Okay, this Slow Cooker Carnitas recipe might be the best thing I’ve ever made in my slow cooker. No joke. The combination of the warm spices, orange essence, and richness of the slowly cooked pulled pork is absolutely to die for. I hereby retire my chili rubbed pork recipe in favor of these Slow Cooker Carnitas. I need a stash of this flavorful and tender pulled pork in my freezer at all times for tacos, burritos, and NACHOS. Oh yes, the nachos I could make with this pork would be EPIC. And you just won’t believe how easy it is to make carnitas with a slow cooker! Let’s go!
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
What is Carnitas?
Carnitas, which translates to “little meats”, is a Mexican pulled pork flavored with warm spices and orange. The dish is traditionally made with a fat-marbled cut of pork, like a Boston butt or picnic roast, which gives the meat an incredibly rich flavor and tender mouthfeel. The pulled pork is often used for tacos, burritos, taquitos, and more.
Ingredients for Carnitas
You don’t need a lot of ingredients to make slow cooker carnitas that are full of flavor and deliciously tender. Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe:
- Pork: Choose a fatty cut of pork like Boston butt or a picnic roast. The marbled fat is essential to create the correct flavor and texture in this slow cooked pulled pork.
- Onion and Garlic: These classic savory aromatics create a deep savory base for the flavor profile.
- Spices: A combination of warm spices like cinnamon, chipotle (smoked jalapeño), cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper give carnitas its intense and aromatic flavor.
- Orange: The subtle fresh citrus flavor of orange peels and sweetness from the orange juice provide a nice contrast to the warm spices, keeping the overall flavor profile complex and interesting.
How to Make Carnitas Tender and Crispy
One of the reasons carnitas are so good is the tender texture with crispy edges. Cooking the pork low and slow creates a tender meat that shreds easily, but finishing the pork in a skillet, and frying the pork in its own rendered fat, creates crispy edges. It’s best to fry the slow-cooked meat just before serving to get the best crispy edges.
Instant Pot Carnitas
This slow cooker carnitas recipe converts very easily to an Instant Pot. To make Instant Pot carnitas, simply layer all of the ingredients in the Instant Pot like you would in the slow cooker, secure the lid, and cook on high pressure for about 50 minutes. Natural release, shred, and crisp up the meat in a skillet as usual.
How to Serve Slow Cooker Carnitas
This delicious Mexican pulled pork is so good in everything, you will be so happy to have some stashed in your freezer. Try using your carnitas for burritos, tacos, taco salads, nachos, pulled pork sandwiches, quesadillas, and burrito bowls.
To make your carnitas into a full meal, try topping them with some pickled red onions or spicy pickled carrots, and adding some cumin lime roasted sweet potatoes, or corn and avocado salad on the side! And you might as well add some chips and guacamole too!
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
This recipe has become one of my absolute favorites for meal prep! It freezes well so I can make a huge batch and portion it out as needed before freezing. After cooking, divide and transfer the pulled pork to food storage containers, with the juices, and chill completely in the refrigerator. Once chilled the carnitas will stay good in the refrigerator for about five days, or it can be transferred to the freezer and stored for about three months.
To reheat carnitas from the refrigerator, place the meat in a hot skillet and cook over medium until the liquid evaporates, the meat is heated through, and the edges have become crispy. To reheat from frozen, first allow the meat to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat in the same manner as the refrigerated carnitas.
Slow Cooker Carnitas
Servings 8Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.32)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 2 small cinnamon sticks ($0.95)
- 1/2 Tbsp oregano ($0.08)
- 1/2 Tbsp cumin ($0.08)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp chipotle pepper powder ($0.05)
- 3 lbs pork butt roast ($5.26)
- 2 small oranges ($0.67)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and peel the garlic cloves. Place the onion, garlic, and cinnamon sticks in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- In a small bowl, combine the oregano, cumin, salt, pepper, and chipotle powder. Cut the pork roast into 2-inch cubes. Place the cubed meat in a bowl and sprinkle the spice mix over top. Toss the meat in the spices until evenly coated. Place the seasoned meat in the slow cooker on top of the onion, garlic, and cinnamon.
- Use a vegetable peeler to remove the thin layer of orange zest from one of the oranges. Squeeze about 1/2 cup juice from the oranges. Pour the orange juice over the meat in the slow cooker, than sprinkle the pieces of orange zest over top.
- Place a lid on the slow cooker, turn it on to high, and cook for 5 hours, or until the meat is tender and falls apart.
- Use tongs to stir and shred the meat, and remove the cinnamon sticks. Either divide the meat and liquid into smaller containers to refrigerate for later, or transfer the meat and some of the liquid to a skillet (preferably non-stick or cast iron). Cook the meat over medium flame until browned and crispy on the edges. Avoid stirring the meat too much as it will break down into tiny pieces. Use the crispy meat as a filling for tacos, burritos, nachos, or burrito bowls.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!
How to Make Slow Cooker Carnitas – Step by Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion and peel four cloves of garlic. Place the diced onion, garlic cloves, and two small cinnamon sticks in the bottom of the slow cooker.
These are the cinnamon sticks I use. These little packets of four small sticks are found in the Hispanic food section of my local grocery store and only cost $1.89. So, if cinnamon sticks are expensive in the spice aisle, check the international foods aisle as well.
In a small bowl stir together 1/2 Tbsp oregano, 1/2 Tbsp cumin 1/2 tsp salt, some freshly cracked pepper, and 1/2 tsp chipotle pepper powder.
You’ll also need one pork butt roast, about 3 lbs. If you use a bone-in roast, just get one slightly larger than 3 lbs. and don’t forget to pull the bones out after cooking.
Cut the pork into 2-inch cubes, place them in a bowl, and sprinkle the spice mix over top. Toss the meat cubes in the spices until they’re evenly coated, then place them in the slow cooker on top of the onion, garlic, and cinnamon.
Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from one of the oranges. You want to get all the nice orange parts with the fragrant oils, but not the white pith, which can be bitter. Also, juice the oranges. You need about 1/2 cup juice.
Pour the orange juice over the meat…
And add the orange peels on top of the pork.
Place the lid on the slow cooker, turn it on to high, and cook for 5 hours. See how much liquid comes out of the meat? That’s good stuff right there.
Use a pair of tongs to stir and shred the meat. Fish out the cinnamon sticks (and bones, if you used a bone-in roast) at this time. You can serve the meat just as it is, or you can crisp it up in a skillet.
OR you can refrigerate it or freeze it for later. If refrigerating/freezing, I highly recommend dividing the meat up into smaller portions before refrigerating (store it with the cooking juices). This helps it cool faster and prevents food safety issues. If you want to freeze some of it, let it chill in the refrigerator overnight before transferring to the freezer.
To make the carnitas crispy, just cook it in a skillet with some of the juices (because you need the fat from the slow cooker to basically fry the meat) until it’s crispy. I recommend doing this in some sort of non-stick skillet though, like cast iron, ceramic, or Teflon, because the liquified collagen likes to stick to and coat stainless steel.
And that’s basically it! It’s just that easy to make tender, juicy, and FLAVORFUL slow cooker carnitas.
I used larger sticks (didn’t realize it) and now this is CRAZY cinnamon-y. I need to reduce that flavor. Any ideas?
Oh no! you could try adding a bit more of the cumin and chipotle powder to rebalance the flavors a bit, but I’d hate for those to end up too strong as well. Perhaps when you go to serve it, whatever you’re serving it with will mute the flavor of it a bit!
Hey! I actually did something similar. I put it back in the pan with a tiny bit of water. flour, a little bit more salt, cayenne and the chipotle. fixed it right up! I think flour was the real MVP though.
Can this be cooked on low instead of high?
Yes, usually cooking on low requires about double the amount of time, but I’d check it at 8 and see if the meat is tender enough to shred at that point.
I’ve made these probably half a dozen times, and every time I do so I forget just how delicious they are. I frequently can’t find a 3 pound roast, so I usually just double the recipe and freeze the excess meat (it freezes beautifully in the juices). This time I used a premixed combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves in place of the cinnamon sticks and also added some smoked paprika and just a pinch of cayenne pepper. It was delicious! Rather than making it sweet, the cinnamon just gives it a nice smoky flavor that pairs well with the orange.
Hi, i am so gonna try this recipe! But i want to try it in the pressure cooker as you said it could be made in it. But i have a question. The only liquid in the recipe is 1/2 orange juice. That’s not enough for a pressure cooker. What would you suggest to add? I know the meat makes a ton of juice but still needs liquid to at least come up to pressure properly, right? Any advice? Or should i just pull out my dusty slow cooker (lol) and do it that way? I think my teenaged hangry boys will love this!!
I also wanted to say while I’ve only used a few of your recipes, so far, i absolutely love them and can’t wait to try more!!
Since we tested this recipe in a slow cooker, that’s the easiest way to achieve equally successful results. While I can only guess how much liquid your pressure cooker requires or how ours differs (but I’m assuming it’s around a cup), I would say to either increase the orange juice to about 1 cup or make up the difference with water/broth depending on your preference! ~ Marion :)
We love carnitas and this recipe looks great.
I bought a 3.5# pork loin on sale. Would this recipe work with that cut?
Pork loin is very lean and cooks much quicker than pork butt. I wouldn’t do it.
One of the best recipes on this website, and I’ve been using the site for several years! I always make it with the pickled onions recipe that’s suggested at the top of the page. Makes the best tacos ever!!
Pretty good recipe as written without substitution. I always skip the ‘zest’ ingredient as the skins of the fruits are always where any pesticides might reside (no matter if they say it’s organic oranges or not, I don’t trust them).
Absolutely delicious, we couldn’t get enough! Reading through the recipe it didn’t seem like nearly enough spices for the amount of meat. I got about 3.5 lb of pork butt and made 3x the seasoning so I could cover the meat with the amount of seasonings that felt right. Definately recommend scaling up the spices and seasoning the meat based on sight—I imagine this would’ve been pretty bland if I hadn’t.
Why would you give it 5 stars if you would think it was bland as written? If you make changes and rate “your recipe” then 4 stars would seem more appropriate, right?
These where good but WOW slow cooking takes FOREVER!! Is they’re a microwave version?
The slow cooking is where the magic happens. ;)
This was amazing!
I used a little ground cinnamon instead of cinnamon sticks and it subbed in just fine! Will definitely keep this on my list of go-to slow cooker recipes.
I thought this was pretty good. Ultimately, I felt that it was missing some acid, which I made up for with some salsa verde and a squeeze of lime juice. I thought the orange and cinnamon flavors were both a little on the overwhelming side. I’ll make this again, but will try to liven up the dry spices and possibly omit the cinnamon altogether.
These turned out amazing!!
I haven’t heard my husband rave about my cooking as much as he did this recipe
Hi, I only have chipotle chili flakes. Should I grind these down or leave whole and any tweaks in recommended tsps?
While flakes would work, I don’t know how much to suggest without testing it, so your safest bet would be to grind them down to a powder then use the amount listed in the recipe.
Love this! Love all your recipes. Thank you for sharing them. I cooked this one today. So yummy! I have to say though, the price for the meats are often way off. I paid $10 for this pork. That’s double the suggested amount of $5. Maybe because I live in New York? Oh well… totally with it, but not a budget-break meal.
I subbed chipotle powder with a few chipotle peppers in adobo that I had in my freezer. I blended them and then strained the liquid out to avoid seeds. The flavor was good, definitely not too cinnamon-y.
I had some difficulty with the last step of transferring meat to a skillet. I ended up with a lot of liquid in the cast iron since I didn’t want to lose any meat in the juices, so that had to simmer down for quite awhile.
Served with the warm avocado corn salad recipe as suggested on the top of the page, with toasted corn tortillas.
If I don’t have cinnamon sticks, what would be the equivalent in ground cinnamon?
You can just use a teaspoon or so.
Hi! Asking because I’m really good at messing things up…. it looks like there is very little liquid added to this recipe (just the OJ). It’s making me nervous because other recipes call for chicken stock. I see it does juice up on its own, though. To clarify and give me peace of mind, there are no issues starting it out with just the OJ as the only liquid? *I’m a newbie chef and newbie wife so I rly don’t want to mess this up!
Update to my own question: it turned out great!
I want to make these for the Poor Man’s Burrito Bowls, but unfortunately the store was out of raw pork butt and only had the fully cooked/water added version. Any tips on how to make this with an already cooked piece of pork? Thanks!
You could season it in a skillet to reheat. Then you can still assemble the bowls like the recipe.
I’m thinking about trying this with a venison roast to make venison tacos! Have you ever cooked with venison? Does that sound too crazy?
Not crazy at all Rachael! We have a freezer full of venison ourselves. I haven’t tried this specific recipe with a venison roast yet, but it does go great with these flavors. My suggestion though would be to cook it on low for 8 hours instead of high for 5. There’s less fat with the venison so it needs that extra time to really break down. Enjoy!
I normally love all your recipes, but I thought the cinnamon in this one completely overpowered everything else and kind of ruined the dish. Did I do something wrong or am I just overly sensitive to the cinnamon flavor here?
Hi Dan! I’m sorry that it didn’t turn out for you. Did you perhaps leave the cinnamon sticks in while shredding the meat? Your sticks could have been larger than what Beth used for the recipe too and created more of an overpowering flavor. Maybe just try one next time and see if it gets better?
Such an easy, affordable, DELICIOUS meal!
* I prepped the spices (and put into a mason jar) the night before. As well as the onion and orange next to the slow cooker.
In the morning, in a half awake state I put everything in the pot , slapped it on to “slow”, and when I came home from work, thee most delicious batch of carnitas was waiting for me. The meat fell apart like butter, and crisped up perfectly under the broiler for 10 mins.
What more in life do you need than delicious carnitas wrapped in a corn tortilla with cilantro?!
A+ recipe for taste, affordability and ease.
Thank you for the recipe, and step by step pictured instructions !
I made these for my husbands 30th birthday party here in Austin, Texas, where tacos of all kinds are taken very seriously. Got five stars from all the Austinites but the biggest compliment was from the San Antonio bro who said he’d never had better carnitas in his life. This is Texan approved (and better yet, San Antonio approved). Yeehaw, y’all! 😄
Well yes that’s a HUGE compliment! Thank you for sharing Jennifer!
Would this be good with chicken too? I have a pork allergy but I always hear wonderful things about carnitas.
It’s definitely a pork specific recipe. You can probably do something similar with chicken, but for a classic carnitas flavor you need it to be pork. :)
I put the cooked meat on a large baking tray and under the broiler in the oven for about 5 minutes to brown it! It turned out so good! Thanks for the dinner inspiration!
The pork turned out very tender and moist, but the flavor just wasn’t there. I even added a little bit extra of all the spices, and still just pretty bland. Definitely not awful, but I was a bit disappointed.
This was my problem, as well. Even as I was making it, I kept thinking that was not enough seasoning for 3# of meat. But I ALWAYS follow the recipe exactly the first time I make something. After I shredded the meat and tasted it, I liberally added more chipotle and cumin. Much more to my taste.
All in all, it was an easy and inexpensive recipe that I will make again. I added it to my pinterest board, with notes to increase the spices.
Could u use a pork loin instead? Iam stuck with a couple of big ones 2-3lbs bc they were buy one get one free. :)
Love a good deal! Yes you can use a loin.
This is an amazing and simple recipe. My sister and I were unable to find a three pound pork butt roast, but used 7.73 pounds instead. I omitted the orange juice, orange peel and cinnamon sticks because we didn’t have those ingredients on hand. I used minced garlic instead of whole garlic cloves. I cooked the pork butt roast in the slow cooker on high for ten hours, and the meat was tender. We used the meat to make tacos, which happens to be my favorite food EVER!!! I’m so looking forward to having leftovers for dinner this week. We saved the rest of the carnitas in the freezer and will save it for future recipes. Thank you so much, Beth!!! :-)
So glad you liked it, LaTrice! And isn’t it wonderful to have tender slow cooked pork on hand and ready to defrost?? My favorite. :)
Yes, it’s awesome to have slow cooked pork on hand. I want to make the 30 Minute Posole using the carnitas later. :-)
I’m having trouble finding chipotle powder locally. If I order it then I will have to wait. Can you suggest a substitute?
You might be able to get away with a mix of cayenne and smoked paprika, but chipotle is definitely going to taste different.
Very good–unusual and great flavor. My prok was extra-fatty, so I used my gravy separator on the juices. I made these for CInco de Mayo, and we will have some fun leftovers for the week. Thanks, Beth!
My husband and I absolutely love this recipe, exactly as written. I’m hoping to share it with a friend of mine who can’t have orange juice (but zest or orange extract are OK); any thoughts about a workaround for subbing out the OJ? Thanks!
I think I’d try just skipping the oj, and relying on the zest to work the magic. Or maybe also adding just a touch of brown sugar to add some some sweetness and maybe the juice of a small lime for acid?
This is a great recipe! My family loved it! It going into the rotation!
Really great recipe! We are very pleased with the end result. So delicious and a real easy recipe to make.
Our store only had regular pork roast, it’s not quite as marbled as the picture of your pork butt. Should I had some oil when cooking?
Unfortunately oil doesn’t have the same properties as pork fat, so it won’t turn out quite the same. That being said, I’ve made this with pork roast in a pinch and I still enjoyed the flavor quite a bit! It just wasn’t as “melt in your mouth” good like the pork butt. :)
I added some bacon drippings I had in the fridge. I crumbled up about a tablespoon across the top and everything worked out fine. We had a great dinner last night and the leftovers made great burrito bowls for lunch today.
Amazingly simple & delicious recipe!! We have been eating it with some quick pickled onions that tops it off nicely!
omg, these are so good!!!
Ohhhh, you retire Chili-rubbed pork for this one?!? That is the #1 favorite pork recipe of my kids and probably the top recipe I recommend off your site. That’s a big deal if you’re switching!! :)
I may have just been really smitten with the carnitas when I wrote this and over reacted. Haha! Because I’ve wanted to make the Chili Rubbed Pork lately. ;) But the carnitas is GOOOOOD.
Awesome recipe; thanks for sharing!!
This recipe is a great jumping-off point for experimentation! I have made it 6 times now, doing it a little differently each time. I have found you can sub a lot of things in and out without compromising the overall flavor. A few notes:
1-I usually use three oranges, and get about 3/4 cup juice
2-You can double or even triple the garlic, it just gets better
3-Try it with 6-8 whole cloves for even more savory-ness.
4-Sub the chipotle powder for a small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Chop 1/2 of the peppers finely and add the sauce they are packed in. If you like it spicier, you can use more peppers.
5-Sub the oranges for a can of pineapple chunks (+1/2 c. of the juice) if you want a sweet and savory version (I was inspired by an al pastor recipe I like)
Great recipe!
Fantastic recipe. Made it today and I am going out tomorrow to get more pork to make it again tomorrow.
I used about a teaspoon of cinnamon power (didn’t use sticks). Used clementine juice and zest too. Tomorrow I will add in a little vinegar or lime juice too.
Point is lots of tinkering can be done w/ this one. I’ll also probably let the pork stand for 30 mins or so w/ the spice mix on it.
Very happy w/ this one! Thank you.
Is the 1/2 cup of liquid enough for this to work in the Instant Pot? Thanks!!! :)
What is the longest time one should wait between finishing the slow-cooking process and then crisping everything in the frying pan? I’d like to wait a day or so before the final step, but am a little worried the meat/broth mixture will break down while being stored in the fridge, especially given the acidity of the oranges. Thoughts?
Thanks!
It should be fine. You can crisp it up at any point after slow cooking it.
I made this for the second time yesterday. I didn’t have an orange on hand, so I used 1 tbsp orange juice concentrate in 1/2 cut water, with some like zest. I threw in some bell peppers as well. It was delicious and even my picky eater loved it and talked about how good it was. I think crisping it up in my cast iron skillet really finishes it up nicely. Thanks! Your recipes are always a hit around here.
What if I wanted to do a 10 lb butt in 2 separate crock pots? Could I just triple the ingredient recipe, put it on low for 10-12 hours? What do you think? 😊
Honestly I’ve never cooked that much meat in a slow cooker before. As long as you cut it into the same size chunks, it should take about the same amount of time.
I actually had a lot of trouble shredding the pork, and had to do it by hand, even though I followed the recipe to the letter. What may have caused that?
It sounds like it needed a little more time in the slow cooker. Sometimes slow cookers vary a bit from brand to brand, so cooking time may not be exact.
Another suggestion about the cinnamon sticks! I was able to find cinnamon sticks way cheaper at my local store that sells bulk food/spices. The container of cinnamon sticks I bought cost me $2.52, and contains over 30 of the smaller sticks (like the ones used in this recipe). Any time I am out of a spice, I know I will almost always get a better deal in bulk!
Am guessing it would have been just fine without the orange and WAY better without the cinnamon-
not my style but I do understand there are different tastes/palettes. No beef dishes with cinnamon is a new rule fo me…
No thanks.
You don’t have to add cinnamon sticks and orange peel if you don’t want to.
Wow! Winner winner pork dinner. I was shredding the meat while my 2yo and 4yo were outside playing and they kept coming back in for more “samples”. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
It’s going to be unbearably hot this week, so was trolling recipes on line for hot weather cooking, which led to slow cooker carnitas, which led to searching varying recipes of such. I’m sold on yours, and looking forward to the reward…sounds so yummy! Thanks in advance :)
What size should the slow cooker be?
6 quart
Awesome dish. Doubled for my sons birthday party and everyone went back for seconds. I didn’t have skillet so I split the shredded meat in half and baked it for 10 minutes at 200c. Mixed up and served on mini corn tortillas.
I’m looking forward to seconds tomorrow.
This may be a dumb question, but do you have to pick out the orange zest too? Or does it sort of dissolve during the cooking process?
If anyone else is a clueless cook like me, I left the orange zest in there and just shredded it up with the rest of the pork. This dish was AMAZING, and the little occasional bursts of orange zest you can taste only make it better. I wish I could give this 6 stars!
Yes, you do pull the orange zest out after cooking. But someone else just left a comment saying that they left theirs in and enjoyed it! Hahaha, but I pulled mine out. They did not break down into smaller pieces for me.
Going to have to give this one a try. What is the herb in the pictures you added after cooking?
Just a little cilantro, used more for garnish than anything. :)
I used pork rib roast (no bone) since there seems to be a shortage of pork butt where I live, and used my instant pot. I also subbed cayenne for the chipotle powder, since I don’t have any of that. Otherwise I followed the instructions and did it on high pressure for 45 min, 10 min NPR and then released the rest.
I think I was a little light on the salt because it was a bit bland out of the pot, but frying it the meat perked it up. I had it with a lime crema, some guacamole, some pickled red onions, and some tortilla chips. It was awesome. I’m so excited for nachos tomorrow.
Can we use ground cinnamon inst of the sticks?
Probably, but I’m not sure how much without experimenting with it. :(
I used chicken thighs for this recipe. The house smelled great and made my mouth water. It was worth the wait.
I had three thoughts while making this. 1. Why do I have to cube up the meat ugh (but I did) 2. That much orange zest for taco meat had me worried. 3. Halfway through cooking I was worried about how much it smelled like cinnamon. This is literally the best thing that’s ever been in my crockpot. You’ll never catch hamburger with the packet of seasoning on my Mexican again. Best nachos I’ve ever made. Thank you budget bytes for my awakening
Hahah, I love it. :) I’m so glad you trusted the process! :D
Made this and paired it with the roasted sweet potato rainbow salad (and lime crema!) the combination was incredible!
Looks delicious! Do you think a pork loin would be an ok replacement for a pork butt, or is it too lean? Thanks!
It’s definitely too lean to get that nice rich flavor of carnitas. It might still taste good, but it won’t be that melt-in-your-mouth good. ;)
I love love love love carnitas – one of the things I do is take the liquid leftover from cooking the pork and while I’m de-icking it (excess fat, weird stringy bits, etc), I reduce the liquid down until it’s practically a syrup. Meat goes back in, gets tossed in the deliciousness and then roasted in the oven for extra crispyness and caramelization.
Hey Beth, I have this in the slow cooker right now and it smells AMAZING. Question for you: I cut the recipe in half and put it in a smaller Crock Pot — should this reduce the cooking time as well?
👏👏👏
This sounds delicious! Beth, you’ve inspired me to get a slow cooker with all of your delicious looking recipes. Do you think that your recipes would require a specific minimum size? I’m only cooking for myself and don’t have much cabinet or counter space for storage, so would want to get the smallest size possible. Thanks!
I feel like a 5 quart offers the most recipe flexibility (that’s the size of mine). Most recipes on the internet use a 5-6 quart cooker, so you’ll have more options.
Ok, great. Thank you so much! I found a good 6-quart cooker, but I was afraid it seemed ridiculously large just for me. Thanks!
I think I did something wrong – I only had powdered oregano – so I probably used WAY too much. It was super strong – and I was so bummed! Do you think that was it? I want to try it again and be more careful about the spices.
That was probably it. :( I’d try half the amount next time if you’re still using powdered.
I have a 3 lb shoulder with bone in. Can you tell me how to adapt this recipe and keep the butt whole? In the IP?
I would try to cut as many chunks off the bone as possible, but then throw everything in there (even the piece with the bone) and just fish the bone out after cooking. That way you won’t lose any meat. For the IP, I would check the chart in the manual to see how long to cook pork roasts and use that time/setting.
Thanks. Actually, I went ahead and just threw the whole thing in whole and just let it cook on low about 11 hours ( I think it was 5 lbs). It turned out great. I didn’t have time to make the pickled onions so I just sauteed some onions and red peppers. Served it in flour tortillas. Maybe I’ll try it in the IP next time . Don’t know why I didn’t think to check the book for cooking times.
I make a very similar recipe in the Instant Pot (as you suggested) but speed up the crisping process by putting however much meat I’m ready to serve with some of the juices under the broiler for a few. Easy peasy… and delicious!
Do the garlic cloves separate once cooked, when the meat is shredded?
Yep, mine pretty much disintegrated. :)
Think cutie oranges would work well with this?
I have been making this recipe (or something very similar) for years, but haven’t made it recently. Glad to see it come up on my favorite food site! Thanks for the reminder! The other recipe I’ve used just says throw the juiced orange halves right in there with the pork, so if clumsy like me or don’t want to fiddle with the zest, this option works as well. :)
Just finished putting this together as a surprise “thank you” dinner for my inlaws for letting us stay with them because our power is out. I used thick cut bone in pork chops bc they were on sale for cheaper than pork butt. It already smells great!
Do you think this would work with a beef roast?
I cooked a roast beef with orange juice once. It was good.
OK we made these last night and they were amazing. 10/10
Better than any carnitas I’ve ever had a restaurant.
What would you personally add topping-wise for said “epic” nachos? I’m definitely interested in makings these soon.
I like fresh jalapenos, I’d probably add those pickled red onions, maybe even some black beans or corn kernels, cheese, and then after the oven fresh cilantro and fresh diced tomato. YUM.
My God, it makes me salivate!
Made this tonight for my weekly meat (I use it in everything the rest of the week) delicious!!! Love it
All i have is pork ribs. Could i use that instead of pork roast? Thanks!!
I’ve never used ribs in a recipe like this, so I’m really not sure.
Sorry to hog the thread here, but this is a recipe after my heart. Consider substituting boneless chicken thighs, just trim them pretty well and brown them before throwing them in the slow cooker.
Really! Good to know because I LOVE chicken thighs! I wouldn’t have guessed that the would be as good as the pork, but I’ll take your word for it.
We make something like this at least monthly, I really like your version. In ours we blend onion, garlic, cumin and a can of cola. If you like drier carnitas, take the meat out of the slow cooker and put it in the oven to dry and crisp it. Off to make carnitas!
What a perfect way to use a slow cooker! I am annoyed with slow cooker recipes that can be done just as easily in 30 minutes on top of the stove, but this recipe is designed for low and slow. My DIL, who wants a lower fat version of carnitas, uses boneless pork chops when they are on sale for $2.99 or less–price is a little higher than your version, but with liquid in the crock pot, they don’t suffer from lower fat content. So many terrific ways to use what is basically pulled pork, and this flavor profile looks wonderful. I’m dreaming of tacos, enchiladas, sandwiches, etc
Totally agree, the cheaper the pork, the better. If it isn’t fatty enough, you can add some oil.
I love pork or chicken cooked with citrus. Orange and cinnamon is a favorite flavor combination.
You should check the Crispy Cuban Chicken from Bon Appetit’s Cooking Without Recipes series.. While it’s typically served with rice, avocado and maybe black beans, it’s also good in tacos, burritos, on top of greens with a citrus-based dressing. It’s very versatile.
That sounds good! I’m going to go check it out now. Thanks!!
I haven’t used my slow cooker in a while and now I have an excuse to!! I LOVE carnitas!
Hi Beth can I just use regular ground cinnamon? Would I just add it to the spice mix used to coat the meat? Would it help to brown the meat before putting in the slow cooker?
You probably can add some ground cinnamon to the spice mix, although I don’t know how much to suggest to give it just that hint of cinnamon that mine had… maybe 1/2 tsp? Browning the meat first always adds extra yumminess. :)
This looks delicious, and I love flavoring meat with cinnamon, too! It’s such a great complementary flavor.
I made a cochinita pibil once with similar ingredients, except it also has achiote paste. I also lined the slow cooker with banana leaves. I now want to try your recipe!
Could you sub pork loin for the butt roast?
Pork loin is quite a bit more lean than butt roast, so it won’t be nearly as melty and succulent. Technically, you can do it, but will it be as good? Nope. :)
So I made this with pork loin yesterday. The flavor was incredible, but the meat was pretty dry. I did not need to cook the meat to dry it out at all, and would have really liked a bit more fat to it. If I used loin again, I would probably not trim the meat first or add chicken broth to increase the moisture content. Long story short – I’d use shoulder, not loin, in the future.
I think this pork would be great on a Cuban sandwich too-that tasty Mojo flavor!
Great picture! It’s all moody and atmospheric ;)
Yum! This looks great, Beth! I can imagine the orange and cinnamon as the perfect combo for carnitas. I don’t trust the pork at my closest store, but this post has motivated me to look for some quality pork at other stores for meals and meals to come!
Your carnitas were just the meat and pickled onions?
Carnitas is a style of meat, which can be used several different ways.
You are amazing! I love carnitas and this sounds like a real winner. I am going to make this for dinner Saturday.
Do you think you could brown the meat in a hot oven?
Yep! I’ve seen several people who do it in the oven instead of in a skillet.
You accidentally made an ancient mayan recipe! Pork seasoned with orange and cinnamon! Its called cochinita pibil and is, in my opinion, the only way to prepare pulled pork. Cant wait to give your recipe a try.
Nice! Thanks for that info!!
Oh. My. Gosh. You’re speaking my language, Beth. I LOVE carnitas. I can’t wait to make this recipe very soon!!! :-)
Hi Beth, I love this blog and have for years! I love that you incoporate different cuisines into your budget meals. With that said, would you ever be interested in publishing more budget-friendly French recipes? Maybe some coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon or navarin d’agneau, tartiflette? It might be an interesting challange!
That is definitely something I need to learn more about! Thanks for listing a few recipes to start with. :)
This looks awesome, I experimented with orange juice in my slow cooker a couple weeks ago and so surprised with how tasty it was. I have been eager to try it again, so I can’t wait to give this recipe a try. Thanks!
Yum! Your recipes have been on fire lately.
What a great idea to crisp it up a bit in a skillet. The cinnamon has me intrigued. I will have to give this one a try.
Throwing the meat in the hot skillet to crisp up is what elevates this recipe from “really good” to “amazing.”
This looks so good – and easy to make. Thanks for sharing.