Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
by Chungah
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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
Video
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
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.
Equipment
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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
Dude these carnitas are legit the BEST thanks for the recipie.
Just made this for dinner tonight! Absolutely fantastic. Plus it was very easy to cater to a group of 10 people (even one with celiac’s and two who are lactose intolerant). Thank you!!!
I tried this recipe and it was amazing! Going to make it again soon. The only thing I did different is at the end, I took all the juice (skim off the fat if you prefer), garlic cloves and onions and blended it in the VitaMix to make a flavorful gravey. Put the blended juice and shredded pork back in the crock to reheat. It was very good!
Made your recipe for my hubby’s birthday last week…..he LOVED it along with the entire family!!! It was sooooo yummy that everyone has requested that I make it again this week (5 hrs left on the crock pot timer….hehehe) The flavors of the pork brought us back to our honeymoon in Los Cabos. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!
PS – We’re Corgi lovers too : )
Hi,
I read through most but not all comments, so I apologize if this has been answered and I didn’t see it. What type of oranges did you use? Did you get the largest possible to try to get the most juice? Did you ever measure out about how much juice you get with the oranges and limes just to get an idea the amount of liquid you are adding to the recipe?
I’m very excited about trying it, so thank you for sharing.
Julie, the amount of juice used does not have to be that exact here. There’s a lot of room to play with!
You can heat your lived fruits in tthe microwave 20 seconds, or until warm to maximize the juice.
I love making things in a slow cooker, aka my sous chef! Growing up, carnitas were a staple in my house. This recipe looks great! Pinned and shared! 😀
Hi there,
Is that 4 lbs with fat and then trim it or 4 lbs after fat has been trimmed off?
Thanks!
Linh
Linh, it really doesn’t matter as long the pork is about 4 pounds.
Have you heard of anyone using Cutie oranges in place of regular oranges? They are a bit sweeter and I have an entire bowl full sitting on my counter. 🙂
I haven’t tried it myself but it sounds like a great substitute!
Very nice recipe. I’m making for the second time this week. I actually fried the carnitas in a cast iron pan instead of broiling and they turned out very good, as well.
Do you put the lime and oranges in the pot or just the juice of each???
Sandra, the recipe calls for 2 oranges, juiced and 2 limes, juiced, so it would only be the juices of each.
Have you ever tried this with a frozen pork shoulder? I wanted to make this tomorrow but just realized that my pork is frozen and I doubt that it will fully thaw in time.
I actually have not tried this with frozen pork shoulder. It may be best to thaw completely prior to using.
It is a huge piece of meat but you can thaw in a plastic bag in a pot or other large vessel with very slowly dripping COLD water. The convection will help thaw the meat much faster and safer than just leaving out inside or outside the fridge. Since this piece is so big you may need to flip once or twice.
I took a rock hard frozen 2.66lb boneless pork roast and dropped it into a 6qt. pot of very hot, (not boiling ) tap water for 20 minutes and t was totally thawed
Finish it off with a pico de gallo and its amazing
This recipe looks delicious! After cooking, what did you do with the quartered onion pieces? Also, did you mince the garlic or did you throw the entire clove into the crock pot?
Sharon, I used whole cloves for this recipe. As for the onion pieces, we ate them of course!
HI! This looks wonderful. Pre-Super-Bowl, I was only able to buy a much larger piece of meat, 7.3 lb pork butt bone-in roast. It does fit into my crock pot. Do you think this will cook through on a slow cook time of 10 hrs? Thanks!!
Unfortunately without further recipe testing, I cannot say for certain if this will cook through in 10 hrs. Please use your best judgment to ensure that the pork is completely cooked through.
yummy yums