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.
I made this recipe the way I start all my carnitas,, by searing my pork cubes in a light coating of olive oil, and then put NO oil in the crockpot, instead putting in a half can of chopped tomatoes, some chopped tomatillo and extra spice, including two “cook but don’t eat) hot peppers I grow. It makes this more of a stew, with a lot less oil. Also used dried cilantro instead of oregano. I love the idea of the oranges (I used mandarins) and cinnamon sticks in this recipe, It was a winner.
Mac, That way sounds really good. That is a lot of oil to add. I want to try this recipe. I think I’ll do it that way.
The idea of this recipe, and traditional carnitas, is that the meat is slow cooked in fat, giving it incredible texture, and keeping the moisture in – similar to the results you’d get from oil-poaching, or a confit technique. Stewing/braising in another liquid will still give you tender meat but it won’t be the same. It is a lot of oil, but the oil is needed to submerge the meat and keep it poaching away in this moist-heat method and to, preventing it from steaming -which is a different cooking technique all together. When the meat is done cooking, you can crisp it up later under the broiler, or in a pan. Stewing the meat in liquid other than oil, will keep the meat “wet/soggy” and will also make it harder to crisp up afterwards.
I cut it into 1/4 inch pieces just like the recipe says, but it’s only been in the crock pot for 3 hours on low and it’s looks and feels really tough when I move it around with a fork. I followed the recipe exactly and I used a pork butt. Did I do something wrong?? I don’t understand why it would get tough
Nope, you are fine! You didn’t do anything wrong. It just takes the full 8 hours to get the pieces tender at all.
I made this on Sunday. I love it. I did not add the full amount of spices therefore it had less flavor. My fault. I thought that I did not have enough meat. This will definitely be on my Tacos and Tinga menu.
Can this be made the day ahead? My granddaughters birthday is around noon, Will it be just as good?
Food is always best fresh, but we’ve eaten the leftovers on this many times and re-heated.
I notices the written recipe calls for 2 bay leaves and the video skips them. What flavor do the bay leaves add or is it a subtle difference?
It’s very subtle.
Would the flavor of extra virgin olive oil be too potent?
Yes, I find that it is too potent.
Will this work with pork loin, do you think?
The marinade would go great with pork loin.
Can you just add the roast whole?
You “could” but the flavor doesn’t get to penetrate the meat as much that way. It also tends to take a bit longer to cook.
Did you really mean cut pork into 1/4” slices? That’s awfully thin…
Yup, I cut them all up nice and thin.
I I just added a 1/2 cup of bacon fat to my 11/2 c of peanut oil for my fats,and sliced up some oranges and placed on top in crockpot.