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.
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.