The ultimate recipe for tender, flavorful carnitas made right in your crockpot. With minimal effort and incredible results, these slow-cooked pork carnitas are perfect for tacos, burritos, or simply served with a side of rice and beans.
For more crockpot Mexican favorites, try our slow cooker chili lime shredded beef or our slow cooker sweet pork.
Why Our Recipe
- Foolproof crockpot method for perfectly tender and flavorful carnitas every time.
- A magical seasoning blend delivers authentic Mexican flavors with minimal ingredients.
- Crispy finishing options ensure irresistibly golden and caramelized meat.
This is a recipe inspired by a Mexican restaurant featured on the show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives that had people lined up out the door for their carnitas. They made theirs in huge batches, but after watching it over and over again, we figured out the proportions of the ingredients. After a few experimental tries and several years of making them, we consider these pork carnitas mastered! This meat is as good as it comes and makes one killer taco
Ingredient Notes
- Boneless Pork Butt Roast: Look for a roast weighing 3-5 pounds. Trim large pieces of fat if you prefer less gristle in the final dish.
- Ground Cumin: Essential for authentic carnitas flavor.
- Chili Powder: Use your favorite blend for a touch of smoky heat.
- Cayenne Pepper: Adjust to taste if you prefer less spice or leave it out entirely.
- Ground Cloves: A little goes a long way in adding depth to the spice blend.
- Vegetable Oil: Creates the signature slow-fried texture. Alternatives include peanut oil, corn oil, or lard for a richer flavor.
- Optional Orange: In some regions of Mexico, carnitas contain orange juice or zest. You can add both to this recipe for a citrus zing. Simply add 1/2 cup of orange juice and up to 1 tablespoon of orange zest into this recipe with the oil and spices.
Prepping Your Pork Roast
Trimming isn’t necessary, but it all depends on your personal tastes. Fat does not render in a slow cooker so you will end up with gristle and blobs of fat. If you’re not a fan of gristly meat, you’ll want to trim off some of the larger pieces of fat. Don’t worry about trimming it all though, just the larger pieces.
So Much Oil!
We are essentially slow-frying the pork, which requires a lot of oil. The secret to the most amazing carnitas is a crisp exterior and tender interior, and you can’t do that without a good amount of oil. In the end, there will be a good amount of oil remaining to drain out, so you’re not actually eating all of that oil.
Keep in mind that this recipe makes a lot of meat. This is much more than just a couple of servings. While you could certainly replace the oil with broth, beer, Coca-Cola, or other liquids, we highly recommend using oil for the most amazing results.
Oven Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place roast into a 5 to 7-quart oven-safe pot with lid or use a roasting pan and cover with aluminum foil later. Follow all instructions in the recipe, but instead of placing the meat into a slow cooker, place it in your pot or roasting pan.
Cover with lid or aluminum foil tightly cover the roast with foil. Roast at 350 degrees for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until pork shreds easily with a fork. Shred in the pot or pan.
Serving Suggestions
Serve the carnitas on their own with a side of Mexican rice, refried beans, or a fresh salad for a simple yet flavorful meal. Or use your carnitas (or leftovers) in other Mexican food favorites like quesadillas, enchiladas, burritos, or nachos.
Tacos: The classic option! Load up warm corn or flour tortillas with your crispy carnitas. Top with fresh cilantro, diced onions, a squeeze of lime, and your favorite salsa for an authentic street taco experience.
Burrito Bowls: Skip the tortilla and serve your carnitas over a bed of rice and beans. Add toppings like guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheese, and pico de gallo.
Storage & Reheating Instructions
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Freeze portions in airtight containers or freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
Reheat on the stovetop or in the oven at 350°F until heated through. Crisp up as needed before serving. Microwaving works, but is not preferred as it dries out the pork and impacts flavor.
More delicious Mexican meats…
Carne Asada
2 hrs 30 mins
Tacos Al Pastor
4 hrs 25 mins
The Best Beef Barbacoa
3 hrs 10 mins
Easy Weeknight Chicken Tacos
1 hr 20 mins
Watch the video below where Rachel will walk you through every step of this recipe. Sometimes it helps to have a visual, and we’ve always got you covered with our cooking show. You can find the complete collection of recipes on YouTube, our Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
You miss the orange, and it must be cooked with pork lard in a copper deep frying pan.
Thanks for stopping by. Orange? Not really a traditional carnitas ingredient, but I may just give it a try sometime. As for the lard and deep frying pan, this was intended to be a slow cooker recipe which is why it is done with oil in a slow cooker.
Our local Mexican restaurant makes wonderful carnitas and I asked for the recipe. It uses Mexican Coka Cola and juice of oranges and limes. Served with lightly fried Onions. I’ll have to try your version.
The orange is a traditional ingredient from michoacan's carnitas, the authentic carnitas made in Mexico, your recipe is more like a pork barbacoa.
Aha! I cook more Baja style food (I live in San Diego so our cuisine is pretty dominated by Baja influences). Interesting to hear what it's like in different regions. This recipe isn't very reminiscent of barbacoa to me. Not sweet enough. I do have a local Mexico City style restaurant that I love. Maybe I'll have to stray from my typical Alambras orders and try their version of carnitas and see if I can taste any orange. Or shoot, I guess I could just ask them 🙂
You should try them on Mexican soil, in michoacan they made carnitas in copper because near is the city of Santa Clara del Cobre, a town rich in copper crafted utensils, and the orange is one of a few ingredients like sugar or coke to bring a light brown color on the outside and to help to acomplish a crispy outside but softy inside, also I can tell you that in Guadalajara they made a torta ahogada (soak sandwich) wich is a sanwich filled with pork carnitas and soak in a thick chile an tomato sauce with cured onions. Delicious, you should try more mexican dishes tha your alambres I recomend it to you, but in a real mexican coucine not that fancy restaurants that say they make mexican food. Anyway your recipes look really yummy.
Just as in America dishes are different in different regions of Mexico. Spices and techniques vary across the country.
How would you add orange? (whole, segments, juice?)Thanks 🙂
I slice the orange into think slices, rind and all. Toss it in with all the other ingredients. I also use Mexican coke! Delicious!
Is the T for teaspoon or tablespoon?
In recipes, a capital T is for tablespoons and tsp is for teaspoons.
Great, thanks!
I made it, and the family loved it! I removed my pork from the crock pot and shredded it, do you shred yours in the oil? I was nervous the oil would be overwhelming.
I do shred mine in the oil. It drains off as you scoop it out so it isn't too big of a deal. I find it keeps the meat nice and moist and the leftovers store better in the oil.
Thank you very much!
How do I get it crispy after this process?
You can turn the heat up to high for the last 1-2 hours, or you can put them in a shallow baking dish and roast them at 450 degrees in the oven for about 5 minutes.
This was sooo good! It totally passed the test with my Mexican husband! We served it with guacamole, refried beans and coconut rice.
how do you make coconut rice? please share
https://thestayathomechef.com/slow-cooker-luau-with-kalua-pork/
This recipe is amazing! I didn't use vegetable oil, I used leaf lard instead. Worked great!
I thought vegetable oil was leaf lard. 🙂
Leaf lard is part of the fat from pigs. (Very healthy!)
Most vegetable oil today is soy based. (Not healthy at all.)
Does the oil get absorbed or can it be drained off? Have never made carnitas so have NO idea about any of this, lol. Thank you!
No, the oil doesn't all get absorbed. Just pull the meat out and discard the excess oil. It just makes it super delicious!
this is great too if you broil it for a few minutes to get the crispiness of carnitas! yum yum yum.
Good idea, for the crispiness.
Have you ever tried using beef or chicken in place of pork?
I have. Both beef and chicken work as well, but I find pork to be the best because it soaks up more of the flavor.
Can u use grape seed oil, olive or canola? Or does it have to be vegetable?
Olive oil is what I always use
I make this with grapeseed all the time and it's great!
I'm always looking for new carnitas recipes. Can't wait to give this a whirl.
Love it! Thanks for recipe 🙂
Can’t wait to make this in my new crock pot!