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I am loving my Instant Pot, friends. And the recipe I’m sharing today for Instant Pot Pulled Turkey is fantastic, flavorful, and a winner with my family.
It’s been a ridiculous amount of time since I’ve posted a turkey recipe and for that I am so very sorry. Life happens — and June and most of July have been a whirlwind.
Last night, I was fed up with not trying a new turkey recipe (doesn’t this happen to you?!) so I got out my Instant Pot and adapted this recipe from Epicurious.
Teacher Man: “I thought we were having leftovers.”
Me: “We can have those tomorrow. I wanted to make this turkey recipe because I might decide to blog it.”
And so goes the conversations in our kitchen all too often. 😉
Why use turkey thighs?
Back to this turkey recipe … it calls for turkey thighs, which I think are a drastically underutilized cut of turkey.
I buy them in packs of two at my local Cub Foods and if you love dark meat like I do, then turkey thighs should be your thing. Tons of flavor and a little more fat than breast meat — but I’m not talking about a totally fatty piece of meat or anything. This is still turkey and it’s still incredibly lean.
The thighs cooked up super juicy (with beer!) in the Instant Pot and were the perfect complement to the sauce, also made in the Instant Pot … so essentially this is a one-pot recipe, which I love on a weeknight.
How long does this turkey recipe take?
It’s super easy — it just takes some time to cook the turkey thighs (45 minutes to be exact) but it’s easy cooking time. Just seal the Instant Pot and walk away!
And a word about the mustard in this recipe … the sauce is not all mustard so if you are like me and are super picky about having too much mustard on anything, you’ll be fine here. Trust me. The sauce is actually really light and perfect for summer. 🙂
My favorite Instant Pot is a 6-quart version because we’re only three people in my family. If your household is bigger, than this 8-quart version is great too!
Hope you enjoy this recipe!
xoxo – Lara
Instant Pot Pulled Turkey
Equipment
- Instant Pot Multi-Cooker (6- or 8-quart)
- Small mixing bowl
- Cutting board
- Chef's knife
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 1 1/4-to 1 1/2-pound/each bone-in turkey thighs - skin removed (this is important!)
- 1 12-ounce bottle dark beer
- 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
- 1 tablespoon canned tomato paste
Instructions
- Mix the coriander, dry mustard, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a small bowl; rub the mixture over the thighs, coating them evenly and thoroughly. (IF POSSIBLE - do this ahead of time and set them covered in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours. It's not absolutely necessary, but it really amplifies the spices!)
- Pour the beer into a 6-quart Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker); nestle the thighs into the beer.
- Lock the lid onto the pot.
- Set the machine to cook at high pressure for 45 minutes by hitting Manual and adjusting the time setting. (My Instant Pot has a "manual" setting so I just used this.)
- Once 45 minutes is up, use the quick-release method to drop the pot’s pressure to normal.
- Unlock and open the cooker. Transfer the thighs to a carving board; cool for a few minutes. Debone the meat and chop it into small bits.
- Set the Instant Pot to its "saute" function; bring the liquid inside to a simmer.
- Cook until reduced to about half its volume when you opened the pot in the previous step, about 4-6 minutes.
- Stir in the brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, and tomato paste until smooth. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring all the while.
- Add the chopped turkey, stir well, and set aside unplugged for a couple of minutes to heat through.
- Serve on buns with a side of garden veggies and/or cole slaw!
Notes
Like this recipe? Be sure to Pin the graphic below!
8 Comments on Instant Pot Pulled Turkey
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Hi, Lara, I’m trying to subscribe and keep getting an error message. Everything looks okay on my end. Just a heads-up. Tried your pulled turkey today – fantastic meets crazy-easy! Thanks!
Hi Stacey! Thanks for letting me know – I will definitely check into the error message and see what I can do to fix that. 🙂 And of course I’m totally glad you loved the pulled turkey recipe!! Have a great week!
Lara
I’m way late for your pulled turkey party, but have been looking for the “it” recipe for two fresh (though now frozen) turkey thighs and bingo! I haven’t found whole grain mustard and the last time I ordered an ingredient in a glass jar from Amazon (Better Than Bouillon) they packed it in a padded envelope, so won’t repeat that. Any suggestions for non-whole grain mustard? How about stone ground? Any particular brands? Thanks!
Hi Beth!
Oh my word – the last week was crazy and then I was gone all weekend. My apologies for the delayed response!! I really think you could go with a stone ground or even spicy brown mustard and it would be equally as good. I’d say go with whatever you can easily find. 🙂
Lara
I made the pulled turkey. Two comments: 1) I got a burn message and called IP. The rep told me that a hunk of meat/fowl should never be placed directly on the bottom of the pan, because it can block water circulation, and to always use a trivet to raise it up just a bit. The turkey thighs I used were bigger than the ones pictured on your website. 2) The beer taste was much too strong. Now it was a very dark beer so that’s part of it. But alcohol needs to burn off in most recipes, so using the saute function first would allow that. Next time I try it I’ll use a trivet, a lighter beer and also allow alcohol to burn off. Thank you for the idea though for the future. The meat was tender and I can see it tasting really good with these changes.
Hi Beth! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences and tips – this is great! I haven’t had the ‘burn’ issue before but this is good information from IP. Hope you will be able to continue to fine-tune the recipe to your liking!!
Lara