Any way you season it, any way you serve it, nothing beats tender, juicy pulled pork! This Instant Pot Sweet ‘n Spicy Asian Pulled Pork is a super flavorful and easy paleo dinner recipe, with a keto/low-carb option. Plus, learn the benefits of pastured pork and how to find it, too! 

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Holy smokes, but I do love me some pulled pork! It’s just so delicious and so versatile!

Tacos? Pulled pork.

Rice bowls or cauli-rice bowls? Pulled pork.

Meat for salad or nachos? Pulled pork.

Stir-fry? Pulled pork!

Do you see what I mean? Any way you season it, any way you serve it, nothing beats tender, juicy pulled pork!

In our case, I am so blessed to have our pork come from just an hour away. Melanie, our beef and pig farmer, raises happy pastured animals on her farm, resulting in the tastiest, healthiest meat for — quite literally — 100 miles! 🙂

Did you know…

Pastured Pork Is Food With Benefits

Pastured pork is better for people and pigs than conventionally raised (CAFO) pork.

It’s higher in vitamins D and E, higher in beneficial fatty acids EPA and DHA, and higher in selenium. Plus, I’ll let you in on a big secret… It tastes WAY better, too!

Additionally, pastured pork is better for the animals. They have access to fresh air, clean water, and sunshine — all of which contributes to making their meat and fat higher in vitamins and beneficial fats. Pastured pigs roam free and exercise their muscles because they have plenty of space. (Learn the difference between grass-fed and conventionally raised meat + 3 reasons why grass-fed is healthier!)

Contrast this to CAFO-raised pigs… Which are kept in confinement, hock-deep in their own excrement, fed a steady diet of GMOs and antibiotics, and are under a lot of stress.

Sadly, the way these animals are slaughtered is also atrocious. In fact, many vegetarians and vegans have chosen a meat-free lifestyle because of these terrible animal husbandry practices. I’ll spare you the gory details, because you can YouTube it for yourself…

Learn more about how animals should be slaughtered here.

Suffice it to say, if pastured and grass-fed animal protein wasn’t a thing or available to me, I’d be a vegan too. (Or, I’d start raising my own.) 😉

Happily, it is available to me! And I can relish the taste, tenderness, and totally humane treatment of the pork I’ve acquired from Melanie my farmer.

How To Find Local, Pastured Pork

So, what exactly qualifies as “local”? I would say any farm up to 250 or so miles, is pretty local. It would take some logistics, but theoretically, one could drive 500 miles round-trip in a day to procure one’s pastured meat.

However, that certainly isn’t ideal, so…

The best place to start is at your local farmers market. If your market doesn’t already have a pork/beef/chicken/egg vendor, chances are, someone at the market knows where to find that rancher.

If you don’t have a farmers market, check local butchers. I’m not talking about the butcher at the supermarket either. If your area has any family-owned, private butcher shops, they’re the best place to ask about local ranchers. Because ranchers have to have their meat processed somewhere, unless they’re processing it themselves.

After that, ask around town — local coffee shops, bars, churches, VFWs, health food stores, alternative medicine practitioners, a local Weston A. Price chapter, or other organizations. Odds are that you’ll discover a wealth of information simply by reaching out to your community!

And if all that fails, check EatWild.com and LocalHarvest.org.

With that… Make this Instant Pot Sweet ‘n Spicy Asian Pulled Pork using pastured pork roast, shoulder, or Boston butt! Nothing makes it faster or more tender than the Instant Pot!

The recipe as-is is Paleo, and I’ve given my sugar-free alternative for you low-carb/keto folks.

Eat it over plain rice or, for keto/low-carb, cauli-rice. Here’s how to make your own cauli-rice in minutes!

4.74 from 23 votes

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Instant Pot Sweet 'n Spicy Asian Pulled Pork

Any way you season it, any way you serve it, nothing beats tender, juicy pulled pork! This Instant Pot Sweet 'n Spicy Asian Pulled Pork is a super flavorful and easy paleo dinner recipe, with a keto/low-carb option. Plus, learn the benefits of pastured pork and how to find it, too! 

CourseMain Dish

CuisineAsian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time 2 hours

Servings 6 servings

Author Lindsey Dietz

Ingredients

• 4-lbpork roastpork shoulder, or Boston butt, trimmed of excess fat
• 2 to 3tablespoonslard or tallow
• 1cupchicken or pork bone broth
• 1/2cupcoconut aminos
• 1/4cupDietz Sweetfor keto/low-carb or coconut sugar
• 6clovesgarlicminced
• 2tablespoonsrice wine vinegar
• 1tablespoonChinese five-spice
• 1-1/2teaspoonsdried ginger
• 1teaspoonturmeric
• 1teaspoonsriracha sauceor more, if desired
• 1limejuice and zest (or 3-4 drops lime essential oil)

Instructions

1. Press the Saute button on the Instant Pot to begin warming up the pot.
2. Add the bone broth to the pot.
3. Then, add the pork roast to the pot.
4. Whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour them over the pork roast.
5. Put the lid on the Instant Pot, seal the vent, and press Keep Warm/Cancel.
6. Press the Manual button and adjust the time to 90 minutes.
7. When the pot beeps, signalling that cooking is done, do a natural pressure release for 20 minutes.
8. Release any remaining pressure and remove the lid.
9. Transfer the meat to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to shred the pork.
10. Alternatively, transfer the meat to a cutting board and use 2 forks to shred the pork.
11. Press the Saute button again and bring the remaining sauce to a simmer.
12. Simmer until slightly thickened and reduced by about half.
13. Finally, return the shredded pork to the Instant Pot and stir it to coat it in the sauce.
14. Serve over rice, cauli-rice, rice noodles, in tacos, or with stir-fried veggies!

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Do you love pulled pork? Do you buy local, pastured pork or other meat?

Post originally published December 18, 2017. Updated with new photos on April 6, 2019.