Take an hour out of your day to prep these amazing slow cooker carnitas burrito bowls! We’ll show you how to make Crockpot carnitas and even throw in directions for Instant Pot carnitas so that you can make the most epic meal prep burrito bowls around town!
It’s time to get your slow cooker on with our famous slow cooker carnitas recipe! I love this meal prep recipe because of all of the different aspects, flavors, and textures of this meal. The slow cooker is such a great kitchen appliance to have on hand during all times of the year because it’s a set it and forget it kind of tool. Plus, it slow cooks meat like woah and leaves your carnitas super tender and delicious!
While we’re on the slow cooker topic…what do you say…slow cooker carnitas or crockpot carnitas? I say both, it just depends on what kind of mood I’m in 😛
Slow Cooker Carnitas
In order to make perfectly cooked, juicy carnitas…I highly suggest using the slow cooker method…specifically on low! The slower you cook your slow cooker carnitas, the more tender and fall off the bone they will be! Trust me 😀 Here’s what you need:
- Pork loin or pork butt (either will work!)
- olive oil
- garlic
- orange juice
- green chiles
- spices
So what makes this recipe a burrito bowl? Well, all of the additional aspects of this recipe!
Carnitas Burrito Bowl
- Pork Carnitas: Slow cook your pork or use your Instant Pot…either way you will be left with the most flavorful, easy carnitas on the planet!
- Street Corn Salad: homemade street corn salad is the best! The basis of our recipe is corn, cilantro, lime, and cotija cheese! If it’s summertime, I highly suggest grilling your own corn and cutting the kernels off the cob!
- Cilantro Lime Brown Rice: Of course we had to include our famous Copycat Cilantro Lime Brown Rice for good measure. You always have the option to use normal brown rice or any other grain like quinoa or cauliflower rice!
Slow Cooker Meat Recipes
- How to Make Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken
- Crockpot Buffalo Chicken
- Crockpot Sesame Chicken
- Crockpot Chicken Salsa Tacos
How to Make Carnitas in the Slow Cooker
Slow Cooker Carnitas Burrito Bowls
Take an hour out of your day to prep these amazing slow cooker carnitas burrito bowls! We’ll show you how to make Crockpot carnitas and even throw in directions for Instant Pot carnitas so that you can make the most epic meal prep burrito bowls around town!
Ingredients
Pork Carnitas
- 1 pound pork loin or pork butt (option to use chicken breast instead)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoons orange juice
- 1/3 cup lime juice
- 3 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 4 oz. can green chiles
Street Corn Salad
- 1 15-oz. can yellow sweet corn, drained
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, fresh
- 1/3 cup red onion, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup cotija cheese, crumbled
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- salt and pepper, to taste
Cilantro Lime Brown Rice
Other Ingredients
- 1 15-oz. can black beans
- 4–8 cups romaine lettuce
- Lime wedges
Instructions
Pork Carnitas
- Place about 2 tablespoons of olive on the bottom of a large pan. Heat to medium/high heat. Sear pork on all sides for 1 minute per side.
- Transfer seared pork into your slow cooker and add a little more olive oil and garlic. Turn heat to low and cook for 6-8 hours*.
- Once pork is tender, remove pork and shred with 2 forks. Place shredded pork and about 1/4 cup – 1/3 cup of the juice from the slow cooker into a large bowl and add the rest of the carnitas ingredients and mix.
Street Corn Salad
- Place all ingredients into a medium-size bowl and mix.
Cilantro Lime Brown Rice
Bowl Assembly
- Place about 2 cups of romaine lettuce on the bottom of your bowl. Then add 1/4 of the meat (4 oz.), about 3/4 cup cilantro lime brown rice, 1/2 cup street corn, and 1/4 cup black beans.
- Serve with fresh lime and more cotija!
Tips & Notes
- Slow Cooker: We recommend cooking for 6-8 hours on low for tender pork, however, if you are in a rush you can cook the pork on high for 2-4 hours.
- Instant Pot: If you’d like to make Instant Pot Carnitas, turn your Instant Pot to the saute function. Add olive oil to the bottom and sear all sides of your pork for 1 minute. Then, turn your Instant Pot off and add garlic and a little more olive oil to your Instant Pot. Close lid, turn the valve to seal, and cook on manual high for 60 to 90 minutes. Once the timer has gone off, quick release your Instant Pot to let out the steam. Shred and add the rest of the carnitas ingredients. Option to follow THIS recipe.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1/4 Calories: 407 Sugar: 5 Fat: 18 Carbohydrates: 29 Fiber: 12 Protein: 32Keywords: Slow Cooker Carnitas
So you don’t add the seasonings and juices to the pork until AFTER it’s cooked in the slow cooker?
I’m super confused about this too. I’ve re-read the directions a million times and I don’t get it. I’m making it today and just decided to add all of the ingredients into my crockpot while it’s cooking. It doesn’t make sense to me to do it afterwards.
This looks sooo yummy!!! I just got all the ingredients to make it. Can I use my insta pot instead of a slow cooker though? Do you know how long I should cook it for in the insta pot and if I need to add liquid? Thanks so much!
We have a similar IP Pulled pork recipe — https://fitfoodiefinds.com/instant-pot-pulled-pork/ Check it out!
This recipe is so amazing! My partner and I both work shift work at the hospital and this was such a huge treat to eat when working a night shift (Way better than a lame ol’ ham n cheese sandwich! Hahaha). I did choose to pack the lettuce, the street corn salad and some fresh tomatoes in one container. Then I put the pork, black beans and cilantro rice mixture into a container that I heat to pour over top. (And I made double the portion of the pork because honestly who doesn’t love extra shredded pork!) Thank you for your website. I was running out of meal ideas until I found this gem!
★★★★★
So glad you guys love this recipe!!
I thought I would leave a comment about my experience cooking this recipe since so many people were perplexed by the slow cooker aspects. I made the recipe with chicken instead of pork and I was also confused by the slow cooker instructions seeming contrary to everything I know about slow cooking. The only thing that might make sense is if you put all of the carnitas ingredients in the slower cooker, including the juices. But instead of trying that, because I wasn’t sure how that would turn out, I decided to just skip the slow cooker entirely and cook the chicken in a skillet with the oil and the dry spices. I added some of the dry spices to the oil while the chicken was first cooking, then once the chicken was safely cooked all the way through, I broke it up a bit with my spatula. Then I added some more of the dry spices and continued to cook it until it was a bit more browned. Then I turned off the heat and added the wet carnitas ingredients (the canned green chilis, the juices). And I finished by breaking up the chicken a bit more until it was more pulled chicken like. I can’t speak to trying this with pork, since I don’t eat pork, but it worked great with chicken. Other than the odd instructions for how to cook the meat, I really like this recipe overall. The corn salad and the cilantro rice are particularly tasty and different from my usual routine lunches. I used frozen corn and cooked dry black beans in the Instant Pot instead of canned. I would also agree with some other reviewers that the calorie count seems off. I think it’s still a very healthy meal for the average person, but I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone on a very calorie restricted diet, unless you used chicken and left out a lot of the cheese. I really liked how little chopping was involved in making a fairly healthy, fun, and delicious meal. It went much faster than a lot of my meal-prep lunch recipes. Highly recommend for meal prepping for the week if you are ok with cooking your meat on a skillet and skipping the slow cooker!
★★★★
You know I read the list wrong and added all the pork ingredients into the slow cooker after Browning the meat… came out really nice
The flavoring of the meat is great, but the recipe instructions for cooking it are WAY off. Just a little olive oil for a very small pork loin all day in the crock pot? I put it on my crock pots lowest setting, and by the time I got home 8 hours later, there was nothing left of my pork loin but a burnt log! I am lucky that my house didn’t burn down before I got back. I recommend altering this recipe to include some kind of liquid ingredients in the first step. I don’t see how anyone turned out perfectly cooked carnitas by following the crock pot instructions.
★★★
This is very good, however the nutrition information is misleading and therefore disappointing. MyFitnessPal calculated this recipe to be 690 calories before adding on the rice! Now I have a lovely lunch to eat this week that will blow my calorie count.
★★★
I haven’t quite finished crafting the recipe yet, but four or five hours into the cooking of the meat the edges of the pot started to burn. So far the meat is fine, but I realized (thanks to a handy reddit post) that there needed to be more liquid in the pot whereas the recipe only recommends one tablespoon of olive oil and some garlic.
★★★
These were amazing. My family loved them. This was delicious and hubby approved! Thanks for sharing it.
★★★★★
I made this recipe this weekend and it tastes great! My only issue is that the calorie count is way off. I am on a calorie restricted diet and made this specifically because it was around 400 calories. Not sure if that calorie count was made using chicken. A 4 oz serving of pork butt has about 350 calories alone! My calculations come out to approximately 600 calories per serving (4 oz meat, 3/4 cup brown rice, 1/2 corn, and 1/4 cup black beans). So beware – this is NOT a low calorie meal!
★★★★★
My 600 calorie count also included reducing the pork butt to a 3 oz portion. If you left it at 4 oz, it would come out to just under 700 calories.
I made this Sunday night and my husband had THREE tacos with it and has been saying all week that it’s “restaurant quality” and is already asking to make it again. I did it with a 1 pound pork loin in the Instant Pot for 20 minutes and just a little extra orange and lime juice 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe!!
YESSSSS!! Glad you guys loved it!
Do you eat it cold?
We like eating it warm, but feel free to eat it cold!
The corn salad takes this dish to another level. So good! I topped it with a little mayo mixed with sauce from chipotles in adobo. Great recipe!
I’ve made this twice and love it, but both times with chicken. Do you have any idea how the nutritional information changes if you use chicken instead? I would think less fat.
Hey Tina! I don’t know exactly, but yes less fat for sure!
This recipe is awful. I’ve tried it twice now and both times the pork came out like leather. I’m now going to have to go out to the grocery store and try to figure out something else for dinner. Do yourself a favor and do not attempt this!
★
He Jessica! Did you cook your meat on high or low? Trying to troubleshoot for you!
you should have added that to the instructions/directions, directions/instructions should not be implied
It may have come out dry because nowhere in the directions does it state what to do with these ingredients from the carnitas. It may be implied you have to add the juices to the slowcooker with the meat, but…
1 tablespoons orange juice
1/3 cup lime juice
3 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
salt and pepper, to taste
4 oz. can green chiles
you should have added that to the instructions/directions, directions/instructions should not be implied
One of my favorites recipes that my husband and I have made to date. So much incredible flavor! Easy to make overnight so that you can take it to work the next day. Easily re-heatable, just pack some limes and you’re good to go!
★★★★★
YAY!!! Enjoy!
I absolutely adore this recipe, and have never had trouble with the pork being dry. I cook mine for more around the 9hr mark though, and try to ensure most meat is under liquid as soon as it starts to gall apart. Love the spices and addition of orange juice.
★★★★★
Other commenters were right to question the cooking techniques given in the recipe here. The pork was entirely too dry. It’s not common to slow-cook pork in the method given, because all of the liquid/fat will drain out of it and leave the bulk of the pork not sitting in it’s own juices, dry. Against my better instincts, I tried it anyway. I was not able to salvage such dryness by adding in extra amounts of the drippings, orange juice and lime juice, either. The corn mix was good though, and combined with guacamole and sour cream managed to salvage the dish.
This is so amazing. The first of its kind and only recipe I tried with my new cooker and got it right. Oh BTW my wife loved it too. Thanks for sharing.
The recipe calls for spices and orange juice and lime juice, but doesn’t say when to add them. Into the pot? A marinade? A spice rub?
Ummmmmm….. this. looks. ridiculously. good. I’m doing my meal planning for the week & plan on making these. But I have a question: can I use feta cheese instead of cojito cheese? Would it make a huge difference in taste?
Feta should be fine! Conjito doesn’t have a TON of flavor, so any kind of cheese will work!