Naturally low carb, gluten-free, and paleo, these are the best carnitas I have ever tasted. And I didn’t mind testing this recipe over, and over, and over…
Carnitas. Delicious little pieces of braised pork that are somehow both juicy and crisp at the same time. I’ve been working behind the scenes here at All Day I Dream About Food to perfect my own low carb carnitas recipe and I have to say, it’s pretty close to perfect. It’s so good, I actually start to salivate just thinking about it. And we made a huge batch of it to serve to my sister and her family a few days before Christmas. It was a hit with everyone from the 3 year old to the 43 year old. We served it as healthy paleo carnitas bowls, skipping the tortillas in favour of putting it over my Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice. If I had to eat that meal every day for the rest of my life, well I wouldn’t be unhappy about that!
I did a lot of research before venturing out on my own with carnitas. I wanted to stay true to the nature of carnitas by cooking it in lard but good pasture-raised lard is expensive stuff. So I settled on using a 1/4 cup of the good lard and a pork shoulder roast (pork butt) with a good fat cap on it, to get the unctuous juiciness I was looking for. (And once, when I couldn’t get my hands on any good lard, I used duck fat in its place. Worked perfectly!). In my research, I came across a lot of crock pot and slow cooker carnitas recipes, but I wanted to brown my meat a bit for maximum flavour, so I settled for the more traditional dutch oven. This really didn’t take any more effort than a slow cooker would, as I could brown the pork and braise it all in the same pot.
Many recipes had you cutting the meat into chunks before cooking. So much added work and really unnecessary, in my opinion. Cooking a whole roast at low heat for a long time with plenty of liquid results in such succulent tenderness, it practically falls apart as you touch it. Other recipes I came across also discarded all the wonderful juices after the pork was cooked, and I simply couldn’t bear to do that. I reduced the juices while the shredded pork was broiling, to make a thick, juicy sauce.
There are a zillion carnitas recipes out there and I am sure many of them are very good. Great, even. But this is my take on it and I have to say, I think it’s some of the best carnitas I’ve ever tasted. I hope you think so too.
Easy Slow Roasted Carnitas
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving Size | |
| Amount Per Serving | As Served |
| Calories 672 Calories from fat 395 | |
| % Daily Value | |
| Total Fat 43.92g | 68% |
| Cholesterol 225mg | 75% |
| Carbohydrate 2.57g | 1% |
| Dietary Fiber .6g | 2% |
| Protein 57.12g | |
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:
| Calories | 2000 | |
|---|---|---|
| Total Fat | Less than | 65g |
| Sat Fat | Less than | 25g |
| Cholesterol | Less than | 300mg |
| Sodium | Less than | 2,400mg |
| Total Carbohydrate | 300g | |
| Dietary Fiber | 25g | |
Naturally low carb and gluten-free, these are the best carnitas I have ever tasted. And I didn't mind testing this recipe over, and over, and over...
Ingredients
- 4lb boneless pork butt (the fattier the better!)
- Salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup pure lard or duck fat (or even bacon grease)
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 orange, cut into quarters
- 1 lime, cut into quarters
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Additional salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300F. Season pork butt all over with salt and pepper.
- In a large dutch oven, melt lard or duck fat over medium heat. Once hot, add pork roast and brown well on all sides.
- Add water to the bottom of the pan. Hand squeeze the juice of the orange sections and lime sections into the pan and add the rind as well. Add cumin, oregano, chipotle, and garlic. Bring to a simmer, then cover and transfer the pot to the oven.
- Let cook 5 hours, until pork is tender and can easily be pierced with a fork. Remove from the liquids onto a foil lined cookie sheet and let stand until cook enough to shred with your hands (some bigger pieces are okay).
- Spread pork out over cookie sheet and set under the broiler for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to get pork pieces nice and crisp.
- Meanwhile, remove orange and lime rinds from the liquids in the pot. Set over medium high heat and bring a boil. Cook until liquids are reduced by half. Add crispy pork back into the liquids and toss to combine. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.
- Serve over cauliflower rice and top with your favourite fixings like cheese, guacamole, and cilantro.
Recipe Notes
Serves 8 to 10*. For 8 servings, each serving has 1.97 g NET CARBS.
*It can be more servings than this easily, if you pair it with cauli rice, guacamole, cheese, etc. A half serving with all the trimmings was quite enough for me.
Food energy: 672kcal Total fat: 43.92g Calories from fat: 395 Cholesterol: 225mg Carbohydrate: 2.57g Total dietary fiber: 0.60g Protein: 57.12g
Sounds amazing.,I can’t wait to make it!
sounds divine – think I will make this next week!
Carnitas is a favorite with us, and you must use lard to get the right flavor, well done!
Sounds wonderful, can’t wait to try it!
Do you have the recipe for the cauliflower rice also?
Cauli rice: http://asweetlife.org/recipes/cilantro-lime-cauliflower-rice/
Will definitely be trying this out soon. My husband is a huge carnitas fan and would gladly eat it every day. I’ve tried many recipes over the years but nothing has been perfect so I’m looking forward to trying yours out!
Hope you love it!
I love carnitas, and this recipe looks fabulous ! I’m going to get the roast this weekend and try it out ! I’ve actually made your Cilantro-Lime Cauli-Rice before and it’s seriously great. It would be perfect with this as a topper. I’m drooling already, LOL.
Let me know what you think!
Looks great! It would also be wonderful as tacos!
It would indeed!
Do you think you could skip the oven and do this in the crock pot if you don’t have a dutch oven?
Yes, that should be fine. If you can brown the meat in a pan first, it will be better.
My boyfriend’s mom is a big fan of carnitas. She mentioned it once, and up until that point I had never heard of the dish; so I asked (stupidly), “what’s a carnita?” LOL!
I went off the beaten path and put all the ingredients you suggested (except I used coconut oil and banana pepper instead of a chipotle pepper) in a pressure cooker. At first I cooked it for 85 min. After trying it, it was still tough….so, I put the lid on and cooked it for another 60 minutes. After this, it was extremely tender with a great flavor of orange with just the right amount of heat. I really could put it under the broiler to get it to crisp a little. The meat is so tender and perfect. I’ve never heard of carnitas before and so glad I made it!
What does one Chipotle pepper in adobo chopped mean?
Bobbie
These are chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Take one out and chop it. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00061DFEQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00061DFEQ&linkCode=as2&tag=aldaidrabfo05-20&linkId=PAEW5EPM2UA4V76V
Great site! I want to try the carnitas soon and have printed it. But, in using the “Print” button, it didn’t come up “clean”. Is there a way to print without the extras? (e.g., the large blank space at top where it reads “advertisement”). I’d love a concise 1 or 2-page document as I’ve printed on some other sites; this one came up 3 pages. Have you heard of this issue before? Or is it me?
Thanks!
I don’t print out my own recipes. Let me look into it. But there’s always cute and paste!
thanks, carolyn! i tried to cut and paste but it pasted looking like code?????
This recipe blew my mind. It was some of the absolute best pork I’ve ever eaten. In fact, it could possibly be the best pork I’ve EVER had. Served it with the Cilantro Lime Cauli-Rice as suggested. Beyond delicious!!! TRY THIS OUT, EVERYONE!!!
So glad you liked it!
God that sounds incredible. Might be time to make carnitas!
I made this shortly after you posted the recipe, but being the type to never ask where something is (I couldn’t figure out where they kept lard to save my life!) I went with bacon fat. It was delicious. Literally JUST finished making it a second time, but this time I used the lard (located in a non-refrigerated section of the market, where I would never have looked and found completely by accident) and the difference kind of out of this world. I mean it was good before but something magical is sitting on my stove and I had to let you know this one is yet another winner! Thanks so much for all you do!
So glad you liked them. Now I want to make them again…
This sounds amazing!! Thank you. I just told my husband I found a recipe for carnitas. We are both so excited to try it. I love your blog. Thank you.
Hope you love it!
Could I substitute a dried chipotle that I’ve ground into a powder, or does the adobo add a different flavor? I have both.
I made this last week and it was fabulous!! I can’t say enough about how delectable these carnitas were. My husband, who does not follow a low carb diet, also enjoyed them immensely. I made the Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice as a side dish and together with the carnitas it was a very delicious, satisfying meal. Thank you for this excellent recipe.
Just made this…. Soooooo good! Made it in crock pot and used bacon grease instead of lard. Thank you for making my first attempt at carnitas so easy!
Is this to spisy from the pepper or can you taste the orange/lime to much ? I have 5 kids can’t make it to spicy and my husband would not like the orange taste… So I can’t make all this meat and noone eats it ! 😳 So how is the taste ladies?
It’s not spicy at all. You can leave out the orange if you like. Use more lime instead.
I made this yesterday and followed the directions to a T. Sadly, 5 hours was too long and my dutch oven was black when I opened it. The pork was okay but the surrounding ingredients were completely charred to the pot. So if you value your cookware, check after 3-4 hours!!
I think it has more to do with the seal of your cookware lid. If it isn’t closed well and the liquid evaporates, yes that’s going to happen. But I’ve never had that complaint from any other reader so I suspect it’s your cookware or your oven.
The liquid did evaporate!! Thanks for the tip. I didn’t realize it was my cookware. This is one of those big red dutch ovens from Kohl’s. Not sure how good the quality is to be honest. I want to make this recipe again so my plan was to add more water this time but I might just need to cover my pot with foil instead.