TheWildWaynes
a family of four cooking & creating our way through tiny living
Southwest Pork Chops and Gravy in the Instant Pot
Southwest Pork Chops?
Southwest pork chops uses similar flavors as other southwestern recipes such as chili or beef tacos.
Our southwest seasoning blend uses common seasonings already in your pantry. How easy is that?
What about the Instant Pot?
The Instant Pot allows for some really quick delicious meals and pork chops are no exception! We live busy lives (as I am sure you do as well). Anything I can do to shave off a little bit of time from my daily routine I am all over it. If it is super delicious, that is an even bigger win! So, southwest pork chops and gravy in the Instant Pot are a must cook.
Southwest Pork Chops are an Instant Hit!
As you can imagine, being parents of young kids equals many nights where we play “will they eat it”. I know the moment we opened the Instant Pot that the kids would both love these chops. There isn’t anything like the kids eating all of their dinner we set in front of them.
Mix the Southwest Seasoning Ingredients
Add all of the southwest rub ingredients to a bowl and like Bob Marley always used to say, “Stir it Up!”
Cover the Pork Sirloin Chops with Southwest Seasoning
Generously cover all sides of the pork chops with the southwest rub. We use all of the rub made except a tablespoon we save for the gravy. I often times forget to save a little bit of rub. The gravy is still amazing when I do forget to add it. The browning that we scrape from the pot bottom does a good job on its own.
Brown the Southwest Seasoned Pork Chops
Once the pork chops are covered in southwest seasoning, it’s time to brown the pork chops. Press sauté on your instant pot. Wait for the pot to get HOT. Then you can add a couple tablespoons of olive oil.
You can pull the pot out of the instant pot and swirl the oil around to cover the bottom. The top rim of the pot will not be hot yet.
In our 8 quart instant pot, we can brown two pork sirloin chops at a time. You do not want to over crowd them.
Use long tongs to set two pork chops into the instant pot. Let the pork chops brown for 3 minutes on the first side. Use long tongs and flip the pork chops over. Brown the other side for 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Use a kitchen timer to be exact. The pot gets quite a bit hotter as it goes.
Use long tongs to move the browned pork chops to a plate. Add another Tablespoon of olive oil to the instant pot.
Place two pork chops into the instant pot. Let the first side brown for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Flip the pork chops over. Let the other side brown for 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Move the browned pork chops to the plate with the other browned pork chops.
Cancel Sauté at any time if the pot is getting to hot. Let the pot cool a bit and turn it back on as needed to finish browning all of the pork chops. When the pork chops are all browned, cancel sauté. We had a total of 5 pork sirloin chops. We reduced each browning time by 15 seconds for each flip to compensate for the pot that gets hotter and hotter and hotter.
Deglaze the Instant Pot
The Instant Pot bottom should be black with burned southwest pork chop browning. Add one and a half cups of water to the instant pot. It’s going to steam up, be careful.
You can see the browning is very water soluble. It dissolves fairly easily with the pour of the water.
It makes a pretty exciting hiss as you pour the water in.
Use a flat wooden spatula to scrape the bottom of the instant pot completely clean. It’s pretty easy. You now have a roasted southwest flavored water. If you did save a tablespoon of southwest seasoning, add it to the water in the instant pot.
Add 2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon to the southwest seasoned water. Then stir to dissolve it all into the water.
Pressure Cook the Southwest Pork Chops
Place the browned southwest pork chops into the broth in the instant pot. Overlap one end of each pork chop with the last pork chop so an end touches the broth if possible. No big deal if they all do not get a piece in the broth.
Put the instant pot lid on, seal it up. Press the Pressure Cook button. Adjust the cook time to 7 minutes.
The instant pot will take 10 – 15 minutes to build pressure. Then the cook time will begin. The instant pot will beep at you when the seven minute of pressure cooking are finished.
Release the pressure and remove the lid after the pin drops.
Use long tongs to remove the pork chops from the instant pot. Stack the Southwest Pork Chops on a plate.
Make a tent out of aluminum foil to keep the pork chops covered while we make our gravy.
It’s Gravy Time!
Press Cancel to stop the pressure cook setting. Press Sauté. Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 4 tablespoons of water.
Use a gravy whisk to whisk the cornstarch slurry into the fluid left in the instant pot.
The gravy will take about 4 or 5 minutes to thicken.
Stir often until the gravy boil is velvety. Cancel the sauté function.
Plate Your Southwest Pork Chops
Place a Southwest Pork Chop on a plate next to your favorite sides. Preferably sides that will take a good dose of southwest gravy. Like sweet onions, red bell peppers, and golden potato wedges roasted in the air fryer.
Use a ladle to pour mouthwatering southwest gravy all over your perfectly seasoned southwest pork chops. I recommend watching the process in my quick how to make Southwest Pork Chops in the Instant Pot recipe show so you can be inspired by the gravy flowing over the pork chop. It’ll bring a tear to your eye it’s so beautiful.
My favorite sides to go with Southwest Pork Chops are roasted sweet onions, red bell peppers, and potato wedges. They all take gravy very well. We normally have a salad to even things out.
Instant Pot Recipes by TheWildWaynes
CORN SALSA MADE WITH INSTANT POT CORN OFF THE COB
YUMMY SALT & PEPPER CHICKEN WINGS
Air Fryer Recipes by TheWildWaynes
AMAZING & FLAVORFUL AIR FRYER ORANGE CHICKEN
CRISPY BUTTER CHEDDAR CHICKEN CUTLETS
BREADED CAULIFLOWER – KID APPROVED!
POPCORN CHICKEN – QUICK AND EASY!
Tools We Use in our 32 Foot 5th Wheel Kitchen that Make Cooking Fun and Easy
End Grain Wood Cutting Board on Etsy
Boo’s Mystery Oil for the Wood Cutting Board
Boo’s Board Cream for Wood Cutting Boards
Steamer Basket for the Instant Pot
Cookie Spatula that works the Best in the Air Fryer
Wooden Spatula I use for Scraping and Stirring
Hard Boiled Egg Holder for the Instant Pot
Egg Bite Mold for the Instant Pot
Basket Replacement for Cosori 5.7 quart Air Fryer
Slow Cooker Lid for Instant Pot
Southwest Pork Chops with Gravy in the Instant Pot
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot)
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Pork Sirloin Assorted Chops Pork Sirloin Chops
- 4 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 1/2 cups Water
- 2 tsp Chicken Bullion
- 2 Tbsp Cornstarch cornstarch slurry
- 4 Tbsp Cold Water cornstarch slurry
Southwest Seasoning Rub
- 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
- 1 Tbsp Paprika
- 2 tsp Granulated Garlic Garlic Powder
- 2 tsp Granulated Onion Onion Powder
- 2 tsp Oregano
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Thyme
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper Fresh cracked preferred
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne
Instructions
- Mix southwest seasoning in a bowl and generously cover pork chops on both sides
- Press saute on the instant pot
- When the instant pot is "HOT" add 2 Tbsp olive oil and using tongs place two or three pork chops into the instant pot not to over crowd the pot
- Brown pork chops for two minutes, flip using tongs, brown for another 2 minutes and move pork chops to a plate
- Add another 2 Tbsp of olive oil and repeat until all pork chops are browned on both sides but reduce your brown time about 15-30 seconds per batch because the instant pot will get hotter as you go
- Add 1 & 1/2 cups of water to the instant pot and using a wooden spatula, scrape all the burned browning from the bottom (it comes off easily with a little scraping)
- Cancel Sauté
- Add 2 tsp chicken bouillon and 1 tsp of the southwest seasoning if you have any left
- Stir the broth well and using tongs, place all of the pork chops into the broth over lapping the edge of each chop to form a circular stack
- Put your lid on, seal the pressure release valve, and pressure cook for 7 minutes
- Before your 7 minutes are up, mix 2 Tbsp of cornstarch with 4 Tbsp water to make your cornstarch slurry
- After the 7 minutes are finished, release the pressure release valve and remove your lid when the pin has dropped
- Use long tongs to carefully move the pork chops to a plate and cover pork chops with aluminum foil
Gravy Time
- Cancel pressure cook and press sauté
- Stir your slurry into the broth in the instant pot (I use my gravy whisk, I love it)
- Let the gravy develop into a boil and then stir the gravy
- After the gravy boil starts back up and looks about like boiling velvet, cancel sauté, the gravy is ready
- Plate your pork chops, cover them in plenty of gravy, serve with roasted vegetables, potatoes, a salad, or rice
- Enjoy your Southwest Pork Chops
Video
Notes
Additional Notes
Remember, almost all recipes can be adjusted (ours and others). If you find this recipe to have a bit too much “heat” skip the cayenne pepper. You can also go the opposite direction (add heat) by using an extra 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon more of cayenne pepper.
As always, check our blog and YouTube for more recipes!
Made these tonight for dinner. So easy to make and oh so good. The gravy made this dish drool-worth. My picky 7 yo daughter loved it. I will be adding this recipe to my rotation. Thank you!
Thank you April! I’m very happy your daughter loved these pork chops and you have a new recipe for your dinner rotation.
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