Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
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The easiest carnitas you will ever make right in the crockpot, cooked low and slow for the most amazing fall-apart tender pork goodness!
Have you joined The Walking Dead fan club yet? The season premier is on Sunday night and they’ve been playing every single episode from start to finish on AMC for this premier. And even though I’ve already watched all the episodes, I’m still hooked.
There’s just something about creepy zombies that leaves you in front of the tv. That and Norman Reedus, his poncho, and his bow and arrow. But I digress. Zombies or not, it’s officially fall and the slow cooker is being put to very good use in these epic carnitas. After all, you can’t go wrong when you let this baby cook in all its glory for 8 hours.
You can even prep everything the night before and put it in the slow cooker right before leaving for work. And when you get home, you’ll have the most tender, most juicy pulled pork ever. Although I highly recommend finishing this under the broiler, letting these babies get nicely caramelized.
I should also mention that this recipe creates enough to feed an army so be prepared to have tacos, quesadillas and burritos all week long!
Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons salt, or more, to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 pound pork shoulder, excess fat trimmed
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 onions, quartered
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
Equipment
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. Season pork shoulder with spice mixture, rubbing in thoroughly on all sides.
- Place garlic, onions, orange juice, lime juice and seasoned pork shoulder into a 6-qt slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.
- Remove pork shoulder from the slow cooker and shred the meat before returning to the pot with the juices; season with salt and pepper, to taste, if needed. Cover and keep warm for an additional 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to broil. Place carnitas onto a baking sheet and broil until crisp and crusted, about 3-4 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
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Making these tomorrow after reading all the wonderful comments – so excited! Using a 2 1/2 lb bone-in pork shoulder and orange juice in lieu of actual oranges (don’t feel like going to store). Will report results!
Made the carnitas this weekend. Turned out sooooo good! Meat fell apart coming out of crock pot & was super tender. Used boneless pork shoulder strips & little cuties & finished in pan on stove-top. These were the only modifications. Lots of left overs to freeze for my family for a quick weeknight meal. Printed the recipe cuz its a keeper!! Thank-you!
Looks and sounds amazing. Can I use a taco packet for the spices instead? Or do you think that it might over-power the pork flavor too much. Just curious. Thank you!
I think it would be a great substitute for the spices!
My family and I love this recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Hello,
I bought a bone-in pork shoulder. Will I be able to make this work for the recipe? Do you think I should debone it before cooking it?
Yes, bone-in pork should work just fine, and you can really debone before or after – it’s up to you!
When in doubt always buy meat with the bone in. That is where the flavor is. You can de-bone this Butt with 2 fingers after 8 hrs. it will be that tender.
This recipe came out perfectly – we loved it. Thanks so much for sharing!
These were ABSOLUTELY amazing. Thank you so much. This is the first thing I’ve ever made in the slow cooker that I liked. Fantastic.
The garlic and onion aren’t addressed after putting them in the crockpot. Do you leave them in for that additional 30 minutes that the carnitas is back in the crockpot?
Lilly, the garlic and onion are cooked down during this entire process and inevitably combines with the carnitas.
I have huge pieces of onion & the whole clove of garlic. You say it “combines” but I don’t know if you mean that I should mince the cooked onions/garlic and put that in the oven too????
You can discard the onions/garlic prior to broiling the pork.
This recipe is great, I used pork shoulder butt and doubled ingredients as the roast was 8lbs. the 8lbs fed family and I that night and the rest went on camping trip that weekend everyone loved the carnitas. Thanks for the great recipe.
Wow, made these last week and they were terrific! I used country style boneless ribs and cooked them for 6 hours on low and they came out juicy and perfect. Always love your recipes as they make me look like a star!
Chungah, thanks for the great recipe. I made this two nights ago and it was fantastic. I made a couple minor tweaks for my own needs. (I used 6 cloves of garlic, 2/3 c bottles orange juice, and 4 TBS bottle lime juice, and I didn’t finish it in the oven because I prefer the moist texture. I also added the cooked onions, garlic, and 5 large spoonfuls of the cooking liquid to the meat and shredded it all together in a large bowl.) I served mine with cilantro, a little pico, and cotija cheese. Yum, yum, yum. 🙂
Great recipe! This was my first time making carnitas and they turned out perfect!
I have made carnitas in the oven before and they turned out great, but the crock pot makes amazing carnitas, thank you!!! No muss, no fuss. Fabulous when you have a carnitas craving in the summer and don’t want to heat up the house! I also add a couple of cinnamon sticks to the mix. Thanks again for a wonderful recipe, everyone LOVES it! I thoroughly enjoy your blog.
I started these yesterday morning but, since I could only find an 8lb pork shoulder and had to double the recipe, it took longer to cook than I expected and it wasn’t ready before we had to leave for an orchestra concert. I shredded it when we got home and put it back in the crockpot on warm overnight to sit in all those yummy flavors. I strained and drained it this morning and put it in the fridge until I crisped it up for dinner tonight. This is the first of about a jillion of your recipes that I pinned a couple days ago and it is fantastic. I served ours on corn tortillas with sour cream, limes, cilantro, avocados, and fresh onions. The best part is that I have another batch that I can freeze and break out again in a week or so for another meal. A+
I have to say, I came back to this page just to tell everyone how delicious this recipe is. I don’t even like mexican food, but my husband and friends from out of town do, so I made this last night for 4 adults. All 4 lbs were devoured by lunch today, and I certainly did my part. Our guests are staying us for the week and requested I make it at least once more before they leave.
Had to leave a comment–I’ve made these carnitas several times now. I love their simplicity and can’t get over how delicious they are!! Thought I’d leave a tip for shredding the meat–try a hand mixer! This has changed my life. My whole family loves this recipe–thank you so much!
I bought a bone in pork butt. Will this work ok.?
Yes, that should work just fine.
Oh my heavens, was this ever good! I usually cook the pork for carnitas lowly and longly in the oven, but it’s been hot out and I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen. I never thought of using the slow cooker! I did squeeze the oranges and then throw the peel part in with the pork since I love that flavor, and I threw in a couple of cinnamon sticks as well. I had my Mexican-food-loving family over and we all pigged out. Awesome, thank you!
Is it okay to use a boneless pork butt
Yes, absolutely! Either pork shoulder or pork butt should work just fine.
Thank you ….love your recipes my go to for new ideas
Pork shoulder and Boston Butt are the same cut of meat. The term changes as you move around the country. You can also use a picnic ham as it is just the cut right below the Butt. But trim the fat if you are going to use a picnic ham. It has twice as much outer fat than a shoulder. The final product is the same, juicy carnitas.
So excited to make this tomorrow. Can I freeze the meat later? There’s only two of us eating it and don’t want to waste it. I have had success freezing pulled pork barbecue so I was thinking it would work with this as well.
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
I have frozen shredded pork before in a ziploc bag before, and it defrosted (and tasted) fine afterwards. Always best when fresh, but as long as time in the freezer isn’t too long, it’s an option for leftovers.
Can totally freeze for later use, just double bag to prevent freezer burn. used to make enchiladas at a later date and they were delicious