Pork Carnitas Crock Pot Recipe - Family Focus Blog (2024)

March 29, 2012 by Scarlet

You are going to love these pork shoulder crock pot carnitas! One of the biggest challenges we face, during the week, is getting a healthy and delicious meal on the table for dinner. With everyone’s crazy schedule, it becomes really difficult to plan so a lot of people end up going the fast food route for dinner. That doesn’t really help with the healthy eating idea and it also leaves you in the same position the following day, because there are no leftovers. That’s why I love making this pork carnitas crock pot recipe during the weeks with the busy schedules.

Pork Carnitas Crock Pot Style:

This pork carnitas crock pot recipe was shared with us by Pamela Braun, a recipe developer and food blogger. You can find more of her fabulous recipes at My Man’s Belly.

The crock pot does all the hard work for you. You pretty much put allthe ingredients into the crock pot (as early as the night before, pop it in the fridge overnight, then take it out and plug it in in the morning), turn it on and come home to a hot and healthy dinner. Because the crock pot is a pretty good size, there’s usually plenty of leftovers for the next day’s lunch or dinner. So you kind of get a two for one when you use the crock pot. And I’ll take a freebie like that any time. Plus it keeps the mess to a minimum! This crock pot carnitas pork recipe is great as a filling for taco or burrito night, or maybe you want to use it as a topping for baked potatoes.

A pork carnitas recipe requires the pork to be cooked twice. The first cooking tenderizes the chewy cut of meat into soft (easy to chew) pieces. In this case, that is accomplished by the crock pot. The second cooking gives you the crispy caramelized bits of pork and adds another dimension of flavor to the meat. This is accomplished by shredding the slow cooker meat and then crisping it up with a bit oil in a frying pan.

Crock Pot Carnitas With Beer

This pork carnitas crock pot recipe is a healthy pork recipe because the first cooking is done in beer and orange juice (not lard) in the crockpot. The second pass is done on the stove top with just a bit of oil and a mixture of sauce to give even more flavor to the pork. With all of the different textures and flavors of the fixings, your mouth will have no idea this pork carnitas recipe is pretty healthy too.

Crock Pot Carnitas Pork Ingredients:

• 2 Pounds Boneless Pork Shoulder (cut into 2″ cubes)
• 1 Large Onion (roughly chopped)
• 1 12 Ounce Bottle of Beer
• Juice from 1 Orange
• 1 14 – 15 Ounce Can of Diced Tomatoes
• 2 Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
• Juice from 1 Lime
• 1 Teaspoon Coriander
• 1 Teaspoon Cumin
• 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil

How To Make Carnitas

1. Place pork cubes in the crock pot along with the onions then pour the beer and orange juice over the top.
2. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
3. Remove pork from juices and set aside.
4. Once cool, shred pork using a fork or your fingers.
5. To make the sauce, add the remaining ingredients (except for the vegetable oil) to a blender. Cover and puree everything until it is well blended.
6. In a large saute pan, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat.
7. Once oil is hot, add the pork and saute to crisp up some of the edges.
8. Spoon or pour in as much of the sauce as you would like onto the pork. Continue to cook until sauce is heated through.
9. Serve your canitas pork with corn tortillas, diced tomatoes, queso fresco and guacamole.

Crockpot Pork Carnitas Cooking Notes

If you don’t want to use beer in the recipe, you can substitute an equal amount of chicken stock for the beer.

The chipotle peppers in this recipe are not that spicy, but if you would like, you can cut the amount of peppers in half then taste test the sauce.

Printable Pork Carnitas Crock Pot Recipe Card

This pork carnitas crock pot recipe is great as a filling for taco or burritonight then the next day you can use it as a topping for baked potatoes!

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