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The Best Pork Carnitas Tacos Recipe

These pork carnitas tacos are the absolute BEST tacos!  It’s also easy to make a whole lot of them which make them a great choice for a Mexican taco party!  We love how authentically Mexican these pork carnitas tacos taste!

They have a sweet and spicy shredded pork with crispy bits on the edges, fresh and fiery tomato salsa, creamy avocado, salty cojita cheese, and fragrant cilantro all topped off with spicy mayo and lime.

Carnitas Tacos with Fresh Salsa and Spicy Mayo

Every summer there is a Caribbean Festival in North Vancouver.  I love the music and dancing, but I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that one of my favorite parts is sampling all the food! 

Curry chicken, roti, beef patties, jerk bbq to name some dishes, and all of it fresh and lovely.   The last time I was there, I had the best tacos in my life!  Shredded pork with a red salsa, crumbled cheese and some cilantro.  So simple but unbelievably good! 

After many tries, these carnitas tacos are pretty damn close to the ones I had at the festival.  I could possibly be happy if these were all I ever had to eat for the rest of my life… 

What Are Carnitas?

Carnitas means “little meats” and thats what they are!  Little bits of shredded meat, pork in this case.  Traditionally, carnitas are made by slow cooking a pork roast in lard.

The meat turns out extremely tender with little caramelized bits that taste amazing.

Why We Love these Carnitas Tacos

easy to prepare, so flavorful and authentic tasting, easy to feed a crowd perect for a party, the leftovers freeze well, delicious caramelized bits

We love this carnitas tacos recipe because:

  • they are easy to prepare: it only takes a few mins to get the pork ready to cook.  Then the oven, instant pot, or slow cooker does the rest of the work.
  • they are so flavorful: so much flavor and very authentically Mexican tasting
  • they freeze well: if you have left overs, you can freeze them and they will taste just as good the next time you eat them.
  • they have delicious caramelized bits: brown crispy bits = tons of addicting flavor!
  • great for a party: it’s easy to make a lot of these so they are great for feeding a crowd.  Or for a taco bar, or a Cinco de Mayo party!

Best Pork Cut for Carnitas

The best cut of pork to use for making a carnitas recipe is the pork butt roast.  It’s actually a cut from the shoulder of the pig so it’s sometimes called a pork shoulder roast too.

It has a lot of marbled fat so when it cooks slowly, the fat renders and makes the meat so tender.  It also pulls apart very nicely.

You CAN use another cut of pork in a pinch, but it really won’t turn out as tender or juicy.

carnitas taco meat

How to Make Carnitas

The recipe card in this post shows how to make carnitas in the oven.  See below for how to also make instant pot carnitas or slow cooker carnitas. 

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Rinse and dry your pork butt roast. Season the roast with salt, pepper and the cumin all over. Be generous with the salt and pepper.
  3. Get out a big oven proof pot with a lid and put it on high heat on the stove. Put in a couple tbsp of oil, let it get hot, and then brown the roast well on all sides. Turn the heat off.
  4. Add the onion, garlic, and chipotle pepper to the pot. Pour in the beer, apple cider vinegar and squeeze in the lime and orange juice.  Cover the pot with the lid and slide it in the oven. Cook for 3 or 4 hours or until the roast is fall apart tender.
  5. Remove the roast from the pot, let it cool for a bit and shred the meat, removing most of the chunks of fat at the same time.

Instant Pot Carnitas

Since trying an instant pot to make carnitas or pulled pork, we absolutely love how tender and QUICK the instant pot makes our carnitas.  We actually think its better than the oven or the slow cooker.

  1. Rinse and dry your pork butt roast. Season the roast with salt, pepper and the cumin all over. Be generous with the salt and pepper.
  2. Turn your instant pot to “saute”. Put in a couple tbsp of oil, let it get hot, and then brown the roast well on all sides. Turn the heat off.
  3. Add the onion, garlic, and chipotle pepper to the instant pot. Pour in the beer, apple cider vinegar and squeeze in the lime and orange juice.  Put on the instant pot lid, making sure the vent is closed. Cook on high pressure for around 110 mins (for a roast that barely fits in the instant pot).
  4. Let the steam release naturally for at least 20 mins.  Then you can do a quick release or you can let it release naturally all the way.
  5. Remove the roast from the pot, let it cool for a bit and shred the meat, removing most of the chunks of fat at the same time.

See our instant pot pulled pork recipe for step by step instructions on how to make the pork in the instant pot.  

Slow Cooker Carnitas

These carnitas can be done in a slow cooker as well.  You just follow the first steps above, only the pork roast gets put into a slow cooker and turned onto high for 8 hours.  

Having used all three methods for cooking the carnitas, I prefer the oven or instant pot methods.  But that’s just me.  Any of these ways will work.

carnitas tacos ready to eat

Browning the Carnitas

There are two ways to get the caramelized brown bits on the carnitas.

In the Oven:

  1. Place the shredded meat on a foil or parchment lined baking tray.  Drizzle some of the juices from the roasting pot over top of the meat.
  2. Turn your oven on to broil and when the broiler is nice and hot, place the tray of meat under the broiler for a few mins or until the meat starts to get crispy and caramelized in some places. If your tray is quite full, you might want to stir the meat a bit so that some other parts can get crispy. Be careful not to let it burn.

In a Skillet: 

  1. Heat a skillet to medium high heat.  Add a little oil to the pan and when its hot, add the pork.  Drizzle some of the juices from the roasting pot over the meat.
  2. Let the pork cook without stiring so that the meat on the bottom gets a nice crust.  When its all sizzling and caramelized, flip it over and do the other side.

A stainless steel or cast iron skillet work the best!

Either way, don’t make the meat too crispy, you want lots of tender juicy pieces too!

We prefer the skillet because its quicker, it doesn’t dry out the meat as much and it’s easier to burn the meat under a broiler in the oven if you take your eyes off it for a second!

firey salsa for carnitas tacos

How to Serve Carnitas

We serve our carnitas tacos with spicy salsa, avocado, and cilantro.  We also LOVE to add a spicy mayo sauce.  It’s totally not authentic, but I especially love a creamy spicy sauce.

You can serve your tacos with whatever toppings you like but we find that simple is best.  Try some of these:

We love how versatile this pork carnitas is too.  We also regularly use this pork for quesadillas, rice bowls and sandwiches!

We like to make quite a large roast so that we always have leftovers to use throughout the week.  You could even use this pork for nachos!  If you do that with yours, can you invite us over?  Please!

Useful Tools to Make Your Carnitas Tacos even Easier

  1. Enameled Dutch Oven –  a pot like this makes this recipe a breeze!  So pretty too.  And reasonably priced!
  2. Cream of the Crop Dutch Oven – a bit more money, but great quality, soooooo pretty and it will last you a lifetime!
  3. Instant Pot – make these carnitas super tender and in record time!  See our recipe for instant pot pulled pork and use the ingredients below but with the method from the recipe in the link.
  4. Baking Tray – for crisping the carnitas in the oven.
  5. Skillet – for crisping the carnitas on the stove.
  6. Tongs – these are a must for pulling hot meat out of the dutch oven
If you’ve tried this pork carnitas taco recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let us know how it turned out in the comments below.  We love hearing from you!
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Carnita Tacos

Carnita Tacos

These carnita tacos have a sweet and spicy shredded pork with crispy bits on the edges, fresh and fiery tomato salsa, creamy avocado, salty cojita cheese, and fragrant cilantro all topped off with spicy mayo and lime.
5 from 1 vote
Print Pin Rate
Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine: Latin American, Mexican
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
Calories: 347kcal
Author: Julie & Debbie

Ingredients

FOR THE CARNITAS

  • 1.5 kg pork butt roast (shoulder)
  • 2 tbsp salt and pepper each
  • 1 tbsp cumin
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil or other oil
  • 1 large onion , cut into quarters or eighths
  • 5 cloves garlic , smashed
  • 1 bottle beer (whatever you have)
  • ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 oranges , juiced
  • 2 limes , juiced
  • 2 tbsp palm (or brown) sugar
  • 1-2 chipotles in adobo sauce depends on how spicy you like things

FOR THE FRESH SALSA

  • 2 tomatoes , roughly chopped
  • 1 dried red Mexican chili , re-hydrated in water
  • ½ large onion , roughly chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 Handful of cilantro
  • 1 lime juiced
  • 1 tsp salt

FOR THE SPICY MAYO

  • ½ cup mayo
  • 1 lime , juiced
  • 1 tbsp siracha sauce (or other hot sauce)

FOR EACH TACO

  • 1 corn tortilla
  • ¼ cup carnitas pork
  • 2 tbsp fresh salsa
  • ¼ avocado , diced or sliced
  • 1 tbsp cojita cheese (or other crumbly cheese)
  • sprig or two of cilantro
  • 1 tbsp spicy mayo

Instructions

MAKE THE CARNITAS

  • Rinse your pork roast quite well and pat dry. Season the roast with salt, pepper and the cumin all over. Be generous with the salt and pepper.
  • Turn your oven on to 350 degrees.
  • Get out a big oven proof pot with a lid and put it on high heat on the stove. Put the couple tbsps of coconut oil in, let it get hot, and then brown the roast well on all sides. Turn the heat off.
  • Add the onion, garlic, and chipotle pepper to the pot. Pour in the beer, apple cider vinegar and squeeze in the lime and orange juice. You can put in the peel as well, but I found that the lime peel gave a tiny hint of a bitter flavor that I didn’t care for. Cover the pot with the lid and slide it in the oven. Cook for 3 hours or until the roast is fall apart tender.
  • When its ready, remove the roast from the pot, let it cool for a bit and shred the meat, removing most of the fat at the same time. Place the shredded meat on a foil or parchment lined baking sheet.
  • Turn your oven on to broil and when the broiler is nice and hot, place the tray of meat under the broiler for a few mins or until the meat starts to get crispy and caramelized in some places. If your tray is quite full, you might want to stir the meat a bit so that some other parts can get crispy. Be careful not to let it burn.
  • Set the meat aside or store in a big tuperware until you are ready to use it.

MAKE THE SALSA

  • Place all the ingredients for the salsa in a blender or food processor and whiz it up good till it becomes a thick sauce. Give it a taste and make sure it doesn’t need more salt, lime, or cilantro.
  • Set aside or store in a mason jar or tupperware till you are ready to use it. 

MAKE THE SPICY MAYO

  • Mix the mayo , lime juice and hot sauce in a bowl or shake it in a jar. Add a little more lime if it needs to get a little thinner consistency. I like to keep it in a squeeze bottle so its easy to squirt on the tacos.

TO MAKE THE TACOS

  • Lay a corn tortilla flat. Add the pork carnita meat, spoon on the salsa, sprinkle on the cheese, avocado, and a little cilantro if desired and then drizzle a little spicy mayo on top. Fold it up and eat it!

Nutrition

Serving: 1taco | Calories: 347kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 47mg | Sodium: 570mg | Potassium: 554mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 320IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 116mg | Iron: 0.9mg

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10 Comments

  1. Oh mercy these look good! I’ll be moving away from Texas here soon and one thing I know I’ll miss is the tacos, but this recipe has it all! Saving this one for a rainy, non-Texan day 🙂

    1. Hi Sarah, Oh I bet they have good tacos in Texas! Good thing your a good cook and you can make em if you cant buy em. 🙂

  2. Hello!! I am SO glad I stumbled upon your blog today!! These tacos look delicious. My boyfriend is always telling me to cook more with pork, but I rarely indulge him. I bet the combo of apple cider vinegar and beer and brown sugar is just killer.

    1. Im glad you stumbled on us too! I don’t cook with pork all that much either, but when I do, I like it like this 🙂

  3. Oh my goodness!!! We had these 2 nights ago and it is definitely a keeper!!! Thank you for sharing!! ????K

  4. Hi! My daughter made this recipe for us when we were visiting her in Virginia. Instant ❤️💚💙💜😋! Now I would like to make it here in Arizona. Would it be ok to make with a pork loin instead of a butt?

    1. Hi Marla, it wont work the same with a pork loin since the loin is a more lean cut. Its best to use a butt (or shoulder).

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