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5 from 9 votes

Pork Carnitas (Instant Pot and Slow Cooker)

This Pork Carnitas recipe, made either in the Instant Pot or Slow Cooker, is an easy and flavorful dinner or meal prep for a healthy start to the New Year. It's Whole30, Paleo and Keto friendly and pairs with so many different sides that makes it a no-brainer to put on your cooking list now.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Servings: 6 -8
Author: Lexi

Ingredients

For Carnitas:

  • 1 tablespoon avocado oil
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 onion sliced
  • 2-3 pound boneless pork butt cut into 4 pieces
  • 1-½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 lime to garnish

To serve:

Instructions

  • For Carnitas (Instant Pot)
  • Place all of ingredients in a 6 or 8 quart Instant Pot, close the lid and set the vent to sealing.
  • Cook on Manual High Pressure for 60 minutes, and let it natural release for at least 10 minutes (but you can let it fully naturally release if desired).
  • Pre-heat broiler to 500ºF.
  • Shred the pork and using a slotted spoon place carnitas on a rimmed sheet pan and place under the broiler until nice and crispy, about 5 minutes. Spoon some of the cooking liquid and the juice of 1/2 a lime over the carnitas.
  • Serve with cole slaw, tortillas or with caulirice.

For Carnitas (Slow Cooker):

  • Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 7-8 hours until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender.
  • Pre-heat broiler to 500ºF.
  • Shred the pork and using a slotted spoon place carnitas on a rimmed sheet pan and place under the broiler until nice and crispy, about 5 minutes. Spoon some of the cooking liquid and the juice of 1/2 a lime over the carnitas.
  • Serve with cole slaw, tortillas or with caulirice.

Notes

  1. Don't throw away the liquid remaining in the bottom of the Instant Pot / Slow Cooker, it's super flavorful and should be spooned over the crispy carnitas! There is some fat in there, so you can store it separate so you can scoop it off when it's cold, but we didn't feel this was necessary we just stored and leftovers all together.
  2. Not it isn't a mistake the no added liquid is included in these instructions! For both the Instant Pot version and Slow cooker there isn't any liquid included in the ingredients. The pork releases so much liquid that it is not needed. We are aware the it states the Instant Pot needs 1/2 cup of liquid at least to work, so we initially tested it with 1/2 cup of liquid but it resulted in an extreme amount of liquid at the end because the pork and onions releases so much that going forward we did not use any added liquid in the beginning and ours cooked up beautifully during testing, with no error in our IP. We tested it in two different Instant Pot's (a 6 qt. and an 8 qt.) with no error. If your Instant Pot has an error message, as we've gotten one comment with that, go ahead and put in 1/2 cup liquid, either water or broth. You may need to reduce the liquid after the cooking time. You are looking for a resulting flavorful broth!

Nutrition

Calories: 321kcal | Carbohydrates: 12.5g | Protein: 37.2g | Fat: 13.3g | Saturated Fat: 3.7g | Cholesterol: 104mg | Sodium: 368mg | Fiber: 3.4g | Sugar: 1g