Carnitas Recipe (slow cooker or pressu... - Weight Loss Support

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Carnitas Recipe (slow cooker or pressure cooker)

Lorna2204 profile image
Lorna22042 stone
3 Replies

Hi everyone! Here is the promised Carnitas post - This is a really great recipe as the meat can be used in tacos and then the significant amount of leftover meat can be added to all sorts of things such as burritos, taco soup, rice bowls, salads - the possibilities are endless!

So I'll write up the instant pot recipe, but to make it slow cooker friendly follow the same instructions until you get to the pressure cooker part and then just put it in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours on low - the longer the better. Then follow the method below to crisp it up once the time is up.

Ingredients

pork shoulder or any kind of pork that can be slow cooked - around 2kg if you can get one that big. If not, just as big as you can find.

3tsp salt

2tsp ground cumin

1tbsp dried oregano

Chilli powder (optional) - If you like heat I think it tastes nicer to use a really good hot sauce to taste when it is served but you can add some chilli powder to the spice mix if you want the meat itself to pack a bit of a punch.

olive oil

3/4 cup of orange juice (freshly squeezed is best)

1/2 large lemon or 1 small lemon juiced

7 cloves garlic

1 cup of stock (I used chicken)

Method

- Begin by chopping your pork into manageable chunks (quite large - mine were about handful sized). Use this opportunity to remove the big chunks of fat. Mix the cumin, salt and oregano (and chilli powder if using) with some olive oil and rub it into the meat.

- Next sear the meat either using the sauté setting of the pressure cooker (set to high) or on the stove top. Do it until it gets some nice crispy brown bits.

- Add the rest of the ingredients to the pressure cooker with the meat. Using the manual setting, set the pressure to high and the timer to 40 mins. NB: if using the slow cooking you probably only need half a cup of stock.

- When done, allow natural release for about 10 mins and then quick release the rest.

- Remove the meat from the liquid and shred it using a fork - this should fall apart.

- Then fry the meat until it goes a bit crispy.

- Serve in corn tacos with a squeeze of lime juice and your favourite taco toppings! The meat should be flavourful and tender yet crispy if done right!

I used my ninja foodi's air fryer setting to make some spicy potato wedges to go with mine. I've included it in the images because people were curious about my pressure cooker/ air fryer. I did the meat on the hob so I could use the air fryer to make the potatoes but, if you are lucky enough to also have one, you could use the airfryer to crisp the meat.

Enjoy!

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Lorna2204 profile image
Lorna2204
2 stone
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3 Replies
Diane2 profile image
Diane2

Thank you for this,it sounds amazing!!!

Lytham profile image
Lytham3 stone

Wow ! I could just eat one of those, they look delicious, thank you for sharing ! :-) x

moreless profile image
morelessAdministrator7 stone

That adds a new dimension to my pulled pork. I don't remove the fat, as it allows for some delicious dripping, which could be used to fry and crisp the shredded meat, for extra flavour.

Thanks for sharing, Lorna :)

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