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 sounds delicious. I have a pork tenderloin at home – can I use that or should stick with the pork shoulder? In my experience the pork tenderloin shreds up in the same way as a pork shoulder after it is cooked in the crock pot. Thanks!
Hi Dayna! Please stick to shoulder 🙂 Tenderloin is too lean and so it is not as suitable for this recipe!
Very good recepie, but I always have to put my own twist on things, so, after shredding the meat and reducing the juices on the stove I spread the shredded meat out on a rimmed baking pan lined with foil and sprinkled it with a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar. Then I drizzled about 1/2c. of the reduced juices over the meat and put the pan under the broiler until crisp bits began to form and there were some carmalized places on the meat. This took about 5 – 7 minutes. When I took the meat out from the broiler I drizzled the remaining reduced juices over it and squeezed on the juice of a lime. Amazing!
I LOVe hearing twists people put on my recipes! YAY!! Glad to hear you enjoyed it Jane, thanks for taking time to come back and let me know!
Am I missing something, or does the recipe itself not mention browning the meat before putting it in the crock pot?
Hi Donna! Doesn’t need it 🙂 Brown it after shredding it!
Closest thing to carnitas from an authentic Mexican market! My boyfriend couldn’t stop eating it!
YAY!! Glad to hear you enjoyed it Jessica, thanks for taking time to come back and let me know!
Has anyone used a cast iron duty oven or pot with this recipe? Needs some changes?
Sorry, that’s supposed to be “cast iron Dutch oven”
Do you strain the juice before freezing? Flavours are great so far!
I don’t bother but you can if you want!
I made this last week for a family gathering…I was at the end of the line and didn’t even get to try any! Everyone is still raving about it, so I have all the ingredients assembled for round two tomorrow! Thanks so much for the recipe!
BA HA HA!!! I hope you sampled plenty while making it????
Thanks for the awesome recipe! I’ve used it techie before and it knocked everyon’e socks off. This time I made a mistake and doubled the meat, but forgot to bl double the herbs and it doesn’t have as much zaz. I’ve already shredded it and am headed out for a yurt trip this afternoon. Do you think if I reduced down the orange juice, herbs, salt and pepper it would work? HELP!!
Hi Hildy! I think if you make up another quantity of the OJ, herbs etc and reduce it down, then add it to the juices in the slow cooker you already have, that will work!
What can you substitute for orange juice?
Hi Stac! Hmm….well, apple juice would probably be the closest. You don’t like orange juice??
This recipe sounds delicious Nagi.
Last year I worked for a couple of weeks in Mexico and on the last day to celebrate completion of the job we bought in a load of pulled pork like this with salad and taco’s and all feasted in the office, its was greasy, messy and amazing!
I’d like to do something similar back home in the UK for my colleagues on my 40th Birthday, instead of cakes. So my question is: – Could I shread and fry the pork at home then throw it back into the electric crock pot with the reduced juices, then bring it to work and leave it on the keep warm setting all morning until lunch? Then I can give it a good stir, lay out a big pile of Tortilla’s, some homemade Salsa, crispy shredded Lettuce, segmented Limes, and hot sauce. Then tell people to just get stuck in! Also how much meat should I cook for say 14 people? Bearing in mind they will probably come back for more! I was thinking of doubling up you recipe? Thanks!
Hi Shaun! Is there a microwave at your work? The best way to reheat I think is to brown it with the reduced sauces, as you say, but then place it in a microwave proof container. Then just reheat it in the microwave, rather than letting it stay warm all morning. I’m worried it will dry out a bit 🙂 I think one batch is enough for 14 people! Just get a slightly larger pork shoulder (say 1 kg larger) and increase the cook time by 2 hours 🙂 PS I’d take this over cake anyday!!!
Thanks Nagi 🙂
We have two Microwaves here so I could do that..
By the way that 14 people just turned into possibly 18 so I’ll probably look to do about 4kg.
Thanks!
Shaun
Hi Shaun! Might be easier to do 2 separate batches 🙂 That way you don’t need to guess cook time for larger shoulder. You’ll have leftovers, but it freezes fabulously!!!
How long can I keep this frozen?
Hi Ashley! I’ve had it for up to 2 months in the freezer and it was perfect!
This recipe is unbelievable! I would have kept picking at it until the entire 5 lb pork butt was gone if left to my own devices. It is so good! I think my husband will be insisting that I make this at least a couple of times a month. Thanks for the great instructions, too. Frying it makes all the difference. Great job!
Glad you enjoyed it Cindi! Thanks for letting me know! N x
Will I have to cook longer if I have a larger piece of meat? It is 6.44 lbs.
Hi Sheila – yes, just an 1 hour or so to be safe! 🙂
Can I use a pork sirloin roast for this? If not what is a good recipe for this cut of meat? Thank you!!
Sorry Cheri, it’s too lean! Shoulder/butt is best – per the recipe! 🙂
Just wanted to say I’ve enjoyed this recipe, making it again for football tomorrow. Love it the few days after, zap it real fast and throw it on a tortilla with some onion and cilantro, so good. Thanks.
Fantastic to hear Andrew! Thanks for taking the time to let me know! 🙂 N x
Like so many cooks, I had to modify this recipe to use what I had on hand. I had some pork spare ribs in the freezer, so I used that instead. I had some very ripe and sweet grapefruit so I subbed that in for the oj. I like spicy, so I used two jalapeños with the seeds and added a green pepper because it was going soft.. We have an herb garden and the oregano was way over grown so I tripled the amount in the recipe with fresh. I used a whole head of garlic and a red onion. Despite all my substitutions, I followed the method and the pork came out amazing. I fried it up crispy and served with real Greek feta and fresh cilantro on a hot corn tortilla. It was delicious! The cooking methods for this are great and you can tweak it to taste. Great job!
WOO HOO! So glad you loved it Rafael! Thanks so much for coming back to let me know!
At what point do you pan fry it
Hi Somali! It’s in the recipe steps!! 🙂 After you shred the pork. 🙂
Can I add bay leaves ? Thanks
You sure can!
This is now our FAMILY Favorite!!! I make this at least once a month!
I just got an instant pot electric pressure cooker. Have you tried making it that way? I’m wondering about cooking time. A similar recipe has me doing it for an hour. Do you have any insight? TIA!
YAY!!! I’m so glad!!! Ooh, yes, I’ve made this in my pressure cooker before! Around 90 minutes, I think it was, on HIGH. Worked a treat!!! 🙂
Hi. I’m sorry I will sound novice but what is the fat cap?
That’s totally ok Ren!! The fat cap is the side of the pork shoulder that has a layer of fat on it 🙂 The other side does not, it is pink meat.
This was really good. I did forget the garlic though, that would have made it even better. I got an 8 pound roast, since my grocery store didn’t have anything smaller. It was for the best though, because my work schedule and commute means I needed to cook it for 12 hours anyway (hubby turned the crock pot down to “warm” after 11 hours). We had it on hard shell tacos, froze about half of it, and will use the other half for quesadillas or tacos or something this weekend. Thank you for this! I will definitely be making it again in the future. It’s so nice to find a crock pot recipe that can stand up to 12 hours cooking time. Though the fatty pork cuts would almost always work better than chicken or beef at the long cooking time. My crock pot also runs a bit hot
YAY!! So glad you loved it Stacy, thanks for letting me know! N x