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!
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.
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Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
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.
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.