Carnitas (Pork Tacos)

These carnitas are fall apart tender and cook in the slow cooker. The taco garnishments are all your choice. My crew likes fresh jalapenos, sour cream, onions, cilantro, salsa and limes. One thing that is a must when I serve carnitas is fresh lime wedges. There is something about the fatty pork with the acidic lime that makes an absolutely perfect bite.

This pork can also be used for nachos, enchiladas, burritos-basically, anything that you can imagine. If we have leftovers, I may fry an egg in the morning and place on top of some pork for breakfast. You would be surprised at the things I have placed a fried egg on.

I had full intentions of making some fresh guacamole, but the grocery store didn’t cooperate. I had left over pinto beans from a couple of nights ago that I smashed a few times with a potato masher, threw a couple of tablespoons of salsa into and heated them up. I have a gluten sensitivity, so I had corn tortillas for me and flour tortillas for the rest of the family.

Here is the best part: I purchased a huge pork butt at the local grocery store last night. This morning, I pulled it out of the fridge, trimmed off a lot of the fat, cut into large chunks, coated the pieces with taco seasoning and threw into my large slow cooker and placed on low. That was at 8am. When I arrived home at 5pm, the entire house smelled wonderful and it only took me a few minutes to grab all the fixings.

This particular cut of pork is fatty. Before serving, I skimmed 4 cups of fat from the top of the meat. Then I took tongs and just broke up the large chunks and served it right out of the slow cooker. The pork literally fell apart. This cut is also inexpensive, I spent $15 on this large pork butt and will use it for at least 2-3 meals this weekend.

If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can cook it in your oven, covered, at 225 degrees for 8 hours.

Carnitas (Pork Tacos)

These carnitas are fall apart tender and cook in the slow cooker.

Ingredients

1 pork butt or shoulder
1/4 cup taco seasoning of your choice

Directions

Trim the fat from the pork and cut into large chunks. Sprinkle with the seasoning and place in a large slow cooker on low. Drain most of the fat from the crock pot with a measuring cup. Break up the meat chunks with tongs and serve.

Make this recipe your own. Add your favorite garnishments. Or go in an entirely different direction and omit the taco seasoning and add Asian components- sesame oil, teriyaki, soy and/or ginger.