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.
Made Carnitas over the weekend, using this recipe , minus the cloves. The meat was very tender and tasty. I placed it in a colander to drain the excess oil. My family loved them!
We layered with refried beans (doctored up canned with butter, Adobo seasoning, and cumin), cheddar jack cheese, shredded lettuce, guacamole, and Newman’s peach salsa.
They were excellent and very easy. Great recipe! Thanks for sharing!
I almost overlooked the Newman’s Peach Salsa…that sounds awesome!
love carnitas thank you for the recipe
The recipe sounds great. It’s basically what I’m doing for Christmas dinner this year. But I’m moving the goalposts a little more and using lard instead of vegetable oil. Lard is the authentic way to cook carnitas.
I’ve lived my entire life in Los Angeles, so maybe I’m just a Mexican food snob, but I felt there were two things this recipe was missing.
This was good, but as I expected, the lack of an acid/citrus flavor made the meat taste less well-rounded. Adding a squeeze of lime afterward made it better. But next time I will add some orange or lime juice to the slow cooker and cut back on so much oil.
The other thing: true carnitas should be somewhat crispy. The best way to get that crunchiness at home is to put some oil in a skillet and put the shredded meat on the skillet and warm it up a bit on the stove. Flip it and cook on both sides until the meat becomes somewhat crispy/crunchy in a few spots. Serve immediately after removing from the stove. Gives it a delicious texture/taste that you find in the authentic Mexican cuisine spots all around Los Angeles. That carnitas crunchiness/crispiness is what makes the meat’s texture so appealing. I liked this recipe, but thought it could be better with a few tweaks. I feel like that carnitas crispiness is absolutely essential to anything that calls itself “carnitas”.
What do you do with the meat when it’s done cooking? Just tak it out of the oil?
Yes, and shred it.
1/4 inch thick? That’s really small. Do you mean slices or cubes Is that correct?
Slices.
Using the crock pot you dont need to add water at all im assuming just the 2 cups of oil?
Correct. There is no water in this recipe.
Can I substitute olive oil instead of vegetable oil??
I don’t recommend it.
Hi. Could you tell me how spicy/hot this is? My husband doesn’t like spicy food.. Could I use less Cayenne Pepper?
Thank you!
It is a medium spice level as written. Adding less cayenne pepper will make it less spicy.
How necessary are the cloves in this recipe? Is there another spice I could substitute? I’m allergic to cloves, so just curious how it would change the flavor. Thanks!
My brother doesn’t like cloves so he leaves them out when making this recipe. Works out fine.
Oh great! Thank you so much!