, photo by Val Stone Creager
, nutritional review by Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE
in Recipes, Main course Orange-braised pork
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp 2 tbsp bacon fat or olive oil
- 2 lbs 900 g boneless pork ribs (country style short ribs)
- ¼ tsp ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ¼ tsp pepper
- 1 (4 oz.) 1 (110 g) medium yellow onion, choppedmedium yellow onions, chopped
- 1½ tbsp 1½ tbsp fresh ginger, minced
- 3 3 garlic clove, mincedgarlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp 1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder
- 2 tbsp 2 tbsp orange zest
- ¼ cup 60 ml fresh orange juice
- 1⁄3 cup 80 ml unseasoned rice vinegar
- ½ tbsp ½ tbsp Chinese chili garlic sauce
- 1⁄3 cup 80 ml coconut aminos or tamari soy sauce
- ½ tsp ½ tsp fish sauce
- ¾ cup 180 ml beef broth
Instructions
- In the Instant Pot, use the sauté function to sear the pork. Melt the bacon fat, add the pork, searing well on all sides. Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper as it sears. When dark brown, remove the pork from the pan, and set aside. Leave any drippings in the pan.
- Place the chopped onions in the pan and sauté along with the ginger and garlic.
- When the onions are tender and browned, add the five-spice powder, orange zest, juice, and rice wine vinegar. Let simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off the sauté function. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
- Place the seared pork back into the instant pot. Cook on high pressure for 25 minutes. Use natural release for 20 minutes. Pork should be fork tender.
- Shred the meat and serve with pan drippings. If the sauce needs thickening, use the sauté function to reduce the pan juices (about 8 to 10 minutes) before serving.
Slow cooker instructions
Sear the pork in the bacon fat in a skillet on the stove top. Season with salt and pepper. When pork is seared, place in a 4-quart slow cooker along with the onion.
Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the pork. Cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours or until pork is tender. Shred the pork and mix with the pan juices. You might also collect the pan juices and simmer then in a pot on the stove to reduce them.
Serve the pork with the pan juices.
Dutch Oven stovetop instructions
Use a 4-quart Dutch oven to sear the pork in the bacon fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and sear well on all sides. When well seared, remove the pork from the Dutch oven.
Place the chopped onions in the pan and sauté along with the ginger and garlic. When the onions are tender and browned, add the five-spice powder, orange zest, juice, orange oil, and rice wine vinegar. Let simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the seared pork and remaining ingredients.
Cook covered on low heat until pork is tender, at least an hour. Uncover and simmer on low until juices are reduced to a thick sauce, about 30 minutes.
Kristie's tips
The thick sauce is the star of this recipe and begins with getting a dark sear on the pork and browning the onions. Be sure to simmer it down for maximum flavor!
The pork should be a fatty cut. If boneless pork ribs are difficult to source, a pork roast will work. Leaner cuts such as a tenderloin or loin cut will not be as tender or flavorful.
Substitution suggestions
If you use tamari instead of coconut aminos, be sure to omit the salt and fish sauce to avoid adding too much salt to this dish. Also, if you avoid pork, dark meat chicken such as boneless, skinless chicken thighs also works well in this dish.
If you don't have Chinese five-spice powder, you can use a mix of Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, ground cloves, cinnamon and ground fennel seeds.
If you don't have Chinese chili garlic sauce, you can use a mix of red chili pepper, salt, garlic and vinegar.
We have not tested the recipe that way, but it sounds like it would work. Try 6-8 hours on low.
Pressure cooking was simple: saute the meat while preparing the rest, mix in the flavor ingredients, added raw veges to 2/3 capacity, then close and pressure cook (I used "stew" setting + 5 minutes).
In particular, you don't need to separately cook the onion, nor do you need so much liquid: I skipped the broth and orange juice, and still it was a nice wet stew. My 6qt instant pot easily held 3.7 lbs of pork, I think I could have increased the recipe to hold 5 lbs (but then not as many veges would fit safely).
This general approach of meat + flavors and veges into the Instant Pot is one to use over and over. I just have to figure out a low-carb way of thickening the fluids.
Yes, lamb shoulder would be great! Thank you for taking the time to let us know that you enjoyed this dish.
Thanks for the tip! I am adding this one to my plan for the week :)