Instant Pot – Spiced Milk Pork/Chicken

Inspired by Jamie Oliver’s classic Chicken in Milk when I recognized key components while looking for a pork instant pot recipe, and finding a very badly written ‘official’ recipe that made no sense to me.

For this recipe, im using pork hocks – one of the cheapest  cuts of meat available, at least to my shopping experience. They’re typically cut into about inch thick steak like slices, usually two or three to a tray – locally, they average about 2.50$CDN – but that’s just because im in an isolated bumfuck market. They should be cheaper elsewhere. Just looking at them on the tray, they resemble bone in shoulder roasts, only in single serve portions. Yes, they can and will be fatty, that’s part of their magic to guarantee non-dry pork. Other wise, fatty parts of chicken such as thighs, can be used.

• 3 – 4  pork hocks / chicken thighs – enough to spread across the bottom of the pot.
• 2 cups milk. This can be substituted out for coconut milk, or cream.
• 1 tsp/thumb sized piece of grated ginger
• Cracked Black Pepper to taste,  I use roughly 1/4 tsp(ground doesn’t have much taste, but if using, just a pinch will do).
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 black/chinese cardamon pod(remove the seeds and grind them, or at least crack them)* Other spices are available.
• 1 bulb of garlic. That’s right, an entire bulb of garlic, trim the root and remove the ‘paper’. Lots of people say just use the paper and all, but I can’t recommend it because my market is a piece of shit and there’s often times fine mold/dirt on everything.

1. Arrange the pork/chicken across the bottom of the pot, crowding is fine.
2. Pour half the milk over the meat.
3. Stir the rest of the spices into the rest of the milk to distribute them, then pour over the meat.* If there’s not enough to just cover the meat, add some more milk/water so that it just covers the meat.**
4. Close the lid on the Instant Pot, set the Seal Lock then hit Meat – 45 minutes.
5. Turn the cooker off, and let it naturally release the pressure seal for a few minutes or else it starts spitting the pot liquor too.
6. Trim the fat as or if desired.

Serve over rice, potatoes, wilted spinach/kale if you can manage it. Some might prefer this recipe with a bit of soy sauce(or sweet soy sauce which is a thick sugary version).
Don’t forget to actually turn on your rice cooker.

Looks are deceiving, when you open the pot or plate this dish, don’t be put off by the ‘pot slop’ that are the milk curdles.

The resulting sauce/liquor is divine. The original JO recipe calls for lemon which is supposed to split the milk and to make it curdle(the milk solids make soft chunks) – In the Instant Pot, likely because of the pressure, the milk will split regardless. It will also end up mostly over the sides of the pot and not in the liquor and need to be scraped back into the liquor.

Some variations of this recipe that I’ve found call for oiling the bottom of the pan, im not sure what for if your not going to brown the meat. That is an option that can add even more flavour, but who has time for that? If you want to give it a try, a little oil or butter in the pan and then saute the meat until the bottom is browned, one or both sides is your choice. Then continue to step 2.

*Other spices can be added to personal tastes. Some like cumin, sage, cinnamon, even nutmeg, rosemary or thyme.
A personal favourite variation is to bring the milk to boil in a saucepan, remove from heat, then seap one or two bags of black chai tea in the milk until it’s cooled off about 10 minutes.
If you’ve never heard of or can’t justify buying cardamon or other spices just for this recipe because you don’t stock your cupboard with them, go with the black chai tea option.

**Every store cuts their hocks to different thicknesses – for example, locally, one of the butchers in the meat department at one particular store doesn’t even bother to cut them into the traditional slices and you end up with ham half-shanks. If the hocks are much thicker, then you might have to add extra time. But at about an inch thick, 45 minutes is enough to tenderize the meat to the point where it will basically shred itself.

All this being said, this can be done in the oven. If using a roaster pan, cook @ 350 for 2 hours. If using cast iron, 1 & half hours should be fine, but check it at an hour.