This recipe gives you all of the taste of a traditional Carne Adovada but is made in a non-traditional way. It is made with surprising ingredients in your pressure cooker or Instant Pot.
What Is Carne Adovada?
Before you dive right into making a Carne Adovada dinner, you might wonder exactly what it is. For starters, it's delicious. To be more specific, it's a traditional New Mexican pork stew with ground red chiles. Don't be intimidated by the description, though. I promise it's not super spicy.
What Is The Difference Between Carne Adovada And Carne Asada?
If you're not familiar with Mexican cuisine, you may be wondering what the differences between these two dishes are. When you break it down, the only thing they seem to have in common is that they are both flavorful meat dishes.
Carne Adovada is pork that is cooked slowly (or quickly in the Instant Pot for this recipe) in a rich chile-flavored liquid. It is typically made with pork shoulder.
Carne Asada is beef that is marinated and then grilled. It is typically made with flank steak or skirt steak.
What Does Carne Adovada Taste Like?
This Carne Adovada recipe is an absolute flavor bomb for your taste buds. With a combination of sweetness from the raisin, umami from the fish sauce, and spice from the Mexican red chili powder and chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, you're guaranteed to come back to this recipe over and over again.
What Is Carne Adovada Made Of?
While this may seem like a daunting list of ingredients at first glance, most of the ingredients are either pantry or spice rack staples.
Here's what you'll need to make Carne Adovada:
- Raisins- Adds natural sweetness to the recipe
- Boneless Pork Shoulder- Cut into large pieces
- Fish Sauce
- Oil
- Red Onion. chopped- Coarsely chopped
- Garlic
- Kosher Salt
- Dried Oregano
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Ancho Chile Powder
- Chipotle Chile in Adobo Sauce
- Mexican Red Chili Powder- NOT Cayenne, look for ones that have other spices blended
- Xanthan Gum- You can also use a cornstarch slurry if you're not eating low carb
How To Make Carne Adovada
- Place raisins into your blender jar, and cover with hot water while you get everything else ready.
- Place pork in your Instant Pot.
- Combine oil, onions, garlic, salt, oregano, both chili powders, and canned chipotle chili, sauce from chili, and cook on high.
- Pour this along with cider vinegar and soy sauce or fish sauce into your blender jar with the raisins. Puree this mixture until smooth.
- Pour this mix onto your pork.
- Use water to wash out your blender jar and pour this into the pot along with the puree.
- Cook on High Pressure for 20 minutes, and quickly release pressure.
A lot of this involves single pot cooking, where my Instant pot comes in very handy. But for this dish, I also needed to brown onions and bloom a few spices.
I really didn't feel up to dirtying another pan, but I knew skipping out on browning the onions was not a smart idea.
So I used the microwave. I'm here to tell you, that you CAN actually brown onions in the microwave. I chopped up the onions and put them in a paper bowl along with the oil and spices and cooked them, and they browned on their own, with no babysitting, while I cut up the pork.
Tips And Tricks
- Do not confuse Mexican chile powder with Cayenne pepper in this Instant Pot Carne Adovada. The Mexican version is blended with other spices such as cumin. It's a rich flavor, but it's not pure heat like cayenne pepper will have. Even so, this is a richly-spiced pork stew, but try not to make it inedible by using the wrong kind of chili powder.
- If you have too much liquid, either set your pot on sauté for 5-10 minutes to let some of it evaporate, or sprinkle with xanthan gum to thicken while sautéeing. You can also make a slurry by mixing the cornstarch and the water and pour into the pot. Let it boil to thicken.
How Long Does It Last?
This Carne Adovada recipe is one of those recipes that tastes even better leftover than it does fresh out of the Instant Pot. The longer it sits, the more the flavor of the sauce is infused into the pork.
For food safety reasons, try to enjoy any leftovers you may have within 5 days of preparing the dish.
More Must-Try Mexican Recipes
Looking for more great Mexican recipes to check out? Give my Arroz Con Pollo a try! This Mexican chicken and rice dish is sure to make the whole family happy!
Another great Mexican dish is my Rajas con Crema y Elote. It's a great mix of poblano peppers, onions, and corn, cooked in the Instant Pot that's absolutely delicious!
Another great Mexican dish is my Instant Pot Mexican Ground Beef Casserole With Rice And Beans. It's a super family-friendly meal that you're going to love!
Want More Pork Recipes?
- Pulled Pork- loaded with delicious Mexican flavor.
- Pork Carnitas- Make these in your Instant Pot.
- Instant Pot Pulled Pork- tacos seasoned with Indian spices.
- Smoked Mexican Pork Shoulder- lovely smoked flavors.
- Pressure Cooker Carne Adovada- a low carb delight.
- Schezuan Pork Soup- Sichuan cuisine made at home.
- Chile Verde- a quick and easy pork recipe.
- Instant Pot Pork Stew- a hearty low carb soup.
Pin It!
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Ingredients
- 1 ounce (28.35 g) Raisins
- 2 pounds (907.18 g) Boneless Pork Shoulder, cut into large pieces
- ¼ cup (58 g) Fish Sauce
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Oil
- 1 cup (14 g) Red Onion. chopped, chopped
- 3 cloves (3 cloves ) Garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Dried Oregano
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Apple Cider Vinegar
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Ancho Chile Powder
- 1 can (1 can) Chipotle Chile in Adobo Sauce
- ¼ cup (0.03 g) Mexican Red Chili Powder, (NOT Cayenne, look for ones that have other spices blended)
- ½-3/4 (0.5) Water
- ½ teaspoon (1 tablespoon) Xanthan Gum, (or use a corn starch slurry)
Instructions
- Place raisins into your blender jar, and cover with hot water while you get everything else ready.
- Place pork in your Instant Pot.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, combine oil, onions, garlic, salt, oregano, both chili powders, and canned chipotle chili, sauce from chili and cook it on high for 5-7 minutes, stirring once or twice.
- Pour this along with and cider vinegar and soy sauce or fish sauce into your blender jar with the raisins, and purée until smooth.
- Pour this mix onto your pork.
- Use the ½ cup of water to wash out your blender jar and pour this into the pot as well. Add another ¼ cup water if you need to.
- Set your electric cooker on High Pressure for 20 minutes, and quickly release pressure when done.
- If you have too much liquid, either set your pot on sauté for 5-10 minutes to let some of it evaporate, sprinkle with xanthum gum to thicken while sautéeing, or make a slurry by mixing the cornstarch and the water, and pour into the pot. Let it boil and thicken.
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So I had to throw a dinner together today & wasn't really feeling much like doing it! Searched the freezer & found a 3 lb pkg of pork butt. Searched & found this recipe. Had most of the ingredients so made it with a couple of modifications as follows:
No red onion, used 2 huge shallots
Used 6 cloves of garlic
No chipotles in sauce, used about 1/3 cup Trader Joe Guajillo salsa
No Ancho chili pepper, used some Chili New Mexico & Chili Jalapeno
Did 20 min on high (my IP only does High)
Did 20 min Natural Release
Dish was delicious!
P.S. A big thank you for the microwave method of browning the onions, this worked perfectly & I will do this from now on!
Do I use just enough hot water to cover the raisins in the blender or is there a specific amount? Thanks in advance for a response. Just discovered your site from a link at Pressure Cooking Today, can't wait to start cooking!
This isn't Carne Adovada. I'm sure it's good but this isn't remotely close to Carne Adovada.
Honestly I no longer debate these issues. There’s more than one wAy to make or name a dish. Some people agree with you, some people agree with me. At the end of the day If it tastes good and is a reliable recipe perhaps that’s good enough for all of us.
This is a wonderful dish whatever you choose to call it! I have given the recipe to my sister and friends and they absolutely love it. Thank you Urvashi for a delicious recipe - regardless of what it is called!
Yummy, easy to prepare. Makes emu for leftovers on my family of two.
I made this for dinner last night and was very impressed! The flavors are well developed and complex. Delicious! Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Thank you for letting me know! Glad It worked out.
No disrespect at all but this is more like Chile Colorado that you would commonly find at Mexican restaurants.
Carne Adovada is a uniquely traditional New Mexican dish, not a Mexican dish (there IS a difference between Mexican and New Mexican cuisine) that is marinated for 24hrs before cooking. They taste different, though they appear similar. The sauce for carne adovada is simple and is made from 7-8 dried red chile pods, 2 cloves garlic, 1tsp oregano, and 1tsp salt...sometimes a small amount of cumin or onion is added. You blend this with enough hot water to make 1 pt. Then you add it to cut-in-chunks boneless pork butt or shoulder, and let it marinate for 24hrs. Traditionally it is cooked in the oven (@350 for 1hr) but is easily adapted for pressure cooking.
KerriBerri has it right. To clarify there are 3 somewhat similar dishes.
Carne Adovada - from New Mexico. Kerri has already written out a simple recipe above. ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT New Mexico chili peppers. I’ve been around the world (30+ countries) and never found an acceptable substitute. It’s not soupy but thick, thick, thick.
Carne Adobada - scores of variations exist across Latin America. In Mexico it sometimes overlaps with Al Pastor in terms of what people are describing. (I think that’s wrong since Al Pastor has to be cooked on a trompo to be authentic in my opinion). Most of the Mexican variations of adoBada use guajillo or chipotle chiles for the marinade and include vinegar which makes it different from the New Mexican adoVada.
(There’s also Filipino adobo but that’s another story.)
Chile colorado - literally, “chile colored red”. This is what it sounds like. Red chile and spices broken down and cooked and eaten. It can include meat or not. Beef and pork are most common. In the old days, lard often added the only flavor “enhancement” needed.
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This recipe seems to be a kind of mix of the last two. Also, it looks like you may have taken inspiration from Kenji over at Serious Eats. Fish sauce? Raisins? Yeah, he got it very very wrong. Not saying a sweet and spicy pork stew is necessarily a bad thing by itself, but it’s sure not Carne Adovada.
(As an aside, I generally love your recipes. The butter chicken and pumpkin pie pudding are staples at my house. Thanks for all you do.)
Delicious and so easy to make. Love it! Despite all the objections I have followed this recipe faithfully - fish sauce included - and found it all came together and is definitely a keep in my family!
As to whether you need more water, since veggies vary so much from batch to batch, so I try to ensure that there's enough liquid to kinda cover the pork halfway ish. Not an exact science 🙂 I had lots of sauce with this dish so no harm in starting with 1/4 c of water.
I'd like to try this recipe but have a couple of questions first. First, 1/4 cup fish sauce, really? That seems like A LOT of fish sauce. I wouldn't normally think to exchange fish sauce for soy sauce in equal measure. I'm thinking a tablespoon would be plenty? Second, how do you know if you need to add more water in step six? Thanks! Can't wait to try it!
1/4 c is really only 2 tablespoons which is what I used, but there's no harm in using less. Why don't you start with less and see how you feel?
1/4 C is 4 Tablespoons