This authentic carnitas recipe is the perfect way to learn how to make carnitas! You’ll love how simple these are, but oh my gosh, the flavor is just out of this world!
Can we talk for a minute?
I mean, yes. I’ve said before that Mexican food is my life, but I want to, like, pound that into your head with a hammer or something.
Sad little fact: I live in the middle of the United States, surrounded by corn fields and soy beans. The majority of Mexican food in my part of the country? Not fabulous.
I’ve never been to Mexico or Texas (but I’ll be hitting up Austin and eating my way through the city in June!), but I took one bite of these and I was instantly speaking Spanish and wearing cowboy boots and doing all of those other Tex-Mex-y things that one does when they have an out of body experience eating crispy, flavorful pork.
You guys. I have never been able to pinpoint my one favorite food. I mean, there are so many options. So many different flavors.
Who am I to say that my favorite food is a strawberry when there are all of these peanut butter cookies in the world?
How can you choose one over the other?
Let me just clarify: These carnitas are my absolute favorite food in the entire world.
I’ve made them twice in the past 5 days.
I plan on making them again next week. And the week after that too.
In fact, I should probably move to a pig farm now, because I never want to be without pork again.
These Carnitas inspired me to add a new category to the blog. “Buns In My Oven Favorites.” I should technically have nothing but these carnitas in that category, but I went ahead and added anything from this blog that I truly love and make again and again in my home.
The flavor is obviously my favorite part of this meal, but you guys. The ease! And the magical-ness of it all! It’s just so much fun to make these!
You basically simmer chunks of meat for a couple of hours without stirring, then you crank the heat a bit, stir to your hearts content (shred the meat or leave it in chunks, your choice! I prefer shredded, so I do a lot of stirring.), and let the liquid boil away.
The next part is where the magic happens. All the glorious fat from the pork butt (which doesn’t actually come from the, um, butt of a pig…it’s the shoulder. No worries.) just magically starts frying the meat.
I’m not sure why I find this so fascinating, but I do. I mean, the fat just melts and then fries the meat! You don’t need any oil or shortening! It’s so FUN.
One more thing, because I know I’m getting exceedingly wordy (but you guys, these carnitas! I could write a novel about them!) please resist the urge to top your tacos with every single taco topping in the land.
I kept it perfectly simple with this southwestern slaw from Perry’s Plate (even my slaw haters ate this up…it’s simple and fresh and the perfect compliment to any sort of Mexican food), a small amount of Monterey Jack cheese, and a spoonful of salsa verde. Another good option is pickled red onions.
I served these on warmed corn tortillas. You can do flour, but the corn really works well with the carnitas!
(You’ll probably have leftovers, about which you should be exceedingly happy. They reheat like a dream. Then again, they make a fabulous Carnitas Pizza. Try it live it, love it.)
Carnitas
Ingredients
- 4-5 pounds boneless pork shoulder or pork butt cut into 2-inch cubes, fat left intact
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup lime juice from about 2 to 3 limes
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt plus more to taste
- For serving: corn tortillas, cheese, Southwestern Slaw or shredded lettuce, and salsa verde
Instructions
- Place the pork in a large, heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven. Add the orange juice, lime juice, garlic, cumin, and salt. Add just enough water to the pot to cover the pork.
- Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer uncovered, without stirring, for 2 hours.
- Increase the heat to medium high and stir/turn the meat occasionally. The more you move the meat around the more it will fall apart.
- Continue cooking for 45 minutes or until all of the water has evaporated, leaving only the pork fat. Let it fry, stirring often to break up the meat, until the pieces are somewhat crispy and browned.
- Add more salt as needed and serve on tortillas with garnishes.
haylee says
Hi Karly!
You convinced me to make these!!:) But making right now and there is still A LOT of water. Will it really all boil off in 45 min or will I just need to pour what didn’t boil off and then fry the meat with it’s fat? Doubting you’ll get to this before mine are done but I’d still appreciate a response for the next time!
thanks so much!
Cindy says
I just finished making this, and it’s really, really good! Thanks for the recipe! It’s phenomenal! I’m glad I bought the HUGE package of pork from Costco, and cut it up to freeze, just in case it was really good. It’s really good, and I’ll be making it again next weekend! Thanks again!
Karly says
@Cindy,
So glad you love these as much as we do! 🙂
Doug Drury says
My recipe is very similar, but instead of orange juice, I cut 4 tangerines or small oranges in half and throw them in the pot. Something about the rinds really pops the citrus flavor!
Dawn says
So, making these didn’t go as planned, due to the fact that my gas cooktop ran out of propane while I was trying to boil off the liquid. My husband turned on the grill to finish them off. It was hard to brown them properly but they were still incredibly delicious (so good that I thought my family wasn’t going to leave enough leftovers for the Carnitas Pizza). I’ll definitely make this recipe again and again.
Karly says
@Dawn,
So glad you guys liked them!! I’m always sad when we don’t have leftovers of these, too. Haha!
Marlu says
Yum. I made this and it was delish.
Shalee says
I have made this several times and it’s amazing. I’m going to try what Sandy did and throw it in the crockpot. I hope if works out since I would love to be able to have these midweek!
KitKat says
Another time saving suggestion would be to speed them up with a pressure cooker, then at the end, remove the lid and finish everything off in the same pot. I have made carnitas many times in the past using a slightly different recipe. I haven’t made them in quite a long while, so I will probably be adding a pork roast to the grocery list soon!!!
Ellen M. says
I made this recipe last night and my husband said this is the best thing he has ever tasted (and I agree!). It is yummy. We found another good topping choice is simply chopped, garden-fresh tomatoes and chopped lettuce. A great balance to the richness of the meat. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Karen says
Karly, I’m a newbie on this site, was pulled in by your egg rolls. 🙂 Glad u recommended I check out the pork carnitas. Hubby had bought a 14+ lb. pork shoulder he asked Sam’s Club butcher to cut in half. I had frozen each half and wondered what the two of us were going to do with a 7+ lb. cut of pork…now I know!! This weekend I’m making this, I promise. I adore carnitas that has the crispyness; the restaurant I tried carnitas in put cinnamon in it, first & last time there! Your recipe sounds really good. Thank you so much for posting it!
shelly says
Going to Texas is not going to give you the real authentic taste of Mexican cuisine. Yes, there might be some, but Texas is not Mexico. And, wtf is Tex-Mex-y things..or whatever…there is no such thing. It does not represent a true authentic cuisine. I understand putting your own twist on everything, but don’t call it Mexican food when it is not. Some of the people that commented on this post don’t even know what real Mexican food is.
kim-the-girl says
Holy, flippin’ cannoli. I made this tonight and it is every bit as good as you said it would be! Loved the meat, love the slaw, I even made homemade corn tortillas like Perry’s Plate suggested. Best. Dinner. Ever. Or at least for a long time… THANKS for sharing! We loved it!!
Ginger says
I’m with you! Mexican is my favorite food, especially carnitas. I make it often and I use GOYA brand marinade for the authentic flavors. Have you ever used it?
I’m going to try the cabbage as you suggested. I usually use cilantro, lime and a bit of cheese. I use this same topping for fish tacos. Yummy.
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious says
Oh man I want this for breakfast, lunch AND dinner!
Cheryl Alonzo says
I’m getting an error message when trying to pin to Pinterest. The message is Whoops!
Parameter ‘image_url’ (value [IMAGEURL]) is not a valid URL format.
Have you pinned this on your Pinterest page. I would love to put this on my pins!
Karly says
That’s strange! It’s letting me pin just fine!
Ana says
Hi! Excelent recipe, May I also recommend you to try salsa roja?, it would not be fair if you don’t try it (that’s the most common salsa), also there is this place in Mexico famous because of their carnitas, its Michoacan, I think they use hojas de laurel (lorbeer blatt?). Good Luck!