Instant Pot Greek Pork
This easy Instant Pot Greek Pork has all of the flavors of Greek Souvlaki, but without the grill. Serve it with our simple tzatziki sauce with yogurt and cucumbers for a crowd-pleasing dinner during the week or for a party!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This is a great one-pot pork recipe that’s juicy, tender and packed with fresh Greek flavors. You can serve it on pita, on a salad, over rice—the options are endless. Plus, it’s make-ahead friendly!
One of my family’s favorite meals is Greek Souvlaki. I decided it would be fun to make a pressure cooker version for the months when I don’t feel like going outside in the cold and grilling.
This is one of our favorite Instant Pot pork recipes. We love Greek flavors, and if you do too, be sure to try our Greek Beef Tacos, Instant Pot Hummus, and Creamy Lemon Rice (which also tastes great with this pork!)
Update: We love making this spin on souvlaki in a pressure cooker—especially on days when it’s too hot or too cold to grill—so we’ve updated the post with new tips and photos!
INGREDIENTS YOU NEED
Here’s what you need for this easy one-pot pork recipe with tzatziki sauce:
- Pork shoulder. We use boneless picnic pork shoulder cut into cubes
- Marjoram. You can also use oregano.
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice. Freshly squeezed is best!
- Cucumber. Shred your cucumber on a box grater for a nice texture.
- Greek yogurt. Be sure to use plain, but any fat level will work.
- Dill. You can use fresh or dried.
- Garlic. Mince it very small so you don’t get any big bites of raw garlic.
How to Make Greek Pork in an Instant Pot
✅ This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.
Start by seasoning your pork with salt, pepper, marjoram, and olive oil. This blend will seep into the meat as it cooks for tons of flavor. Squeeze the fresh lemon juice into the pressure cooking pot with some water, and add the seasoned pork to the pot.
Cook on High Pressure for 25 minutes, then turn off the pressure cooker and let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Finish with a quick pressure release, remove the lid, and there you have it: succulent, juicy Greek pork in one pot!
While the pork cooks, you can whip up the simple tzatziki sauce. First, you’ll want to drain off some of the water from the cucumber. Sprinkle the grated cucumber with salt in a strainer and let it sit for 15 minutes over the sink. Then add the cucumber to a mixing bowl and stir in the yogurt, lemon juice, dill, garlic, and pepper. Enjoy!
Important Tips for Making Greek Pork in an Instant Pot
- We love our Greek souvlaki extra lemon-y, so we usually double the lemon juice in this recipe.
- Try to cut your pork into evenly sized pieces to ensure even cooking.
- If you don’t have time to make tzatziki, you can find great store-bought options instead.
Frequently Asked Questions about Instant Pot Greek-Style Pork
We like to serve this pork recipe over lemony rice or with fluffy pitas and lots of toppings (tomato, olives, and shredded lettuce, for example). It’s also great with roasted potatoes or on a salad.
The reason to cut the pork into chunks before pressure cooking is for a faster cooking time. If you use a whole pork shoulder, the pressure cooking time will be much longer and the seasoning won’t be able to seep into the meat as deeply.
In this Instant Pot recipe, you won’t need a grill, but the final dish looks and tastes a lot like Greek souvlaki pork, which is grilled.
Yes, this is a great make-ahead pork recipe. You can store cooled leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Yes, freeze leftovers for up to 6 months in an airtight, freezer-safe container.
MORE Instant Pot Pork Recipes
We love making pork in minutes in the Instant Pot using these recipes:
- Easy Pulled Pork is a staple all year long for juicy sandwiches and tacos.
- Root Beer Pulled Pork Sandwiches are made with a sweet and fizzy (not so) secret ingredient.
- Easy Bone-In Pork Chops in Mushroom Gravy is a cozy family meal with creamy mushroom sauce.
Do you LOVE this recipe?
Leave us a review below to tell us why!
Easy Greek Pork
The flavors of Greek Souvlaki without the grill! This Instant Pot Greek Pork is made with tender pieces of seasoned pork shoulder braised in lemon juice is delicious however you like to serve it: with your favorite pita bread, as a Greek wrap, or simply over rice.
Ingredients
For the Pork
- 4 pounds boneless picnic pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon marjoram
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 cup water
- Favorite Greek sides, including fresh pita or wraps, Lemon Rice, fresh lettuce and tomatoes, for serving
Homemade Tzatziki Sauce
- 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and shredded
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
- 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Mix the marjoram, salt and pepper with the olive oil and rub all over pork.
- Add lemon juice and water to the cooking pot. Place the pork in the pressure cooking pot.
- Select High Pressure and set the timer for 25 minutes. When beep sounds, turn off pressure cooker and let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, release any remaining pressure. When valve drops carefully remove lid.
- Using a slotted spoon, to remove meat from juices.
- Serve hot with your favorite Greek sides and toppings. For Greek "tacos" lay a pita flat on the plate, layer on shredded lettuce and sliced tomatoes, and a good helping of pork.
TZATZIKI SAUCE
- In a fine mesh strainer toss the cucumber with the salt. Allow the cucumber to drain for 15 minutes over a bowl or the sink to remove excess water.
- In a medium size bowl, combine the drained cucumber, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, dill weed, garlic and pepper. Chill until ready to serve.
Notes
*I prefer to make the Tzatziki sauce in the morning to allow the flavors to really mix together.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 201Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 52mgSodium: 367mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 21g
Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.
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can I use pork loin for this recipe?
Hi Kristen – pork loin is a little too lean for this recipe.
Loved the comments. In 1962 as a young person in Athens I was drawn to vendors selling large amount of meat on revolving skewers and the amazing aromas. Didnt know until years later what I was eating and the name for it. Yearos! Yes! Thanks for the delicious memory.
If I reduced the amount of meat to perhaps 1 or 2 pounds, how would it change the cook times? I realize shoulder comes in larger amounts but would prefer to freeze some uncooked for use in other recipes.
Can i use chicken ?
Hi Amanda – sure, just reduce the cook time to 3 minutes for diced chicken breast.
The amount of spices in this recipe look like the quantity for 1 # of meat maybe, NOT 4 # of meat. 4 # would be enough to feed an army and there are only 2 of us.
Hi Cindy – pork shoulder is typically not sold in 1 lb. packages. The recipe makes 8 servings, definitely not enough for an army, but perfect for my family of 6 with a little left over for lunch. I think the spices are perfectly balanced and the recipe gets great reviews. However, that’s the nice thing about cooking, you can change things up however you like. Enjoy!
Made this tonight, it was the only recipe I found that didn’t need 4 to 6 hours marinating and I got home from work at 4 and had a frozen pork loin and needed super for 6. It was very tender. I used 1 T of Epicure Greco finishing sauce mix as the favouring .
Greek tacos. LOL Tacos? It’s definitely technically correct but I’m imagining telling my Greek aunt they’re called that. She thinks ‘Syrian’ bread as opposed to Greek bread is cultural appropriation. 🙂
I am part Greek and spent a summer there (No, I don’t recommend it). But the souvlaki and gyros in the Plaka? Amazing. Cost about $1 and the FDA would shut these guys down in a heartbeat. Roaring meat. Outside. In the sun. All day. Just hanging out next to the live octopus and the lamb carcasses. Who needs refrigeration!
The gyros are made from pork/lamb and chicken, though not as often. Chicken wings in Greece would be discarded as the unusable bits in America. They’re super tiny.
Anyway, gyros (as I’m sure you know) are pronounced YEAR-ose. If you can roll your R’s, terrific.
This is my concession to my aunt in case she ever sees this…once she realizes what the internet is and “where it comes from”. <–Actual question of hers. How do you answer "everywhere"? She'd be waving around her Evil Eye for a month.
Thanks for the recipes. The tzatziki sauce is pretty authentic! I add about 3 oregano flakes because all Greek food has to have oregano. All. Of. It.
Hi Lyric – such a fun comment. I’ll have to include a little oregano in all my Greek recipes now. Visiting Greece is on my bucket list for sure. Glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Syrian bread is it’s own thing. It’s what American’s call pita bread. Bread they use for gyros is something completely different. Tell your grandma to stop using our bread for her Greek dishes. ?
This was amazing. I love gyros but have gone grain free and this hit the spot. Love it!
I made this recipe exactly as written. The pork was amazingly tender and could easily be shredded (that’s how hubby likes it) with a potato masher right in the pot.
If there is one improvement to be made it is the following: we sort of expected the meat would have a flavor more similar to gyros, it did not and was actually more bland (but still delicious). I did some research and discovered the only herb missing in the recipe would have been Rosemary. The next day while preparing the meat for leftovers I placed about five 4″ sprigs of fresh Rosemary on top while re-heating. That did the trick and was the amazing flavor we had planned on.
This looks awesome! Will need to try it soon!
I too have a Fagor Duo and know exactly what the poster is talking about re. liquid. I never know if I should be including more (based on electric PCs) or not. So appreciate any guidance given for those of us with stovetop models.
They look great. Craving one now! Pinning 🙂
25 minutes? Ah, “To cook with the DUO pressure cooker, it is very important to use at least 1/2 a cup of liquid if you’re cooking for 10 minutes or less, or 2 cups of water if you’re cooking for more than 10 minutes; NEVER USE LESS.”
This recipe comes up short in liquid. Any suggestions?
I actually used the Instant Pot Duo pressure cooker when I made this recipe, so I know it works well in the Duo. When you’re cooking pork shoulder, you’ll be surprised just how much liquid you end up with, so it really isn’t necessary to add more liquid. I couldn’t find that statement in my manual, but it does seem overly broad and cautious. Of course, if you’re concerned and want to use more liquid, you could just double the liquids.
OOP, I didn’t notice this was an electric recipe.
The manual I posted verbatim from is a stove top, Fagor Duo 8 quart.
I am trying to find a small camping like stock pot to side step the posted problem, i.e. add the 2 cups of water to the pressure cooker pot, the lemon juice/water and meat to the inner pot.
You have a guess on the percent I would need to cut back on the electic recipe to use with a stove top pressure cooker?
Thanks for the clarification. An 8 quart PC will take longer to come to pressure than a 6 quart, so I can see why you might need extra liquid for longer cooking times. You may also need to reduce your cooking time slightly. I would try 20 minutes. I would suggest marinating your pork in the spices and lemon juice for several hours, then cook it using 2 cups water.
Hi Barbara, this is a very old posting from you, delighted to find you here. From Sally Hannigan thinking to make Greek gyros ✅?
Looks delicious! Can’t wait to try them. Even my husband (who hates lamb and is therefore suspicious of all Greek food – silly man) will like these I bet!
Perfect! I’m so glad to see your version of these. Everything we like in them….that sauce looks amazing.
Thanks Barbara. 🙂
Yes indeed, I do love this!