Tacos de Carnitas Recipe (2024)

I highly recommend that you bring the pork to a boil, reduce to a simmer and skim the scum BEFORE adding the other ingredients. Otherwise all of the ingredients that float will mix with the scum and be scimmed out along with the scum and the dish will be largely under seasoned.

I have done it in a slow cooker and, after taking it out, put on a baking pan and either broil (while watching closely until the meat begins to "fry"); or alternately, place in 350 oven until the same thing happens - about 25 minutes, but check often.

I've made this twice now and will do again today. I add more orange and onion than is called for here, preferring quartered oranges to the zest, and quartering the onion too. I leave the meat in larger pieces and then when tender I remove it and sear it all over in oil. I strain the cooking liquid and add enough back to the now seared meat to remoisten. Phenomenal, full flavored.

OK so this recipe is pretty authentic -- the cloves, the orange, the cinnamon etc. I cooked it in my slow cooker for 9 hours. The aroma of the cooking citrus and spices and pork drove my husband and dog nuts. Succulent, tasty, and moist. I put the shredded pork on a cookie sheet and broiled it to get that crispiness I love in carnitas I get at my local taqueria. Wow! Served just as in the recipe with white onion, cilantro and homemade salsa on the side. Beyond good -- a great recipe.

Really enjoyed this dish. A hint when using corn tortilla, dip it in water, put it on a hot pan, then it is easy to add the ingredients and then FOLD the tortilla. It will bend w/o breaking.

The tip to boil and skim first, then adding other ingredients, is one of the single best tips on this site. Do that. Recipe is delicious.

I followed "Steve's" tip (below) re skimming. Worked beautifully. It took longer to cook the liquid down than described. We liked this better than the Tanis recipe for pork & green chile tacos, although next time around I think I'd add a bit more spice -- more red pepper and some black pepper at least and maybe something else, like cumin.

A wildly inaccurate amount of water. It should read "to barely cover". I'm standing here trying to boil down a pot of pork soup for dinner, way too angry to wait to include whether it's any good if I finally get carnitas out of it.

This was outstanding. I made it as written but added about some cumin (less than a teaspoon) and used the zest of a whole orange (peeled with a vegetable peeler, avoiding the pith). The fragrance in the house was amazing. I think the original recipe expects this to be at a very brisk simmer; at the end of 1 1/2 hours there was still a lot of liquid in the pot, inches above the pork. I turned up the heat to boil it off & it did take more than 30 minutes.

Helpful tips:
-When portioning out the pork shoulder, trim excess fat and reserve. Place in roasting pan and roast at 325 degrees Fahrenheit to render the fat. Once fat is rendered out, strain and reserve. Added bonus of this step- pork crackling garnish
-After pork is cooked, strain and place in shallow roasting pan (reserve liquid). Shred meat (if desired) and drizzle with reserved rendered fat. Roast to crisp up the meat.
3. Take a cup of braise liquid, reduce by half, and use as sauce.

loved the recipe, the second time I made it I cooked it up to the point of 'Season with salt then continue . . ' in step 2, refrigerated it overnight and finished it off before guests came the next day, just as good. I removed the bay leaf and cinnamon stick after the dish cooled and didn't salt before refrigeration to make sure it didn't taste too salty when I cooked it off. It was excellent both times, definitely a go to recipe for a party.

I liked this a lot. When I made it, used a 4lb pork shoulder roast and brined it overnight, then covered w/ salt, pepper & a little oil, and seared the outside on the grill, just long enough to give it a nice caramel color. Then brought it inside and cut it into cubes and followed the instructions from there.
Also, simmering yielded a more tender meat. Boiling (if you get impatient with waiting for the water to evaporate) makes the pork a little dru.

Are you being serious and complimentary or joking around? Isn't whether it is good the point?

I used a 5 lb. bone-in pork butt, accidentally, so I didn’t cut it up before cooking. I also decided to make this at about 4pm so cooked it in the instant pot on high pressure for 90 minutes with about half of a beer (4-6 oz.) to keep it from burning, then did a natural release. After shredding the meat, I put it on a sheet pan and broiled it on high for 7-10 minutes. The outcome was excellent and the effort so minimal. We will make this again.

This is excellent and a hit every time. I prefer to add an entire cutie to the orange zest for more orange flavor (it dissolves fully), and I finish it on a sheet pan under the broiler to get those crispy bits.

Use less water!

Hi all, I see 6-8 servings listed with three lbs, curious how many tacos people have gotten out of this and if recipe still works well doubling in a dutch oven (cooking for a larger group!)

Delicious. I am thinking to try this with black beans cause I love the flavors. Has anyone tried this?

DO NOT make without following Steve's tip about skimming before adding other ingredients.I used a 10lb butt and adjusted recipe accordingly. Simmered for ~4 hours because it was Sat. and I was serving it Sun. Still removed 6 c. extra liquid, so next time I won't cover with water until obviously needed.45 min prior to serving, put saved pork onto baking sheet & warmed at 250F. 5 min prior, I broiled. SO GOOD. Simmering in that much water was too long tho & made for less texture than I like.

I’ve made this recipe 6 times and it always takes 5 hours until the pork is cooking in its own fat if you use the amount of water recommended.

I made this with 3 lbs of country style pork ribs because all the shoulders at the grocery were HUGE! Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. That worked great, although I had to add a little vegetable oil at the end for the frying part.

Love this recipe but some people in my family don't eat pork. I thought turkey thighs might work so I gave it a try. I'd give this sub an A+. It might take a little more time trimming turkey thighs down but well worth the work. The flavor and texture were spot on. I can't tell you how excited I am about making carnitas for my whole family now. Not sure you could even tell the difference.

Agree with adding the cumin, i also cooked for a much longer time ~5 hours. Reco serving with pickled red onions, pico de Gallo, and pickled chillis. DELICIOUS

8-23 - This is by far the very best carnitas recipe on the planet! Made in the Dutch oven. I did not cook it to the point of browning cuz I took the whole thing on a camping trip and finalized frying as we made dinner with it all three nights. It just got better and better. Made for effortless and world class tacos!

Loved this recipe. So flavorful and easy. Do yourself a favor and have the butcher cut the butt into one inch cubes. I had seven people and doubled the recipe. I was surprised at how little was left over. I’m going to use the leftovers for BBQ a pork pizzas tonight!

1/4 orange peel if doing half batch. Chop up.

I’m still waiting for water to boil down and have removed four cups of water from the original “cover by 2 inches”. Agree with other post to “just cover” or “barely cover. Hope there will be dinner!

This is fantastic! We added more squeezed orange juice. Maybe add a tad more red pepper flakes next time... This gets better and better for leftovers. Serve with cilantro lime cabbage and mashed avocado with lime and salt. Good with rice and beans as alternative to corn tortillas.