While at the grocery store this morning, I came across Smoked Pork Neck Bones, a product I had never used before. I picked up a 2 lb. package, along with several cans of Navy Beans, and decided to make Pork Neck and Navy Bean Soup in my Instant Pot for dinner tonight.
First, I softened some celery, carrot, onion and garlic in some peanut oil in the pot. Then added chicken stock, some more carrots, a couple of bay leaves, some dried thyme and black pepper to the vegetables in the pot. I only used half the pork necks and put the other half in the freezer for another time.
After these photos, I added the rest of the chicken stock (4 cups total) to cover the pork and cooked them on Manual, High Pressure for 20 minutes and 20 minutes Natural Release.
I removed the bay leaves and the necks, and the one pound of necks yielded almost 7 ounces of meat, which I shredded...
...and added back to the pot...
...along with the four cans of drained navy beans.
The soup is now on a one hour Slow Cook to bring all of the flavors together.
Notes for next time: Use low sodium chicken stock for better control of the salt and wait to add the extra carrots with the beans as they were softer than I wanted after the pressure cooking.
