The Best Crockpot Carnitas Recipe
What’s better than smelling the delicious spices infusing into the pork shoulder you have cooking in the crock pot? Eating it! Fall apart tender roast pork, shredded and ready to use in any numerous recipes, like my Easy One Pot Leftover Carnitas Soup.
Hailing from the Michoacan state in Mexico, carnitas, or ‘little meats’, is traditionally made by simmering pork roast in lard until it falls apart. Pork butt, also called picnic roast, is commonly used when making carnitas. Spices such as cumin oregano and chili powder are used, along with fresh garlic. Orange juice is added to help tenderize the meat.
While this recipe doesn’t call for roasting the pork in lard, rather, it is put in the crock pot and left to simmer for hours until it is tender and shreds easily. Once it is done roasting, the meat is then cooked in a pan on the stove to help crisp it up a bit. For this step, I used a bit of lard to add some flavor and help crisp it up.
I actually only did the extra step for half of the carnitas, and it was all delicious. Those crispy bits are really good, but the pork as a whole was really good. The spices are what does the trick. They really do add so much flavor.
Ingredients
- Pork butt– a relatively inexpensive cut of meat that is great for simmering in the crock pot.
- Cumin, oregano, chili powder
- Fresh garlic– pressed
- Orange juice– to make the pork extra tender
- Lard– I just use the lard from the bacon that I cook. No need to go and buy any, unless you don’t have any. Or, go get some bacon, cook it up and save the lard for this recipe. Easy! And you get to eat some bacon.
Let’s Make This
This shredded pork is so good, you won’t want to cook pork any other way. First, you’re going to add the pork shoulder to your crock pot. Add the spices and orange juice and one cup of water. Then, the crock pot does the work. It is so wonderful walking into your house when this pork is cooking. Smells so so good! Once the pork is done, I like to shred it directly in the pot. This will allow the juices to get all over the meat and roast in it, soaking up all those delicious spices. Before you shred the meat, take its temperature by inserting a meat thermometer through the thickest part. It should read 170 degrees. I like to let the shredded meat simmer in the juices for about 30 minutes. And of course, I have to take a few bites. Yum!
Look at the crispy bits that form on the inside of the crock pot! Yum! I scrape off as much of this as I can as it is so full of flavor.
After 30 minutes, I just take the crock pot out of the heating element and bring it over to the stove. Heat up 1-2 Tbsp of lard in a large frying pan. Add half the amount of carnitas to the pan, rubbing it in the lard so it gets all over it. Then just let it cook, stirring it occasionally and scraping the bottom of the pan to get up all of the yummy crispy bits. You’re not heating the meat up, just crisping it up a bit. This should only take a few minutes. You also want to be careful not to overcook it and dry it out. You’ll do the same with the other half of the meat.
Now it’s time to enjoy your carnitas! It’s good enough to eat plain, but it also makes great tacos, burritos, chips and cheese, whatever your heart’s desire.
Other Recipes to Try
Use this carnitas recipe to make my Carnitas Tacos Recipe or you could even use it to replace the sausage in my Stuffed Poblanos recipe. So delicious!
Recipe Notes
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.
Absolutely! Make sure pork has completely cooled down. Portion out in three cup increments, which is roughly 1 pound, into freezer safe bags or containers. If in bags, flatten the pork out so that way you can lay them flat in the freezer. Freeze for up to two months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before using.
Mainly the spices, and carnitas is cooked in lard whereas pulled pork tends to not be.
Pork butt is the best. It has heavy marbling, meaning that it can withstand longer cook times due to the amount of fat, and it shreds so easily. Plus, it is inexpensive.
Easy Crockpot Carnitas
Equipment
- 1 crock pot
Ingredients
- 5 pound pork butt roast
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 3 cloves fresh garlic, pressed
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp lard
Instructions
- In a large crock pot, add the pork roast, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp chili powder, 3 pressed cloves garlic, 2 tsp salt and pepper each, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup orange juice.
- Cook on high for 4-5 hours, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the roast reads 170 degrees.
- Shred roast once it is cooked. Bring pot over to the stove.
- in a large skillet, add 1 tbsp of lard and half of the shredded pork. Mix the pork in with the lard and cook for 5-10 minutes, being sure to stir and scrape up all of the crispy bits that form on the bottom of the pan. The idea is to crisp up the shredded pork, adding more flavor to the already flavorful meat.
- Remove the pork from the pan and set aside. Repeat the process with the rest of the shredded pork.
- Use the carnitas in tacos, burritos, soup, nachos, almost anything you can think of.
Notes
Nutrition
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