Pork Chops in HK Tomato Sauce
Easy Instant Pot Pork Chops in HK Tomato Sauce Recipe: Tender & moist pork chops, soaked in delicious umami-packed tomato sauce. Super comfort food that both adults and kids are going to love
Servings Prep Time
2-4servings 10minutes
Cook Time
20minutes
Servings Prep Time
2-4servings 10minutes
Cook Time
20minutes
Ingredients
  • 4 pork loin chopsboneless, 1 1/4 inches thick
  • 1/2teaspoon white sugar
  • 1/4teaspoon salt
  • 1/4teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1tablespoon light soy sauce
  • 1/2tablespoon dark soy sauce
  • 1medium onionsliced
  • 4 garlic clovesminced
  • 1 shallotdiced
  • 8 mushroomssliced
  • 1/5cup tomato paste
  • 2tablespoons ketchup
  • 1tablespoon peanut oil
  • 1tablespoon white sugar
  • 1teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1cup of water
  • kosher salt
  • black pepperground
  • 1 1/2tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
  1. Tenderize the Pork Chops: Use the backend of a heavy knife, pound both sides of the pork chops to tenderize the meat.
  2. Marinate the Pork Chops: Marinate the tenderized pork chops for 20 minutes with a mixture of 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, all of the light soy sauce and dark soy sauce.
  3. Press Sauté on the Instant Pot. wait until the indicator says “hot”. This will prevent the pork chops from sticking to the pot.
  4. Clean the mushrooms with a damp paper towel and prepare the rest of the ingredients as listed.
  5. Add peanut oil into the pot. Ensure to coat the oil over the whole bottom of the pot. Add the marinated pork chops into the pot, then let it brown for roughly 1 – 2 minutes on each side (don’t need to keep flipping). Do not let it burn. Remove and set aside.
  6. Brown the Onion, Shallot, Garlic, and Mushrooms: Add in the sliced onions, diced shallot and stir. Add a pinch of kosher salt and ground black pepper to season if you like.
  7. Cook the onions and shallot for roughly 1 minute until soften. Then, add garlic and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant.
  8. Add in the mushrooms and cook for another minute. Taste seasoning and adjust with more kosher salt and ground black pepper if necessary.
  9. Add 1/4 cup of water and fully deglaze the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.
  10. Create the Tomato Sauce: Add in 3/4 cup of water, ketchup, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste. Mix well.
  11. Place the pork chops back with all the meat juice into the pot. Close lid and pressure cook at High Pressure for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and let it fully Natural Release (roughly 10 minutes). Open the lid carefully.
  12. Remove the pork chops and set aside. Turn heat to medium by pressing the sauté button. Taste the seasoning one more time. Add more salt and pepper if desired. Mix the cornstarch with water and mix it into the tomato sauce one third at a time until desired thickness.
  13. Drizzle the tomato sauce over the pork chops and serve immediately with side dishes.
Recipe Notes
  1. Best Instant Pot Pork Chops Cooking Time & Method: You wouldn’t want to overcook pork chops as they’ll become tough and dry. Since pork chops cook in a flash in the pressure cooker, we did a Pressure Cooker Pork Chops Experiment to find the best cooking time to make perfect instant pot pork chops! After testing with 5 batches of Instant Pot pork chops, we found cooking at High Pressure for 1 minute, then Natural Release creates a delicious and perfectly cooked pork chops.
  2. Purchasing Pork Chops: Try to choose pork chops with some marbling of fat. The pork chops we used were roughly 1.25 inches thick.
  3. Tenderize the Pork Chops: Make sure to tenderize the pork loin chops before marinating them. This is an important step!!
  4. Mixing in the Tomato Paste: Mixing in 2 ounces tomato paste to 8.5 ounces of water should not cause scorching. If you are unsure, just let the tomato paste sit on top of all the other ingredients unmixed. Avoid mixing in the tomato paste if you exceed the 1 cup of tomato paste to 5 cups of water ratio.
  5. Water vs. Chicken Stock: We used water instead of our homemade unsalted chicken stock in this recipe as most Cha Chaan Teng use water (way cheaper) to make this tomato sauce.