Pork Carnitas Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

Pork Carnitas in the Instant Pot or Slow Cooker, either way, it will taste amazing and is so easy to make.

I’m keeping that new Instant Pot of mine busy.  But don’t worry, if you don’t have one, you can totally make this recipe in your slow cooker and it will taste just as good but will just take a bit longer to cook.

I love making up a big batch of pork carnitas and then using it all different ways for dinner during the week.  I love it as is, over rice.  I love it in tacos, in nachos, burrittos, you  name it!  I just love this stuff.  I made it in the instant pot  this time but like I said, the slow cooker works fine too.  Just load up your weapon of choice!  I do brown the meat in the Instant Pot on the sear setting first so if you are using a slow cooker, go ahead and brown the meat in a pan first before putting it in the slow cooker.  I don’t recommend using the slow cooker feature on the Instant Pot, use your regular slow cooker.

The meat gets lots of flavor from orange juice, lime juice, cinnamon, Mexican oregano and chile powder. Put the Instant Pot on the meat setting and then go do something else,  about an hour later dinner will be ready.  I take out the pork and put it on a cookie sheet and shred it. I like to leave the pieces fairly large.

I put the meat under the broiler for a few minutes to crisp up the edges of the meat before serving it.  I save the juices from the pot to pour over the meat and rehydrate it a bit.  Some fresh corn tortillas are my favorite thing to serve with the pork carnitas.  Then I  top it with avocado, salsa, queso and just about anything!

Garnish with some cilantro and you are good to go!

Printable Recipe for Instant Pot/Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

Print

Pork Carnitas Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Total Time

45 mins

 

Servings: 6 -8 servings

Author: Leigh Anne Wilkes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chile powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 3 lbs. boneless pork should roast cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 onion thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tsp dried Mexican Oregano
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 1/2 cups orange juice fresh or reconstituted
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
• cilantro for garnish

Instructions

1. Mix together oil, salt, cumin, chile powder and pepper.
2. Coat pork pieces in mixture.
3. Brown in pressure cooker on saute setting or in a pan on the stove.
4. Place meat into Instant Pot or slow cooker.
5. Add in onion, garlic, oregano, cinnamon stick and juices.
6. In a pressure cooker, cover and lock on lid. Use Meat setting allow to come to pressure, auto setting will cook for 35 minutes.
7. In the slow cooker, cover and put on low for 6-8 hours.
8. Shred meat and place on a baking sheet under broiler for 5 minutes to crisp up edges.
9. Reserve juices to pour over meat before serving if desired.

Slow Cooker Instructions

1. Brown pork. Place it and all ingredients into the slow cooker
2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours until meat is tender and pulls apart easily.

For more Instant Pot goodness try these:

Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Beef

Instant Pot Corned Beef

More slow cooker recipes here.

• Bio
• Facebook
• Google+
• Pinterest
• Latest Posts

Leigh Anne

Hi – I’m Leigh Anne! Food, family and friends are three of my favorite things. I love sharing easy, delicious recipes and entertaining ideas that everyone will love. When she started her blog, Your Homebased Mom, over 9 years ago she had no idea that it would one day house over 2,400 recipes and ideas! .

+Leigh Anne

Leigh Anne

Latest posts by Leigh Anne (see all)

• Cinnamon Twists - September 22, 2017
• Black Bean Dip - September 20, 2017
• Easy Chicken Lettuce Wraps - September 18, 2017