A simple recipe for delicious Crockpot Pork Carnitas! This Mexican classic comes together in no time using flavorful pork butt, spices, onion, oranges, and beer! With a special trick to get your carnitas tasting better than what you get at a restaurant! Perfect for filling tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and more!
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Let’s Make Easy Pork Carnitas in the Slow Cooker
The best recipes in my opinion are ones that are simple to make, delicious, and can be stretched into multiple meals AND THIS ONE DOES IT ALL!
These Crockpot Carnitas are:
- Easy to make. Basically a dump and go slow cooker recipe!
- Super flavorful, a recipe the WHOLE FAMILY will devour.
- It is a large recipe that keeps really well so it is perfect for stretching into multiple meals!
I love these Carnitas so much in fact that I am working on a whole recipe series of what to make with your Leftover Carnitas!
What you need to make Easy Crockpot Carnitas:
Equipment you need:
- Slow Cooker/Crockpot
- Standard Kitchen Tools (Cutting Board, Knife, Fork, Measuring Spoons)
- Oven
- Sheet Pan/Tray
Ingredients you need:
- Pork Butt: Around 4 pounds & preferably boneless, also called a Boston Butt. It is actually the cut of pork that comes from the upper part of the front shoulder. It is the cut of pork typically used for making pulled pork.
- Onion: Diced, a sweet, yellow, or white variety will work.
- Spices: Chipotle Chili Powder, Dried Oregano, Cumin, and Salt. NOTE: The Chipotle Chili Powder is different from just normal Chili powder, most big brands like McCormick Spices do carry the Chipotle variety, known to be more smoky and slightly more subtle.
- Orange: Just 1 orange, a navel variety works best but any standard size orange will work. You will be using the zest and the juice.
- Blue Moon Beer: Or similar beer, Blue Moon is a Belgian-style Witbier AKA a Wheat Ale, so look for something similar if you can’t find Blue Moon. You will just need one bottle for this recipe.
How to make Crockpot Carnitas Recipe:
Carefully cut the pork butt into 4 even pieces. Leave any fat pieces on, this adds to the flavor and the fat can be picked off when it is time to pull the pork. I cut the pork but into pieces to allow more flavor soak into the meat.
Transfer pork pieces to the crock. Add the diced onion, chipotle chili powder, oregano, cumin, and salt over top pork.
Zest entire orange over top the spices and juice the entire orange into the crockpot.
Now slowly pour the beer overtop the crockpot contents.
Cover the crockpot and set to LOW for 6 to 8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours. Cooking times will vary depending on size of meat and equipment used.
Once the pork is done in the crockpot (able to be easily pulled apart) there is one last step that is a game changer for making these carnitas better than a restaurant. You will shred the pork and then it will be crisped up in the oven.
So set your oven to BROIL. Transfer all the pork to a sheet pan. Pull/shread pork apart and spread over the entire sheet pan.
Measure out about 1/4 cup of the liquid from the crockpot and sprinkle evenly over the pulled pork.
Transfer to the middle rack of the oven and broil 5 to 6 minutes until the pork gets nice and crispy edges.
Serve immediately. Suggested serving, for delicious tacos serve with warm tortillas, queso fresco cheese, cilantro, and red onions.
If you like this recipe you might like:
- Slow Cooker Chipotle Pineapple Carnitas
- Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken
- Crockpot Clean Eating BBQ Pulled Chicken
- Slow Cooker Chicken Shawarma
- Crockpot Bolognese
Have Leftover Carnitas?? Here are some great recipe ideas on how to use up those leftovers:
Need Chipotle Chili Powder? Order some here:
Crockpot Carnitas
A simple recipe for delicious Crockpot Pork Carnitas! This Mexican classic comes together in no time using flavorful pork butt, spices, onion, oranges, and blue moon beer! With a special trick to get your carnitas tasting better than what you get at a restaurant! Perfect for filling tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and more!
Ingredients
- 4 pounds pork butt
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon chipotle chili powder
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 large orange
- 1 (12oz) Blue Moon or similar wheat beer
Instructions
- Carefully cut pork butt into 4 even pieces. Transfer pork pieces to the crock. Add onion, chipolte chili powder, oregano, cumin, and salt over top pork. Zest entire orange over top the spices and juice the entire orange into the crockpot. Slowly pour the beer overtop the crockpot contents. Cover the crockpot and set to LOW for 7 to 8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours.
- Set oven to BROIL. Once pork is done (able to be easily pulled apart) transfer all the pork to a sheet pan. Pull pork apart and spread over the entire sheet pan. Measure out about 1/4 cup of liquid from the crockpot and sprinkle evenly over the pulled pork. Transfer to the middle rack of the oven and broil 5 to 6 minutes until the pork gets nice and crispy edges.
- Serve immediately. Suggested serving, for delicious tacos serve with warm tortillas, queso fresco cheese, cilantro, and red onions.
Notes
Chipotle Chili Powder is different than plain Chili Powder, use Chipotle Chili Powder in this recipe.
If you skip broiling in the oven I do find that the carnitas are really wet and mushy which isn't great, so don't skip the broiling step!
While I highly suggest beer for this recipe, if you don't have beer in your house you can use broth instead.
The Pork Butt cut is also referred to as a Boston Butt, they are the same thing. This cut of meat sometimes will contain a bone, I recommend a boneless cut.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 632Total Fat: 43gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 23gCholesterol: 195mgSodium: 447mgCarbohydrates: 5gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 53g
Nutritional data is automated, final nutritional information will depend on ingredients used and any changes made.
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Made this today. Followed it to a T. Came out with absolutely no flavor. Just a total wash. What the heck happened?
Hi, so my family is anti-onions and your recipe includes a whole onion. Does the onion taste come out strong at the end or can I reduce it to half an onion.
I think it would be okay to reduce it to half an onion, although I don’t think it taste very strongly of onions at all. Hope that helps!
Could I put everything in the crockpot this evening, including the beer, leave in the fridge overnight and then start cooking it in the morning? Would having the beer sit overnight affect the outcome at all?
To be honest I would have a hard time saying because I have never tried it. I am guessing it would essentially marinate the meat, I don’t think the beer sitting overnight would affect the outcome but I can’t say for sure. You could definitely try it!
I made the pork on Sunday, served with rice and black beans. Delicious. Made myself a taco with the meat on Monday and made the rest into enchiladas for tonight’s supper.I could not get tired of the flavor! I recommend this recipe.
Oh this comment made me so happy! I am so happy you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for sharing with me.
Can you do this with an instant pot? What would the time difference be
It’s just me and my husband. So if I try to get 1 lb of pork butt, how long do I cook it in the crockpot for?
It is a little hard for me to say because I haven’t cooked that small of piece before but I would say I would start checking it about halfway through what the recipe is written for, luckily pork butts can get slightly overcooked without affecting it too much, good luck!
I served it to 5 Adults. It was delicious. There wasn’t a bit of it left. It was a huge pork butt. Thanks so much for the recipe!!
This makes me so happy to hear, I am so glad you enjoyed it!
I made this but with pork shoulder (couldn’t find pork butt). It’s delicious.
Looks delicious!!! Can you use a boneless pork loin for this recipe instead of the pork butt?
If that is all you have available you could try it! It probably won’t turn out quite the same but I am sure it would still probably taste good. Since the size and amount of fat in the pork tenderloin is so different from a butt/boston/shoulder cut it probably won’t work the same but this recipe does have quite a bit of liquid it will prevent the tenderloin from drying out. Hope that helps!
Hello , I just have a question I was wondering can you use any beer or does it have to be blue moon ?
Hi, great question you do not have to use blue moon, you can use other beer! Although I suggest it being a similar beer! Just keep in mind if the beer has a specific flavor or not, I would keep it to a mild beer like a domestic or a different witbier (which is what blue moon is), I would stay away from heavy beers like a stout or porter. Hope that helps!
I made this last night.it turned out fantastic,it was a big hit.The beer and orange really made this recipe work great.Delicious!
I am so happy you enjoyed it Ken! Thank you for taking time to leave a comment!
Has anyone tried this in the instant pot on pressure cooker?
If so, how long did you have it on for and what changes did you make?
I have not tried it in the instant pot yet, hopefully someone else has tried and will leave a comment for you!