The smell of carnitas cooking at home is so good that it always makes me think twice about my interest in vegetarian life. Other than the ingredients, the recipe is incredibly simple–basically, throw it all in a crockpot and wait about six hours! The best part is that no one would guess that you didn’t spend all day working in the kitchen on these.
For me, this carnitas recipe is for sure a go-to meal for gatherings: it makes a lot, people can personalize them, a vegan can swap the meat out for beans, most people love them, and you save a lot of energy making them.
Slow-Cooked Carnitas Recipe
Print RecipeIngredients
- 4 pounds of pork tenderloin
- 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, melted
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of cumin
- 1 tablespoon of chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon of chipotle chilli powder
- 2 large navel oranges, juiced
- 2 teaspoon of liquid smoke
- 5 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Pour coconut oil into the slower cooker. Next, place the tenderloin in the slow cooker. Depending on the type of cut and size, you must first cut into large cubes.
- Rub all of the dry ingredients into the meat.
- Pour orange juice and liquid smoke over the pork. Add the garlic and onions. Cook on high heat for 6 hours.
- Once the pork has finished cooking, mince it nicely. I like to do this as soon as it is tender enough and continue to cook a little longer so that all the flavours seep in. You may broil for a few minutes before serving, but I usually serve it straight from the pots and have no complaints.
- Serve on soft taco sized flour tortilla.
