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!
I use this recipe about once a fortnight! I have played around with different chilis and it’s never anything other than fantastic!
Thank you
This is DELISH! Our local grocery store had pork butt on sale so I grabbed a 6 1/2 pounder, set it to cook over night and dinner was ready when i got home 10 hours later. (Imagine waking up thruout the night smelling the savory aroma of carnitas!
The fact that you referenced the BEST CARNITAS in Old Town SD, you truly and ABSOLUTELY know about the best Carnitas anywhere! So I decided to give it a try. Although I am not afraid of spicy, i didn’t have a jalapeno on hand. My non meat eating daughter had 4 tacos, my husband had 5 and i had three for dinner. JUICY, TENDER AND FLAVOR-FILLED. mine wasn’t too salty at all. I pride myself of being able to cook mexican faves/food with the best of them, (i’m caucasian my husband is mexican) this recipe is a keeper! Now if you could help me with chicharrons I’d be FOREVER indebted! Lol
Awesome Nagi!!!! this recipe is a keeper for sure…. I grew up in the Southwest and this is just like my mom’s recipe except for one missing ingredient. To really make this recipe a WOW recipe, simply add 1 small can of Hatch fire roasted green chili’s (chopped). It really adds a ton of flavor. Thank you!!!!!!
I like to add some chipotles in adobo sauce after the pork gets browned.
Herdez and La Costena are both very nice. The smoky sauce is awesome.
Use the back of a fork to crush one of them up and add it to make enough for
two people. I usually take a few months to go through an entire tin- I transfer
it to a sterilized glass jar and add a bit of vinegar to improve the shelf life in
the refrigerator. Be careful and do not over spice- it would take a 2 gallon (8 liter)
batch of chili to use just one 7oz (200g) tin.
LOVE HEARING THAT Bill! Thanks for the tip!! N xx
I couldn’t find a 5 pound shoulder, 6.3 pound was the smallest. How should I adjust?
Hi Dana! Same cook time is fine 🙂 There’s quite a bit of flex in the cook time for this one N x
I’ve made this recipe twice so far and it is so amazing with no tweaks! Because the piece of meat was 9 lbs, I couldn’t fit the whole thing into the crock pot, so I cut it and put the other half in the Instant Pot when I got home. An hour and 40 mins wasn’t enough, I had to put on another half hour to get it to the fall-off-the-bone state. It freezes exceptionally well and that is coming from someone who doesn’t freeze anything, normally. Once defrosted, dinner is ready in just minutes! I did make another recipe I found online and it required more ingredients and STILL wasn’t this tasty.
Love hearing that Jennifer! So pleased you enjoyed this 🙂 N x
I am about to make this for the 5th time. My family request this dish every 4 months or so. Thanks for a delicious and simple recipe.
Hi Nagi,
I’m hoping to cook this and use for tacos for a lunch I’m hosting in the next few days, I just wondered how spicy this recipe is and whether it is worth me leaving the jalapeno out and leaving it as a side? One jalapeno doesn’t sound like much to me and I wouldn’t want to compromise the flavour of the meat by leaving it out but I’m also weary that some people don’t like much spice at all.
Not spicy at all Rebecca! it’s more about the jalapeño flavour slowly infusing into the pork 🙂 N xx
Hello again,
Thanks so much for sharing that recipe, I took your advice and left the jalapeno in and it was absolutely delicious! We had a large staff lunch of about 16 people and they all gushed about the pork and a number of them have asked for the recipe to make it themselves. This recipe is a definite keeper!
Terrific to hear Rebecca! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it – N x
Just found your site and pork shoulder is thawed. Gonna give it a whirl with my brand new never tried before instant pot.
Dozer has nice white teeth…your a good mommy.
AG
Hope you love this Ari! It’s SO GOOD! N xx
If my pork shoulder is only 3.2lbs should I reduce the cook time in the pressure cooker. Thanks!!
Hi Nicole! You can probably reduce by 1 hour but I wouldn’t reduce by much more than that 🙂 N x
So excited to come across this recipe from a Google search only to find it’s by an Australian with my exact fast/ slow cooker! Never happens! Making this on Saturday and so happy to know that I can trust the exact quantities you say will work in my cooker 🙂
Oooh! Yes, I’m in Sydney 🙂 Hope you try and LOVE THIS!!! N xx
This looks amazing!
Quick question though…I have a boneless piece of pork shoulder ~5lbs. Should I reduce the amount of time it takes to cook in an electric pressure cooker?
Thank you!
Hi there! Same time will be fine for a shoulder that size even boneless one 🙂 Shoulder is actually very forgiving with cook times once you get it past the shredding point 🙂 N xx
Does this recipe work as well when you pressure cook it in an instant pot. About how long would you cook a 5 pounder at high pressure?
It works super well. 🙂 1 hr 20 minutes on high!
Hi. I was wondering if the flavors would hold up and mingle well if I add a dash or two of lime juice to the orange juice. I enjoy shredded pork with cilantro and lime.
Hi Loretta! To be honest, I’d hit it with a squeeze of fresh lime juice at the end, after browning 🙂 Because you lose most of the lime flavour when you slow cook 🙂 N x
Hi. That must be why there is not taste of OJ, but the acid level helps to break down the meat. Lime at the end it is. Thanks.
I made these for family dinner, the pork is moist ,crispy and flavor packed. I used the electric pressure cooker method. I browned the pork and made to the direction with ingredients listed. I fried 1/3 of meat on one side until crisp at the end this left the other side kept moist added back in to the rest of shreddedwonderful thank you..
🙌🏻 Love hearing that Patty! N xx
Hi we love this recipe! I wanted to let you know that I never pre defrost my meat before cooking and this always turns out great! Never dry! I love the no frills ingredients so when I don’t plan ahead I can still make it!
I’ve made this twice now and it’s absolutely delicious! SO easy too – it probably takes me less than 5 minutes to get this prepped and cooking. I’ve bought bigger piece of pork this time and hope to try out the enchilada recipe with the leftovers.
If I don’t have a slow cooker, can I do this in the oven? If so, at what temperature and for how long? It looks delicious!
Hi Emily! No problems, see recipe notes! 🙂 N x
This pork is absolutely awesome. Last weekend I celebrated my birthday and I made this pork, your shredded beef, the shredded chicken, pico de gallo, guacamole and the salsa, along with homemade taco’s and tortilla’s and a green salad. Everybody loved it. Everything was soooo good. And the easy part i could just refer them all to your website when they wanted the recipes 🙂 Thank you so much for these amazing storys and recipes.
Woah! What a feast 🙂 Happy birthday Famke! N x
Hello! Just made this with a crock pot and fried in a pan! Came up great!! Thank youapril
I’m so pleased you enjoyed this April! Thanks for letting me know! N x
I want to make this Friday, to take on a weekend trip to eat on Saturday at lunch time. To be clear, can I pan fry it on Friday then just refrigerate the meat and juice together to reheat on Saturday? I’m not sure what the kitchen situation is like at our weekend cabin, but I’m thinking I will probably reheat it on a stovetop.
Reheating after pan frying is absolutely fine, just add an extra splash of juices when reheating if doing it on the stove 🙂 N x