Crockpot Pork Carnitas

I was looking for something else to make in the crockpot and I also wanted to buy a huge chunk of meat. This naturally lead to pork carnitas!  In this recipe we will simmer down a huge chunk of Boston Pork Butt into some nice, shredded meat.  Then we will fry it up to a crispy perfection!  This can be eaten plain, with cheese or lettuce tacos, or as an almond bun sandwich!

Here is the finished pork carnitas with some cheese, sour cream and salsa!

Start by greasing down the crockpot with a thick layer of bacon grease.

You do have a container full of bacon grease, right?  I have almost filled mine!  I’ll have to start using it at a faster pace!!

After greasing your crock pot, slice one onion really thin.

Make a bed of onions for your meat on the bottom of the crockpot.

Add the garlic.

Now for the meat!  You want to get a fairly sizable chunk of Boston Pork Butt.  I got mine as an 8 lb chunk from BJ’s. My crockpot is pretty massive at 6.5 Qts, so if you have a smaller one, buy a smaller roast.  This one filled the entire thing.  The meat will come with a fairly large fat pack as shown here.  You want to remove a decent chunk of that so that the fat can render.  If you leave it all on, the meat will be more dry and the fat won’t render.

Next its time to get fancy!  Make a criss cross pattern cut lightly into the fat. I have no idea if this is necessary but it makes it look good!  Also in theory it allows the fat to render down more easily.

Create a spice mixture with equal parts of Thyme, Salt, Pepper, cumin and chili powder.  Make sure to rub this all over the meat.

Slap that bad boy in the crockpot and let ‘er rip!  Add one cup of water to the pot to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Set the timer for 8 hours on high.  I really like this crockpot because it has really even temperature across the unit and you can program the length of time to cook on a given setting.  So after 8 hours of high it will automatically switch to warm so it doesn’t burn.  If you are using a smaller roast, go with about 1 hour per lb of meat.  It should fall apart at the end, if it isn’t fallen apart yet, cook it longer 🙂

Here is our finished pork.  Words can’t describe how tender and juicy this turned out. It literally fell apart as I tried to put it out with a fork.

Transfer the meat to a large container.  If you desire, pull it into smaller pieces.  Definitely make sure to get the bones and any remaining gristle out before you store it.  I pitched the onions since this is low carb but you can keep some if you want.

To eat, heat up some bacon fat in a skillet.

Throw some meat in the bacon grease and pan fry it.  You want it to caramelize, almost burning on the bottom and then mix it up.  The texture is awesome when its done!

For added awesomeness, serve it in a cheese taco!

As Configured as a Lunch (12 portions, including all ingredients):

• Calories: 609
• Carbs: 5
• Fiber: 1
• Net Carbs: 4
• Fat: 45
• Protein: 54