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!
Absolutely delicious, I followed the recipe given, but I used only half a jalapeño as I kept the seeds in. Could not believe how tasty and moist the meat was after 6 hours on high in the crockpot. Frying the meat afterwards took the taste to an all new level. Thanks so much for a great recipe.
Glad you enjoyed this Colleen!! Thanks for letting me know – N x
Would it be ok to leave out the jalapeño? It’s the only ingredient I don’t have but want it to taste the best. Thank you!
That will be fine! 🙂 N x
Will it change the flavor too much if I don’t have a jalapeño to add? It’s the only ingredient I’m missing!
My go to for carnitas. So easy and super tasty, I think I can cook it entirely from memory by now. Sometimes I don’t have oranges so I substitute whatever overripe fruit I have on hand and mash it for the juice and pulp. It dissolves into the meat and sauce anyway. Thanks Nagi x
GENIUS!!! I am going to try it with another fruit too! N x
I made this last week, and liked it so much, I am making again this week. Only changes I made were to leave the jalapeno seeds in and a little more garlic. Definitely a keeper recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Great to hear you enjoyed this one Dave! Thanks for letting me know – N x
I only had a tenderloin on hand for short notice… it still smells amazing and I can’t wait to taste it… I’m going to cube it up for burritos and tacos….
Any additional thoughts on this???
Thanks
Chris in Huntington Beach
Like many have written, This is one of our favorites too. Comes out perfect every time, have never wanted to adjust the recipe. Guests always love it. It’s just amazing. Thank you!!!!
This is my first time EVER leaving a comment for a recipe I’ve tried. This recipe is AMAZING!!! Very simple with easy to follow directions. I just did it last night for some friends of different backgrounds and they all LOVED it. Even though the FAQs said not to use tenderloin, I ended up using pork loin because that’s what i had in my fridge. I cooked it in an instapot on high at 30min intervals so I could make sure it didn’t overcook. Follow all the other directions as is and it turned out great, very juicy and still shred like the shoulder/butt. This recipe is a keeper. Thank you so much for sharing.
Absolutely fabulous! I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to find and try your recipe. It was so popular that I everyone demanded that I make another batch of the carnitas right away. Besides, we had to use up the other ingredients that were left over. I finished searing all of meat in the skillet so it would be ready in the fridge for later. Each person could reheat the carnitas in the microwave and finish building the tacos for a super-quick and yummy dinner. We make ours with diced sweet onion, chopped cilantro, and squeezed fresh lime. I used a pressure cooker for 90 minutes (and depressurized naturally). Everyone argues over hard/soft taco shells, corn/flour. It’s all good. Right? And so easy! Thank you.
Hi ! Love your site , have made many of your recipes all very easy and great.
BUT, I have to tell you – I made your carnitas recipe (In the oven. because the crock pot always tastes funky , don’t know why)
for my daughters grad party or 40 people , with all the sides , Everyone loved it ! ( and I live in California -tough crowd for Mexican food)
It was super easy but had a lot of flavor , unlike other recipes I have tried that are much more elaborate .
Thank you , thank you! Saved me $400 , I didn’t have to hire a taco lady to come out , mine were just as delicious.
Nagi I’m making this tomorrow, I’ve bought a 4kg piece that doesn’t fit in my slow cooker!! 😞 can you suggest the cooking time in the oven for a bit that big?? Thanks
Vikki
Can you use lime juice instead of Orange?
HI Mari! That will be fine, but use half the amount 🙂
SOOOO GOOOOOD lol I really cant believe just how easy and AMAZING they are. Give this a try tonight!
Stunning recipe!!!! 5 stars are not enough! This has become a family favourite. There’s so much meat we eat it all week and never tire of it! It is so full of flavour and now your recipe has ruined us for pulled pork in most restaurants. BTW the fatty part is the piece de resistance especially after pan frying. 😉 It is also extra scrumptious with green sauce.
I love how ridiculously easy it is. Please feel free to post more slow cooker recipes of any kind, Nagi.
What is green sauce?
Green sauce is a blended mix of fresh cilantro 1 cup, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup mayonaise, 1/4 cup full fat yogurt or coconut yogurt (for us dairyfree ppl), 1 tbsp lime juice, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. I use my magic bullet but blender is perfect. I guarantee this sauce is the most addictive thing ever! I always make it when i cook Nagi’s carnitas or Peruvian chicken and any leftovers are eaten greedily with nacho chips.
This recipe is from the website Once Upon a Chef.
Oooh! I MUSt give it a go, thank you!!!
Plus 1 jalapeno pepper! Cannot skip that. Silly me!
This is a fabulous recipe, I absolutely love it. the only adjustment I made was to add some ground guijillo pepper and garlic powder to the rub, and I added the juice of a lime to the orange juice… the crisping made this… My Husband was really happy with this one too!!
I get why your brown after cooking but why do you add liquid to the pan as you fry it? Typically liquid makes meat lose its crispness so I’m just wondering what the final texture is like and how the liquid doesn’t affect the crispness. Thank you
the liquid will cook out quickly and the remaining oil fry’s it slightly
I made this for a mid week dinner to have with the Mexican Couscous Express, a great meal, entire family loved it. I used a pork shoulder roast with bone and skin on, took the skin off, and at the end of the cooking time the bone fell away!
Glad you enjoyed this one Victoria!! N x
Hi, I just want to understand what you mean by skinless pork shoulder. Do you mean cutting the fat off? I’ve never seen skin on a pork roast. Just want to understand whether by skin you mean to cut the fat layer off the roast. Thank you!
Hi Barb! Sometimes pork shoulder is sold with the skin on 🙂 So if there is skin, yes cut it off. And if it has a super thick layer of fat, yes trim that off too if you want. It’s not critical because most of it melts and once shredded and fried, it provides welcome pops of juiciness. But if you want to make it a bit “healthier” then trim the excess fat off the surface. N x
Love this recipe! Has become a favourite for family get togethers and have made it for large gatherings in burritos too. So easy and the recipe and notes are just brilliant. 1600+ comments can’t be wrong 😆
I’m so pleased you enjoyed this Carissa! Thank you for letting me know! N x
Do you recommend sweet oranges or Seville oranges for this recipe?
Either are fine! You choose 🙂 N x
oh. my. god. Pork shoulder was on sale. I had planned to make a vietnamese pork braised in a caramel sauce, but then I had a craving for some mexican food and found this recipe. I used the carnita to freeze a bunch (12) of burritos (made all my colleagues jealous just from the smell). And I had leftover carnita. So I used your idea and made some quesadillas because why not. Simple cheddar cheese, carnita and onions, tomato and cilantro, on corn tortillas. Crisped to perfection in a skillet. Heaven in my mouth! I’ve now made this using my Instant Pot, on pressure and I’ve also tried it in my Crock Pot. Both turned out fantastic.
Thank you so much all the way from Canada for sharing your recipes and your love for great food !