Carnitas are generally the Mexican version of pulled pork. The pork is seasoned with Mexican spices. Because of its high fat content, a pork shoulder or pork butt is used so the meat stays and moist and tender as can be during the cooking process. Carnitas can be eaten on their own as a protein served for dinner, but a lot of people like to make Carnitas tacos or Carnitas tostadas out of this delicious meat (so good!)
Ingredients needed:
bone-in pork roast (butt or shoulder) water onion garlic cloves oregano ground cumin garlic powder salt
How to make slow cooker Pork Carnitas:
This is one of those dinners that you can just put into the slow cooker and let it do all of the work for you. Place the pork in the slow cooker and add enough water to cover the pork. Add one sliced onion and spices to the water around the pork. I recommend cooking it on low for 8 hours. Low and slow is always the best choice when slow cooking. At this point, remove the meat from the pan and transfer it to an oven-safe pan. Give it a sprinkle of garlic powder, and broil the meat for about 5 minutes until some crispy edges are created. Remove from the broiler and shred. Add it to a serving dish along with some of the onions from the slow cooker.
Then the pork carnitas are ready for serving! If you’re low carb-ing it, you can eat the pork on its own. Or you can try these awesome jicama wraps that I found at Trader Joe’s recently! It’s a great way to eat carnitas as tacos if you don’t like to eat (or are avoiding) traditional tortillas.
Otherwise, grab some flour tortillas or corn tortillas, warm them up and serve carnitas tacos with your favorite fixings.
The best fixings to add to carnitas tacos:
cheese tomato salsa guacamole sour cream cilantro lime wedges to squeeze on top
Read up on How to make the Best Nachos, and start with a batch of those. Then display the fixings for carnitas and let everyone help themselves to what they like to put on their tacos. Or make a fun Taco Board to display your tacos! Enjoy!
