Crock Pot Carnitas

The easiest and tastiest fall apart tender pork carnitas you will ever have. Just follow these easy step by step photo instructions.

Table of Contents

• 🐖Pork Butt
• 👨‍🍳Cooking Method
• ♨️Reheating Carnitas
• 📖Carnitas Recipes
• 🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
• 📖Full Recipe

Introduction

Pork carnitas are the holy grail of Mexican food around my house. But they are usually a little too much work, so it is restaurants for us. We now grade Mexican restaurants on their carnitas (and refried beans) just like I judge Italian restaurants by their Chicken Parmesan.

It was just time to do my own carnitas the easy way. I chose crock pot. I have done stovetop, but I make a big mess, great taste but a big mess.

Other Recipes

As usual, I did lots of research. The cooking method for carnitas should usually be with lard on a stovetop with a Dutch oven. Lard is just not happening in my house, and here I chose a slow cooker for easy results.

Something was wrong with all the crockpot recipes I read.

Carnitas are "little meats" not shredded. But all the recipes put the butt in the crock pot whole then later shredded and browned under the broiler. It just didn't seem right.

I did it with shredding, and we had a very nice meal... a 5 rating really but I had a hard time publishing it. It just didn't feel right calling it carnitas. I would call it crock pot shredded pork butt or something like that. But not carnitas.

So what is a blogger to do? Well, all of us good "Blogger Scouts" are innovative and creative so I fixed it. Now I feel better.

My Rating

A high five from the wife and myself. A candidate for the recipe of the year.

🐖Pork Butt

I have recipes on this site for carnitas with chicken and pork tenderloin, but traditional carnitas is pork butt. It is seasoned and cooked low and slow like pork butt should be.

You can use boneless or bone-in. You will be cutting it into chunks. I want to get the top crisped up some, so 3-5 pounds is the right amount for most standard crock pots.

The spicing was obvious for me. I want fresh orange, lime, and jalapeno. The cutting up of the pork provides more surface area for flavor.

👨‍🍳Cooking Method

Cut up a pork butt into chunks ("little meat" remember), and I needed to find a way to "brown" in the crock pot.

The solution to browning was to cook fully, remove enough fluid, so the top half of the meat was exposed then finish cooking with the lid shifted some to let moisture out.

A great finish temperature is 190° plus here.  That is the minimum I would use for pulled pork on the grill.

♨️Reheating Carnitas

So many choices and so much disagreement.

Oven: Most recommended method. But a couple of ways are usually recommend.

First Method, shred up some, add some of the juices and heat under a broiler.

Second Method, a covered dish in a 350-degree oven. Add some of the juice in the bottom. This will take about 10-15 minutes.

Stovetop: Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place shredded pork into the pan and press down and cook until the bottom side is browning. Add some of the juices and flip. Continue to cook until bottom is brown a bit and all the meat is hot

Microwave: Yep, this is ok but just be careful. Heat only what you need and just warm enough to be served immediately. Add some juices to moisten.

📖Carnitas Recipes

Easy Oven Carnitas

Healthier Pork Carnitas with Pork Tenderloin

Chicken Carnitas AKA Carnitas de Pollo

🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

Start with fresh orange, lime, and jalapeno. This is a 5 pound bone in pork butt. 3-5 pounds should work. More won't fit in the crock pot well.

Cut the pork but into 2-inch chunks. Trim large chunks of fat and of course the bone if present.

Mince on jalapeno. Crush or mince four cloves of garlic.

Add the meat to a large mixing bowl and coat with the juice of a large orange and two limes. If cooking closer to three pounds, do one lime and a smaller orange.

Add two teaspoons coarse salt, one teaspoon black pepper, one teaspoon cumin and one teaspoon oregano. Add the garlic and jalapeno and mix well.

Prep a large crock pot with a good spray of PAM. Add the meat and cook on low for 5-6 hours and check the internal temperature.

You're looking for 190° plus. Once there, remove enough liquid to leave about half the meat exposed. Save the removed liquid. Cook for one more hour with the top opened a little to vent moisture.  Save the juices.

Remove the carnitas and cover with foil for 10-20 minutes before serving. Add the juice to the previously removed juice and refrigerate for reheating. Skim fat after cooling.

Serve with the topping of your choice. Good refrigerated for 2-3 days and will freeze well. To reheat, shred up some then add some of the juices and heat under a broiler.

📖Full Recipe

Crock Pot Pork Carnitas

From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

The easiest and tastiest fall apart tender pork carnitas you will ever have. Just follow these easy step by step photo instructions.

Tap to leave a Rating

4.5 from 10 votes

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Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 6 hours

Total Time: 6 hours 15 minutes

Servings #/Adjust if desired 8 servings

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Ingredients

US Customary - Convert to Metric

• ▢ 3-5 pounds Pork Butt - AKA Pork Shoulder
• ▢ 2 limes
• ▢ 1 orange - large
• ▢ 1 jalapeno
• ▢ 4 cloves garlic
• ▢ 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon black pepper
• ▢ 1 teaspoon cumin
• ▢ 1 teaspoon oregano

Instructions

• Start with fresh orange, lime, and jalapeno. A 3-5 pounds should work. More won't fit in the crock pot well.
• Cut the pork but into 2-inch chunks. Trim large chunks of fat and of course the bone if present.
• Mince on jalapeno. Crush or mince four cloves of garlic.
• Add the meat to a large mixing bowl and coat with the juice of a large orange and two limes. If cooking closer to three pounds, do one lime and a smaller orange.
• Add two teaspoons coarse salt, one teaspoon black pepper, one teaspoon cumin and one teaspoon oregano. Add the garlic and jalapeno and mix well.
• Prep a large crock pot with a good spray of PAM. Add the meat and cook on low for 5-6 hours and check the internal temperature.
• You're looking for 190° plus. Once there, remove enough liquid to leave about half the meat exposed. Save the removed liquid. Cook for one more hour with the top opened a little to vent moisture. Save the juices.
• Remove the carnitas and cover with foil for 10-20 minutes before serving. Add the juice to the previously removed juice and refrigerate for reheating. Skim the fat after cooling.
• Serve with the topping of your choice. Good refrigerated for 2-3 days and will freeze well. To reheat, shred up some, then add some of the juices and heat under a broiler.

See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

My Private Notes

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Recipe Notes

Pro Tips:

1. Use 3-5 pounds of pork butt. Since you will be cutting it up, boneless or bone-in does not matter.
2. Season as you like, but the citrus is a feature of carnitas for me.
3. If you want, you can skip the part about venting the crock pot. Then to finish, shred a bit and brown under a broiler.
4. The juices you save can be added anytime you need a bit of moisture like reheating.
5. Refrigerate the juices and skim off the fats after cooled.
6. To reheat, shred up some, then add some of the juices and heat under a broiler.
7. Other reheating methods discussed in the post.

Nutrition calculation is meat only

 

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories : 348 kcal (17%) | Carbohydrates : 5 g (2%) | Protein : 33 g (66%) | Fat : 21 g (32%) | Saturated Fat : 7 g (35%) | Polyunsaturated Fat : 2 g | Monounsaturated Fat : 9 g | Cholesterol : 104 mg (35%) | Sodium : 945 mg (39%) | Potassium : 494 mg (14%) | Fiber : 2 g (8%) | Sugar : 2 g (2%) | Vitamin A : 50 IU (1%) | Vitamin C : 23.9 mg (29%) | Calcium : 20 mg (2%) | Iron : 1.8 mg (10%)

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course : Main Course

Cuisine : Mexican

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Originally Published March 7, 2015. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.