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Carnitas
Authentic Mexican carnitas involve slow-cooking pork in lard until fall-apart tender, then increasing the heat so the meat fries and crisps. The fried pork then is broken into smaller pieces for eating. In the U.S., however, carnitas usually is made by simmering pork in liquid, then shredding the meat. The result is moist and tender, but lacks intense porkiness as well as the crisping traditional to carnitas. Our method melds the two techniques. We cook cubes of pork shoulder in 1 cup each of neutral oil and water, along with spices and aromatics, until the meat is fork-tender. We then break the pork into smaller pieces, moisten it with its own juices, and fry it in a hot skillet. The pork gets to keep its flavor and develop crisp bits. If you have a fat separator, it makes quick work of removing the fat from the cooking liquid: pour the liquid into it after removing the pork from the pot, then return the defatted cooking liquid to the pot, but remember to reserve the fat. You can cook, shred and moisten the pork with the reduced cooking liquid up to three days in advance; fry the pork just before serving so it's hot and crisp. And if you like your carnitas extra-crisp, after browning the first side, use the spatula to flip the pork and cook until the second side is well-browned and crisp, another 5 to 7 minutes. You can serve carnitas simply with rice and beans or make tacos with warmed corn tortillas. Either way, pickled red onions are a must—their sharp acidity perfectly balances the richness of the pork. Also offer sliced radishes and salsa, such as our tomatillo-avocado salsa.
4 to 6
Servings
Tip
Don't trim the fat from the pork shoulder. The pork should render its fat in the oven and so the meat cooks slowly in it and the juices. And after cooking, don't discard the fat you skim off the cooking liquid—you'll need some of it to crisp the shredded pork in a hot skillet.
4 hours
45 minutes active
Ingredients
-
5-6
pounds boneless pork butt, not trimmed, cut into 2-inch cubes
-
1
large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
Directions
-
01Heat the oven to 325°F with a rack in the lower-middle position. In a large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven, stir together the pork, onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, oregano, thyme, pepper flakes and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir in the oil and 1 cup water. Cover, transfer to the oven and cook for 3 hours.
Reviews
October 2, 2022
Excellent
I have made this several times and I love it. I use a bone in pork butt that I can pick up on sale for around .99 a pound. I debone, cut and cook with the bone on top in a large dutch oven. I also defat with a fat separator. I vacuum seal 1 lb portions with a small package of the reserved fat for crisping when used. The last time I made this, I smoked the whole butt at a low temp for an hour before cooking. I make my tacos with the pork on a bed of finely shaved cabbage topped with salsa, pickled red onions and a little crumbled cotija cheese. Fantastic.
June 13, 2025
slow cooker?
Has anyone tried these carnitas using a slow cooker? I'm going in now! I'll keep everyone posted.
May 4, 2025
Fantastic
Delicious and easy setup. More work toward the end. Leave yourself enough time!
January 6, 2024
An absolute banger
This recipe is great. Not too much work. Comes out perfect every time. Freezes well. Love this recipe. Make it a day ahead every time.
December 31, 2022
Excellent as always
Just put another batch in. Such a great recipe.
I'm planning to feed a crowd and debating between by dutch oven and the instant pot. I see both recipes are very similar, except one recipe calls for 3 lbs of pork butt and one calls for 5-6 l bs - yet they both feed 4-6. 5-6 Lbs of boneless meat seems like it would feed a lot more than 4-6 people.
Hi Mary -
I would definitely go with the traditional recipe. I agree that the 5-6 lbs. of meat should feed more like 6 to 8 people. The traditional recipe is relatively hands-off so I don't think you will find much difference in terms of the work involved between it and the Instant Pot version.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
This was one of the more surprising Milkstreet recipes. It seemed like chaos while preparing so I completely doubted it would turn out but was very good.
I added two whole guajillo peppers broken in half to add some smokiness (I'll add 3-4 next time).
In my case the oven time was a little long so the pork was ever so slightly dry but still very good.
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Really delicious and recipe spot-on--only real challenge was separating out the fat from the cooking liquid