, shred, and crisp under the broiler for the best texture.

Ingredients

• 4 lb pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
• 1 onion, quartered
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp chili powder, 1½ tsp salt
• Juice of 1 orange and 1 lime
• (no extra liquid needed — the citrus and pork release plenty; add ½ cup broth if your pot needs it to reach pressure)

Assembly & Freezing

Combine everything in a gallon freezer bag. Press flat and freeze. Good up to 3 months.

Cook from Frozen

1. Drop the frozen block into the Instant Pot (add ½ cup broth if needed to reach pressure).
2. Pressure cook on high for 80 minutes, then natural release for 15 minutes.
3. Shred, spread on a sheet pan, and broil 3–5 minutes for crispy edges. Spoon some juices back over.

Variation — Cook from Fresh

Same bag, never frozen — or skip the bag and go straight into the pot.

1. Optional, and the main thing fresh buys you: brown the chunks in batches on Sauté before adding anything else. You can't sear a frozen block, so this is flavour the freezer version can't have. Deglaze with the citrus juice, scraping the bottom clean or the pot will throw a burn warning.
2. Add ½–1 cup water or broth. Fresh needs more added liquid than frozen, not less: a frozen block melts into its own water, and raw pork doesn't give up enough thin liquid to build steam before the bottom scorches.
3. Pressure cook on high for 35 minutes, then natural release 15 minutes.
4. Shred, broil, and spoon the juices back over exactly as above.

Variation — Scaling to a Whole Shoulder

A whole bone-in shoulder runs 7–9 lb, so it roughly doubles this recipe. Three things change and one important one doesn't:

• Cut it into fist-sized chunks anyway. Pressure cooking time is set by the thickness of the largest piece, not by the weight in the pot. A whole shoulder left in one piece is still raw in the middle long after the outside has gone to threads.
• Time barely moves. Same 35 minutes fresh, same 80 from frozen, as long as the chunks are the same size. What does grow is the time to reach pressure — closer to 20–25 minutes with a full pot, so budget for it even though the cook time on the display is unchanged.
• Don't double the liquid. Double the onion, garlic, spices, and salt, but ½–1 cup is still all you need. Twice the pork releases twice the juice, and the extra water only dilutes what you spoon back over at the end.
• Watch the fill line. A 6-quart tops out around 4–5 lb of pork; 8 lb needs an 8-quart. Over the two-thirds mark the pot struggles to seal.

Leave the bone in — it adds body to the juices and slips out clean once the meat is tender. Cut the meat off it in chunks and drop the bone in alongside.

Broil in two batches on two sheet pans. A crowded pan steams the pork instead of crisping it, which is the whole point of the last step.

Notes

No cilantro, per the household rules — extra lime brightens it. Great in tacos, burrito bowls, or the pork fried rice.