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.
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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!
Hi,
I am making this for the first time on Saturday. My shoulder is 4.6kg. Would you recommend I double the sauce ingredients? Thanks in advance.
Hi Amy, If you adjust the serving size, the weight of the pork will adjust too – you’ll be able to see how much you need of all the other ingredients. You’ll also have to cook it longer – N x
I made this tonight! I had a hard time waiting to make it. It was divine. I went to a Mexican store and bought homemade white cornmeal tortillas and made homemade guacamole, served it with tomatoes from my garden and sour cream. Definitely a keeper! I am a purist when I cook. It doesn’t get any better than this.
I’m so glad you loved it JoAnn!!
I LOVE this recipe. I add cole slaw to the tacos. I add cumin and oregeno in the slaw dressing. It gives it a nice tasty zip. I top them with red onion and cilantro too. It’s so YUMMY!!
Yum ,sounds perfect Jan – N x
There’s seriously no better recipe. I’ve made this recipe well over 10 times and it’s always a crowd pleaser. So damn good!
Thanks so much Johnny, that’s so great to hear!
I have used this recipe at my daughter’s band cookoff and have won 1st place for 2yrs in a row! Everyone said it truly was the best recipe. Thank you, for sharing.
That’s awesome Veronica, I’m so glad it’s a hit!
I’m am a marginal cook so was so proud to serve this last night… it turned out amazing. The browning seemed to take a long time though. I used a cast iron skillet on high with vegetable oil, but it seemed to take a while and I was concerned about over-cooking the pork. The only crisping that happened stuck to the bottom of the pan, so nothing I served was crisp…but it was still amazing. Any tips on crisping would be appreciated. How long does it typically take?
Hi Joyce, try plenty of oil and just letting it sit in the pan without touching for a good couple of minutes!
This is by far my favorite pork recipe. It’s tough to find pork butt/shoulder that large in the grocery stores around here. This time I bought 2 bone-in shoulders: 2.8lbs and 3.8lbs, if I put them in together would I cook for longer or shorter time?
Super easy to prepare! I made it in the instant pot, froze some with the juice (separately) in a Ziploc bag. It was perfect, crisped up to deliciousness. Will definitely make this again. My husband told me to “put it in the rotation”. Thank you for sharing!
Yessssss! It’s the perfect freezer meal!
I have made this recipe quite a few times and all I can say is it is absolutely amazing.
Wahoo!! That’s great Deanna!
Can I sub orange juice for anything? Sorry, I’m on keto… it’s annoying but whatever haha
Hi Abby, pineapple juice would also work – N x
I recently purchased a 6 quart instapot and as my wife was looking over recipes she found one for port carnitas so I immediately searched the internet for a recipe for Pork Carnitas and luckily I stumbled across your page. I must say that when I read through the recipe I thought it was a little odd to add orange juice. So after searching my cupboard for ingredients I made my list and off to the store I went I got everything I need but forgot the oranges. Oranges in Salem, OR aren’t that great anyway. When I returned and discovered I forgot the oranges I decided I would substitute for Orange Juice that I had on hand. I got everything together and decided to pressure cook. That is probably the one mistake I made( aside from the orages). While it cooked through, it wasn’t tender enough to shred. So back I go and this I decide to slow cook for 1 and 1/2 hours. Now, it was partially tender so I took out what I could easily shred and then back into the instapot to slow cook for another 1 and 1/2 half hours. Let me tell you, once it was all done, it was the best carnitas I ever had. What a great recipe. Next time I am just going to slow cook and see how it goes. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Thanks for posting it.
Hi Robert, yes it just sounds like it needed to cook longer. I’m so glad you stuck with it and loved it! – N x
This is absolutely delicious, but I made a rookie mistake while cleaning up the kitchen and tossed out my leftover juices… 🤦🏼♀️ I need to reheat and brown leftovers, any suggestions for creating more broth?
Hi Celeste, you really need that juice from the pork to get the full flavour! You could just try using a little chicken stock if you have it – N x
Hi Nagi,
This recipe looks fantastic.
I’ve been head down in my deep freezer and have found a 2kg pickled pork. Would that be good to use?
Hi Pete, Unfortunately this won’t work with pickled pork – N x
Hi Nagi,
This recipe looks fantastic,
I’ve been head down in my deep freezer and have found a 2kg pickled pork, would that be okay to use?
I made this recipe for 40 people and it turned out absolutely amazing! I decide on a taco bar for the dinner and made everything ahead then reheated the hot items in the crock-pot. I included the following TinEats Recipe’s: Carnitas, Mexican Red Rice, Restaurant Style Salsa, and Queso Dip. It all was amazing! Thanks Nagi for a great meal!
Great to hear it was a success Ginger! – Nx
I made this recipe for 40 people and it turned out absolutely amazing! I decide on a taco bar for the dinner and made everything ahead then reheated it in the crock-pot. I included the following TinEats Recipe’s: Mexican Red Rice, Restaurant Style Salsa, and Queso Dip. It all was amazing! Thanks Nagi for a great meal!
Absolutely loved this recipe! I do have a question about using a bigger pork shoulder. I got a 10 lb bone-in pork shoulder for cheap and am wondering about cook time in the oven. I’m experimenting today by cooking at 225* for 8ish hours but am curious if you’ve done one this big. Thanks!
Throw it in a crockpot and forget it, it comes out delicious, I usually let it cook from about 7:00 am till I get home at 5 and the meat falls apart, yummy
Hi Sarah, I think you’re going to need longer than that, I usually slow cook an 8 lb for 12 hours. Just keep it cooking until the meat hits that fall apart stage – N x
If I use a smaller sized pork (2-3lb), does that lessen the pressure cooking time or would it still be 1.5 hours? I am making this tomorrow and can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Hi Sydney, I’d cook for about 1 hour in a pressure cooker Sydney, I hope you love it!
Got so excited to give you feedback I didn’t rate it. 1000 apologies
Thanks so much Drew 😂
Well done! Just shredded this this morning. Obviously had to have a taco first to make sure it was good… Ooooooo I had to stop myself from smashing through the whole batch. This has replaced my previous “go-to” Caritas recipe. You brought the thunder on this one !! Keeping them separate until dinner thing, I will be getting those crispies happening. Corn tortillas over an open flame avacado and a quick slaw will be sending this meal to chow town. Kudos!
Wahoo! I’m so glad you loved them Drew!