Every tortilla dreams of being stuffed with Carnitas. Picture seasoned pork slow-cooked into tender submission, gently shredded and pan-fried to golden, crispy perfection. Carnitas has that elusive combination of juicy and crispy that’s so irresistible. The best part of this Carnitas? 5 minutes prep!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Carnitas
Is there anything better in this world than pork slowly cooked until it’s crazy juicy and fall apart tender, then crisped to golden perfection?
Yes.
When it’s inside a taco. 😂
Carnitas is one of my specialities. I make this recipe often – for everyday purposes, a freezer standby and for taco-bar gatherings with friends!
The one and only Pork Carnitas
I went through A LOT of Pork Carnitas recipes before settling on this as The One. I’ve been loyal to it for over a decade because it ticks all my boxes:
✅ Extremely quick 5 minute preparation
✅ Made with easy to find natural ingredients
✅ Enough flavour to eat plain (and you will pick it out of the pan!)
✅ Subtle enough flavour so it can be used in any Mexican dish (over salting and over spicing is a common problem);
✅ Perfect caramelized brown bits while retaining the incredible juiciness from slow cooking;
✅ Perfect freezer food – reheats 100% perfectly; and
✅ Excellent food for gatherings – big batch recipe, stays fresh even hours after cooking it
What are Carnitas?
If you’re new to Carnitas, let me be the first to welcome you to your new addiction.
Carnitas are Mexico’s version of pulled pork. It’s the first thing you seek upon landing in Mexico. It’s why we trawled the back streets of Mexico City in torrential rains, hunting down a hole-in-the-wall carnitas joint that was popular with locals.
Made by slow cooking pork fully submerged in lard, this confit method of cooking yields pork that’s unbelievably rich and tender with loads of crispy golden bits.
Unfortunately for most home cooks, a huge cauldron of lard isn’t viable or practical.
But fortunately, it is possible to make carnitas that tastes very similar to authentic Pork Carnitas without gallons of lard. And it’s unbelievably simple.
How to make Pork Carnitas
Best Pork Cut for Pork Carnitas – for ultimate juicy pulled pork full of flavour, you can’t beat pork shoulder, aka pork butt. Bone in or out, it needs to be skinless so it can be rubbed with the Carnitas seasoning
Carnitas seasoning – rub pork with a simple spice mix of oregano, cumin, salt and pepper.
Flavour for cooking – top pork in slow cooker with onion, garlic and jalapeño, then pour over orange juice (the secret ingredient!). It sounds so simple, but with hours of slow cooking, mingling with the pork juices, it transforms into the most incredible braising broth that more than makes up for the absence of gallons of lard.
Slow cook until the pork is pull-apart tender and infused with incredible flavour
Pan fry until golden, doused with the juices from the slow cooker. Pan frying is so much better than broiling/grill or oven!
Can Carnitas be made in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker?
Yes! The outcome is exactly the same – no one can the difference once browned in the skillet. I make this in a pressure cooker when time is of the essence!
The BEST Pork Carnitas are browned in a skillet!
Don’t skip the step to brown the Pork Carnitas! This is the key that makes this the best Pork Carnitas you will have outside of Mexico.
Hand on heart, it is as good as the carnitas I had at a really authentic Mexican joint called Old Town Mexican Cafe in San Diego which is famous for its Pork Carnitas.
So if you think you’ve had great carnitas before, but you haven’t tried browning in a skillet, this is going to be a game changer!
What to serve with Pork Carnitas
While I have a great fondness and tendency to favour Tacos de Carnitas (Pork Carnitas Tacos), pork this juicy and full of flavour is highly versatile – plus it freezes 10000% perfectly.
I use Pork Carnitas to make Enchiladas, Burritos, Quesadillas, Sliders, Mexican pizzas. I toss them into my Mexican Fried Rice (don’t laugh, this is a firm favourite with many readers!), and I make Carnitas Plates – pile Carnitas over Mexican Red Rice with a side of Pico de Gallo or Guacamole, and steamed corn.
And of course, I eat it straight out of the skillet. 😂
And the best part?
• You’re just 5 minutes away from getting this Pork Carnitas in your slow cooker, pressure cooker or oven.
• It can be frozen without any loss of quality.
• There are easy ways to pan fry to golden perfection and still be juicy and fresh hours later – even after refrigerating.
There’s a reason I am rarely without a stash of Carnitas in my freezer!!! – Nagi xx
Mexican recipe favourites
Mexican Fiesta Menu and recipes
Carnitas
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
Is that a pressure cooker in the video??
Yes and no! My slow cooker (Breville Fast-Slow Cooker) is like an Instant Pot. It’s multi-functional, a pressure cooker and slow cooker in one. Hence why it looks like a pressure cooker with the twisting top. The slow cooking function is no different to any standard slow cooker.
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Carnitas (Mexican Slow Cooker Pulled Pork)
Ingredients
- 2 kg / 4 lb pork shoulder (pork butt) , skinless, boneless (5lb/2.5kg bone in) (Note 1)
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 onion , chopped
- 1 jalapeno , deseeded, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 cup juice from orange (2 oranges)
Rub
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Rinse and dry the pork shoulder, rub all over with salt and pepper.
- Combine the Rub ingredients then rub all over the pork.
- Place the pork in a slow cooker (fat cap up), top with the onion, jalapeño, minced garlic (don’t worry about spreading it) and squeeze over the juice of the oranges.
- Slow Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 7 hours. (Note 2 for other cook methods)
- Pork should be tender enough to shred. Remove from slow cooker and let cool slightly. Then shred using two forks.
- Optional: Skim off the fat from the juices remaining in the slow cooker and discard.
- If you have a lot more than 2 cups of juice, then reduce it down to about 2 cups. The liquid will be salty, it is the seasoning for the pork. Set liquid aside – don’t bother straining onion etc, it’s super soft.
To Crisp:
- Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large non stick pan or well seasoned skillet over high heat. Spread pork in the pan, drizzle over some juices. Wait until the juices evaporate and the bottom side is golden brown and crusty. Turn and just briefly sear the other side – you don’t want to make it brown all over because then it’s too crispy, need tender juicy bits.
- Remove pork from skillet. Repeat in batches (takes me 4 batches) – don’t crowd the pan.
- Just before serving, drizzle over more juices and serve hot, stuffed in tacos (see notes for sides, other serving suggestion and storage/make ahead).
Recipe Notes:
1.5 – 3 kg / 3 – 6 lb: Cook time per recipe.
3 – 4 kg / 6 – 8 lb: Use large oval slow cooker, 12 hours on low. 2. Other cooking methods: Electric pressure cooker or Instant Pot: 1 h 30 minutes on high. Let pressure release naturally. Proceed with Step 5 of recipe. Stove pressure cooker: use a rack or balls of scrunched up foil to elevate it from the base OR add 3/4 cup of water. Cook 1 h 30 minutes. Proceed with Step 5 of recipe. Oven: Follow recipe but put pork in roasting pan. Add 2 cups water around pork. Cover tightly with foil, roast in 325F/160C oven for 2 hours, then roast for a further 1 to 1.5 hours uncovered. Add more water if the liquid dries out too much. You should end up with 1 1/2 to 2 cups of liquid when it finishes cooking, and you can skip the pan frying step because you will get a nice brown crust on your pork. Shred pork then drizzled with juices. 3. Taco Fixings: Diced avocado or make a real proper Guacamole, Pico de Gallo or Restaurant Style Salsa or even just sliced tomato, grated cheese, sour cream. Sliced lettuce or pickled cabbage / red onions would also be great, but unlike other tacos, you don’t need it for the texture because the carnitas have the crispy bits! Also see this Carnitas Tacos dinner spread. 4. Other Ways to use Carnitas: Burritos (switch for the beef), Quesadillas (baked version here), Enchiladas, Sliders, with Mexican Red Rice, in Taco Soup or Enchilada Soup. 5. Storing / Make Ahead: Crispiness is retained very well, main thing is loss of moisture as meat cools (happens with all meat, shredded meat cools faster). a) Best way to store: Shred pork but don’t pan fry. Keep pork and juice separate, refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months (for freezer, I put pork in containers/ bags and put juice in ziplock bags in the same container). Gently reheat juice to make it pourable (congeals when cold). Pan fry per recipe, drizzling with juice. b) Storing leftovers after pan frying: Keeps extremely well, but tends to lose juiciness when it cools down. Just drizzle with juice, cover with cling wrap and reheat – the crispy bits hold up very well. It’s not quite as crispy as when cooked fresh, but still seriously tasty. c) Brown pork a few hours ahead / keep warm: Works extremely well. Brown pork per recipe, then transfer to slow cooker on warm setting or food warmer and drizzle generously with juices to keep it moist. Cover loosely. As long as the pork is warm when served, it’s really juicy. The crispiness holds up extremely well. 6. Source: This is a recipe I’ve been making for over a decade now, with minor tweaks over time so I can’t remember the exact source. I want to say Rick Bayless but I can’t find the recipe, however, I did find this one from Food Network which is very similar. However, I’m not sure when it was published. 7. Nutrition per serving, pork only, assuming 12 servings. Calories is higher than it actually is because it does not take into account discarded fat.
Nutrition Information:
Carnitas recipe originally published 2014. Updated with new photos and video in 2018, and some housekeeping in March 2019. No change to recipe, I wouldn’t dare! This has been one of the all time most popular recipes since I first published it!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use pork tenderloin? Sorry to say it’s not suitable for this recipe. Tenderloin is too lean so the long cook time will dry it out. Also, it does not shred into strands well.
Just to confirm – no liquid other than the juice from the oranges?? Really? YES, really. 🙂 The small amount of liquid from the oranges is all you need to keep it from drying out while it comes to temperature, then while it cooks the pork will drop juices. When this finishes cooking you will have more liquid than you started with.
Will it taste of oranges???? Nope, not at all! It magically turns into the most incredible broth that is then poured over the shredded pork.
Can I cook a frozen pork? Please don’t! This will mess with the cook time a lot because it will take sooooo long for the middle of the pork to cook, by which time the outside will be overcooked and when you shred it, it will almost look like mush! The pork must be defrosted!
After I skim off the fat, do I include the onions garlic and jalapeños when topping the meat, or do I discard these and only use the juices? It is up to you! Because it’s been slow cooked, the onion etc is really soft and it just melds into the pulled pork. I don’t bother straining it, but you can if you want to.
Will this work with pork stew chunks? It will definitely work and still be tasty but won’t be quite the same because smaller pieces of pork will cook faster so you won’t get quite the same amount of flavour. 🙂
Just to confirm – no pan frying to brown the pork before putting it in the slow cooker? That’s right! You brown the pork AFTER it is cooked and shredded.
What size slow cooker do you use? Mine is 6 quarts / 6 litres. I use this Breville Fast / Slow Cooker (I’m in Australia) which I love because it’s a pressure cooker and slow cooker in one, plus it has a saute setting! It’s basically an Instant Pot – but without one touch cook functions (like rice etc).
Life of Dozer
I first published this recipe back in 2014, when I was new to blogging. I took sooooo long with the photos – prolonged torture for Dozer!
This is an extremely easy recipe to follow. The outcome was perfection. Couldn’t believe how juicy the meat was with that little orange juice. Highly recommend. We will be making this again. We topped ours with diced tomatillo, onion, cabbage, and lime juice mixture.
Absolute the best! Made an 8lb butt pork roast for my grandson’s 2nd birthday party. Hopefully it will make it there. Hubby says make it like this all the time! Followed the recipe to the “t.” Ran out of juice so I’m making some juice from the bits stuck to the bottom of my cast iron pan to reheat tomorrow for the party. Thanks!
I made this two days ago, and surprise surprise, we loved it! No, actually not surprised in the least! Your recipes are beyond incredible!!! My Husband absolutely loved these Carnitas! I love pasta, and I had a hunch that the pork itself would be delicious mixed into buttered linguine noodles, (any shape of pasta would be wonderful). That is how I devoured this pulled pork! Totally amazing!!!
Thank-you!
This is a fantastic recipe for Carnitas. My family raves about it every time we have it and guest consistently ask me for the recipe. Thanks for sharing this greatness Nagi!
These were super delish and easy! I had a tray of 2.5 lbs boneless pork chops in the freezer that had a decent amount of fat on them. I followed the crockpot recipe and let cook overnight on low, then browned in a skillet. The meat was juicy as can be. First meal was burrito bowls. Had to freeze the leftovers, but used those for a taco feed the next week. Everyone rated the carnitas with 5 stars. Wouldn’t change a thing! A winner!
Hi Nagi,
I don’t have a slow cooker or a roasting pan. Can I use a cast iron pan (ie. dutch oven) and cook on the stove or in the oven? Otherwise, if I buy a roasting pan – does it need to be with a rack and put pork on top and pour water around?
Thank you!!
Myriam
Hi Myriam, this is fine to do in a dutch oven, just follow the instructions in the notes. I hope you love it!! N x
I ended up with a 7lb pork shoulder and no idea what to do with all that meat. This recipe (bumping up the recipe proportionately) was perfect although I used garlic powder instead of fresh minced garlic. I rubbed the orange zest on with the dry spices and squeezed three oranges worth of juice in the crock pot. I simmered it overnight (10 hours plus a half hour on warm) and then got to work shredding and disposing of fatty pieces. I almost skipped the searing part but I had time so why not? That’s the magical part! My cast iron skillet sizzled tender pork to a brown crust and then I poured some pan juice into the to release all of the bits. I had enough carnitas for five recipes. I made enchiladas tonight and then froze four portions along with four portions of pan juices.
Even with the slow cooker, a 7lb roast is quite an undertaking. But, now I have four more opportunities to throw a delicious dinner together!
I want to make this for my granddaughter and husband. When I shred pork but I always take out the gooey junky fat you get in dutch oven. Anyone else? Or should in trim the INTERNAL fat prior. Also, any ideas on if a cast iron dutch oven on the stove will be ok. It gets hot here in FL.Thanks all!
I know that many people just don’t like or just can’t abide the fat from the pork and I respect that, but…….it’s the fat that makes this dish delish!
Did a combination of slow cooker and finished in the oven.
We loved it. Tender with good flavor. I used fajita seasoning for the rub and tangerine juice.
Easy and GREAT recipe! I never comment or review things but this recipe is worth the time to type this in! Thanks a ton!
I have 17 pounds of pork roast. I was planning to cook it in my Hamilton beach roaster oven. Would it be better to cook half at a time in my oval slow cooker. I am going to be freezing it for an event.
Can canned chipotles be used in this instead of fresh jalopeno?
This is a simple but thorough recipe that is hard to screw up. I consider it a real service to humanity.
😂😂😂 Thanks so much Ezra! N x
I have a 5.5lb shoulder. I would like to freeze some of the meat. Should I double the sauce to have more juice? Thank you!
Hi Jennifer, if you slide the servings scaler up, all the ingredients will adjust for you as well 🙂 N x
Fabulous!!!! Best Recipe Ever
This is my go to recipe. I use the pork in tacos and enchiladas. I always get rave reviews.
Just curious, do you still crisp the pork before using for enchiladas?
This recipe was amazing! I used a 4 lb bone in pork shoulder, my instant pot for an hour and a half. 45 minute natural release. I followed all the directions and it came out perfect!!
I made the tacos with the following:
Homemade guacamole, homemade pico, sour cream mixed with lime juice, green and purple cabbage sliced thin with lime juice and salt, radishes sliced thin in lime juice, and green tomatillo salsa.
I will absolutely be making this again in the future! My husband said it was the best taco he’s ever had and my dogs are still drooling begging for more
Great recipe! We have made it several times now & it never fails at being a crowd pleaser. I have taken to adding a few bay leaves to the recipe & substituting the orange juice out for fresh squeezed mandarin juice. Man, what a flavor profile, especially when you crisp up the meat in a cast-iron pan!! Even my old-school, die-hard traditional carnitas eating Mexican family members love it!
Serious winner! So good in a soft tortilla with some charred corn and simple salad and sour cream. I thought I’d have plenty of leftovers but no such luck!!!
This was a GREAT recipe! What I loved about it is the ease of making. I cubed the meat and tossed in the ingredients above plus seasoned salt, then deglazed the pan with some veggie stock I had on hand, followed the instructions above.
Everyone loved it and it will definitely be a go-to in our rotation. Also great for guests because you can make it in advance.
Seriously love this!