Sweet Balsamic Pork Roast in the Instant Pot
November 13, 2018 •
This Instant Pot sweet balsamic pork roast is delicious and flavorful, with balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and soy sauce making the best glaze. Plus it cooks in under one hour!
We have gotten into a bit of a recipe rut lately. We have so many recipes at our disposal (over 350 on my blog!), but because I eat a bariatric diet with almost no carbs, our options are pretty limited. It’s always 4 ounces of a protein and 4 ounces of a vegetable.
We made up a recipe binder months and months ago with our favorite bariatric-friendly recipes listed out in dividers by type of meat, and that does help because either Joe or I can page through our favorites and pick something that we haven’t had in a while.
Even the recipes in the binder were feeling a little stale, so Joe was searching around on the internet and found something that inspired him to make a balsamic vinegar gravy, which he put on top of a pork roast.
We love pork, but it’s a little high in calories for me, and we don’t eat it too often.
I love this recipe. I can’t say what it is about the pork that always comes out so well, but the combination of the balsamic glaze and the flavor of the pork are just out of this world.
When Joe makes this, I happily eat it for several days and scrimp on foods at other meals to make up the calories. It’s worth the sacrifice.
How to make sweet balsamic pork in the Instant Pot
- Mix garlic, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, water, cornstarch, soy sauce, and rosemary in a small bowl.
- Heat the Instant Pot to sauté. Pour in the oil. Season the pork on both sides with salt and pepper and brown on all sides.
- Turn off the sauté mode and add the sauce to the pork in the pot. Program Instant Pot to meat and cook for 35 minutes. Keep an eye on the Instant Pot during the cooking time as some cooks have had their IP alarm for burning. If this happens, carefully release the pressure, add another 1/2 cup of water, and repressurize to finish cooking. When the timer beeps, turn it off and let the pressure naturally release.
- Slice the pork and serve topped with lots of sauce.
Get this and 9 other amazing Instant Pot recipes in my free cookbook, Instant Pot Made Easy! Click the button below to download. If for some reason, the button doesn’t work for you, leave a comment below, and I’ll email it to you.
Sweet Balsamic Pork Roast in the Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2-3 pound pork roast A tenderloin will give you a more firm, drier texture, and a pork shoulder will give you a more moist, almost stringy texture. I prefer the shoulder.
- Salt & pepper
For the sauce
- 3 cloves garlic pressed with a garlic press
- 1/4 cup brown sugar You can substitute this with an equal amount of Splenda or Stevia with very little loss of flavor.
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rosemary chopped
Instructions
- Mix all sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
- Heat the Instant Pot to sauté. Pour in the oil. Season the pork on both sides with salt and pepper and brown on all sides.
- Turn off the sauté mode and add the sauce to the pork in the pot. Program Instant Pot to meat and cook for 35 minutes. When the timer beeps, turn it off and let the pressure naturally release.
- Slice and serve with plenty of sauce.
You should check out some other Instant Pot recipes while you’re here:
- The best ever Instant Pot pot roast
- Instant Pot sloppy joes
- Instant Pot chicken tacos
- Coconut Chicken Curry in the Instant Pot
Balsamic vinegar is naturally sweet, and adding a little brown sugar to it makes it really come alive. The sweetness is balanced out by soy sauce and the pork roast is smothered in rich, brown sauce. You can’t go wrong with this Instant Pot pork roast!
© 2018 – 2020, Tara Ziegmont. All rights reserved.
This looks scrumptious! I’m assuming it can also be made in the oven?
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I would think so. Joe has even made the sauce on the stovetop before and tossed it over pulled pork that was already cooked. It’s very versatile and SO GOOD!
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I had to add liquid because my instant pot warned me that the sauce was burning. Just FYI.
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Thanks! We didn’t have that problem but every cook is different.
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I had the same thing happen. I just added some chicken broth and scraped the bottom of the pot. Reset and everything was fine.
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I had to add water too. I added a half cup of water. Maybe a little less would still have worked. After the meat was cooked, I made more sauce so we had gravy. I just didn’t add the water to it, since it had plenty of liquid.
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We had this issue too. The instant pot burnt on the bottom. We are now smoking the pork shoulder and I’ll do the sauce on the stove top.
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High pressure or low on the Instant Pot?
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We have only ever used our IP on high pressure.
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I made this tonight for the first time & will definitely make it again! It was easy, super delicious & full of flavor. The meat was so tender & moist! I had plenty of thin liquid making the sauce per the recipe so had no issues at all with burn notice. Thank you for sharing your yummy recipe!
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I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for coming back to let me know.
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This looks delicious! Can this be made with potatoes and carrots in the pot? Or will they become too soft for that length of time?
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I’m not really sure. We have never tried vegetables in our IP. Maybe another reader would have a suggestion?
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Could I freeze the sauce and pork together, thaw and then toss in the instant pot? Trying to figure our a way to make it a freezer meal…
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I’ve never tried that, but we have put frozen pork into the IP and cooked it that way successfully. You just have to cook it longer.
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I’ve made this twice now, once with a pork roast and once with a tenderloin. Both turned out great! I cut back on the sugar the second time (added only maybe 1-2 T) to make it tangier, which worked out great. I think this is my husband’s new favorite way of cooking pork
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I have a 1.5lb center cut boneless pork roast. Can you give me instructions on cooking time, etc., liquids, and all to make mine which is smaller that your recipe calls for. Thanks!
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Yes put in at least 1 1/2 cups of liquid my IP did the same thing!
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Hello,
I’m new to cooking and new to instant pots, I’m assuming to cook the meat on meat setting (step4) I use the lid with the pressure valve closed? Also I have double the roast size (5ish lbs), so I’m doubling the sauce recipe and the time. Is that what you would do?
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To the first part, yes, cook on meet setting with the pressure valve closed. I’ve never cooked a significantly larger roast though, so I can’t help with the second part. I don’t think doubling the time would be necessary, but hopefully someone with more Instant Pot knowledge than I have can help.
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I followed this recipe to exact specifications and my pot also warned me that it was burning. I added another round of sauce mixture and it warned me again. So I just added water this time. Not sure what I can do if it warns me again.
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I made this last night using the meat setting as the recipe stated. It’s the first time I’ve used the meat setting as opposed to manually setting the time. The roast came out so horribly tough and dry that we couldn’t eat it. It is farm fresh pork (raised in our front yard), so I know it wasn’t a problem with the roast. I would like to try it again, but would set the time manually instead of using the meat setting.
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Yes Daralyn same thing happened to me! Followed recipe exactly minus cornstarch and my roast also came out so though and dry. The sauce/gravy was delicious lipbut, definitely less time I think? I really don’t know where it went wrong
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I made this last night for my family and it was delicious. I had about 4 lb pork loin. I used half the brown sugar because we are not huge sweet eaters and it was perfect. To avoid the burn notice, I was taught to always deglaze the pot after searing. I simply removed the roast and added about 1/4 cup bone broth and deglazed. I through the Loin back in along with the sauce minus cornstarch. Once the Loin has a full natural release, I thickened the sauce with a corn starch slurry. It was moist and delicious! Some people may have used a tenderloin instead of Pork Loin and that’s why it turned out dry. We loved this and will certainly make again. Thanks for sharing!
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Do you use the little rack to put the pork on?? Or do you just place it right on the bottom?
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We just put it right on the bottom.
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It burned.
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I made this tonight and it was juicy and delicious. My pork roast was 3 1/2 pounds so I increased the sauce recipe by 50%. I’m so glad I did. I made a slurry of cornstarch and water to thicken the juice at the end. I will have gravy for my leftovers. I also quartered Russet potatoes and peeled fresh carrots to add to the pot before cooking. They were perfect. I will definitely make this again.
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Followed the directions and it turned out very dry. Cooked it on high no special setting. Recipe didn’t call out anything specific. No bueno. I was excited for it too.
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Had to stop and start over after adding extra water because my pot warned me of food burn, hopefully that takes care of it! Looks delicious, hoping it turns out!
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