Recipe: Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

We started this website to help people cook more often and more joyfully, with the idea that the kitchen is the hearth of the home, the warm place. It is by spending time there that we connect and grow.

But sometimes it gets so hot in the summer, you have to draw the line. A few straight days of humidity and 90°F weather, and I do not feel like being in the kitchen at all, let alone putting together a big meal.

A few years ago, in the dog days of summer, when the temperatures didn’t dip below 90°F for a few days straight, I did something you might think was nuts: I slow-cooked a pork butt. Now, whenever I have a crowd to feed and it’s “too hot to cook,” it’s the slow cooker that does the work.

Here’s my plug for using your slow cooker in the heat: You can make a lot of food at once without heating up the whole house. You can also do any grunt work — and for these carnitas, smashing some garlic is the only real work — in the morning when it’s cool, and set the cooker to work during the day, or you can prep in the evening and set the cooker to work while you sleep.

You really don’t need a recipe for cooking in a slow cooker. The basic formula is to place spices with the meat in a slow cooker and cover with liquid (broth, juice, wine, beer, etc.). Cook on LOW for the most tender meat. Chicken is done in as little as four hours, while darker meats like longer cooking times. Cooking on HIGH speeds up the cooking, but the meat is not as tender.

Here’s an example using my version of carnitas (usually pork simmered in lard, but in this case, slow-cooked in juice and beer). Any of these spices can be left out or substituted; this is just my usual formula. The same goes for the chipotle peppers — substitute other peppers, or leave them out, although make sure to amp up other flavor agents, like garlic and spices.

Sometimes butchers have many sizes of shoulder to choose from, other times the selection is limited to one general size. A smaller piece of meat still works, but may cook faster.

The original recipe is unconventional and not a traditional carnitas, to be sure, but this slightly spicy derivation is still delicious in its own right. The cinnamon adds a hint of sweetness, cayenne adds heat, and chipotles add spiciness and smokiness to perfume the tender pork. Feel free to omit any of these if they’re not your speed.

Since I like my carnitas browned, I added easy broiling instructions so that you can crisp up the braised pork easily in one big batch after it comes out of the slow cooker. I have half of this stashed away in my freezer for a busy future weeknight, and I can’t wait to break it out and make tacos or a mean dinner salad!

– Christine, May 2018