Crock Pot Pork Carnitas

   Last night I made carnitas, and they turned out fantastic. I didn’t have an exact recipe, but my great father in law told me what he remembered from when he made them and I went from there. This is an easy crock pot recipe that doesn’t take much effort.

   Take a pork butt or shoulder, I had a Boston Pork Butt, and season with salt and pepper and place in crock pot.  Cut an onion, I did a rough chop, and toss in with the pork. Then take one jalapeño and deseed it to cut down some of the heat. Take cilantro and chop the leaves, I took about half a bundle and added it in. Pour a jar of salsa verde sauce over the top.  Cook on low for 8 hours until the meat is fork tender.

   At the end of the 8 hours take two forks and pull apart your meat to shred it. Doesn’t that look just delicious? 

   Be sure and stir it up well to get the meat in all the juices. Taste it and adjust seasoning to taste. I somehow managed to get quite a few jalapeno seeds into the crock pot so mine was plently spicy enough as it was, but you could add some different seasonings to get it to what you want. 

   I served them up on some small tortillas with some cheddar cheese and if I had been thinking I would have added a little more cilantro on top.  To go with them I made cilantro rice and homemade chips.

   To make the rice I used our rice cooker added my rice and then about 3 tablespoons of cilantro and two teaspoons of lemon juice, and added the water up to the line it said. I just let it cook however long the rice cooker takes and it was done and delicious. For the chips I cut up three tortillas into 8 slices and fried them in a little oil and added salt.

   Have you ever done homemade carnitas before? Let me know if you try these I love to get comments. 

Pork Carnitas

1 Pork Butt or Shoulder

1 Onion, rough chop

1 Jalepeno,  seeds removed and sliced 

1 16oz  Jar Salsa Verde 

Combine all ingredients in crock pot set on low and cook for 8 hours. Shred with two forks. Season to taste. Serve on tortillas with cheese and cilantro and whatever else you desire.