Slow Cooker Carnita

Carnitas are one of my favorite Mexican foods to make home. Carnitas literally translates to mean "little meats." It's a pretty accurate description of what it ends up being. Little chunks of tender and juicy meat. Traditionally carnitas are the left over pieces of pork that then fried in lard or oil. 

One of our favorite restaurants does this in the old fashioned style. The pork comes out juicy and crispy. As enjoyable as it may be, it is probably not a great idea to eat it every day. So an easy and healthy way to get the same flavors is with this slow cooker recipe. 

This is a great recipe since there is very little prep work. Just dump everything in and go. It is very rare that I make a slow cooker recipe that asks you to brown the meat first. It's just silly. If my true desires were to heat a pan and brown meat, I wouldn't be using a slow cooker, would I?

 Pork shoulder works really well for this recipe. You can buy carnitas but I feel it is a much lower quality meat with a lot more fat. When I have purchased the packaged carnitas, the top third of the slow cooker ends up being grease. Ew. Not only is it money wasted but then you have to clean it up. Ew.

Ingredients

2 pounds pork shoulder (whole or pieces)

2 teaspoons of taco seasoning
3 cups of medium salsa

1 diced jalapeno
 Cooked white rice or tortillas for serving.

This is super simple and easy. First, coat the pork with the taco seasoning and place it in a slow cooker. Throw in the salsa and jalapeno. Cook this on low for about 6 to 8 hours. You can cut the cooking time by cranking the heat up to high, but I find it makes the meat less tender.

This is so simple but delicious! You will know the meat is done when it shreds very easily. My favorite way to eat these is to shred the meat and serve over rice. The rice soaks up all the juices from the meat and spicy sauce. It is also very good with tortillas and cheese

 Be on the look out for recipes on what to do with the leftovers, this is fabulous for any Mexican food you want to make!