Pressure Cooker Carnitas (Instant Pot)
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Making pressure cooker carnitas is a quick solution for making juicy, tender Mexican shredded pork. This post includes Instant Pot and stove top instructions, plus a helpful video tutorial!
The Spanish word carnitas in English means “pork” or “little meats”. It’s a classic Mexican dish with origins from the state of Michoacán.
The dish is made by braising or simmering pork butt (also known as pork shoulder) in oil or lard until it’s fall-apart tender. Traditionally, the Mexicans cooked the meat in huge copper cooking pots.
Unfortunately most home cooks don’t have large copper pots filled with lard on hand to make pork carnitas the traditional way, but that’s okay. Making carnitas in a pressure cooker (Instant Pot) is quicker and easier than the authentic way.
After cooking, the meat is shredded and can then be pan fried to make it crispy, or used as-is to make Mexican dishes like pork tacos, burritos, quesadillas or carnitas enchiladas.
As the carnitas simmer on your stove top or in the pressure cooker, a mouthwatering aroma will fill your home!
If you’re adventurous, make my authentic Mexican carnitas recipe. It’s the old-school cooking style, and the meat comes out just as delicious as this recipe makes them.
Table of Contents
Pressure cooker carnitas
This recipe is easy to make on the stove, but making carnitas is simpler and faster when you use an electric pressure cooker! If you don’t an Instant Pot, there are stove top instructions further down in this post. Or, you can make my recipe for slow cooker carnitas.
Depending on the size of the pork butt, you’ll need to use either a 6 or 8-quart Instant Pot.
Best cut of pork for carnitas
The cooking process for carnitas takes several hours with stovetop and slow cookers methods. Even in an Instant Pot, the meat takes 90 minutes to cook. For this reason, lean cuts such as tenderloin are not a good choice, as they will over cook and become too dry.
I think the best cut to use is pork butt, which is actually a portion of the pork shoulder. It can be purchased bone-in or boneless. If you purchase a boneless pork butt, it will be packaged in netting to hold the pieces of meat together. The netting is heat safe, so you can leave it on during cooking.
An entire pork shoulder consists of two portions; the butt and the picnic. The average size for an entire pork shoulder is between 12 and 18 pounds.
Pork butt comes from the upper portion of the shoulder and typically weighs between 4 and 6 pounds. As a result, you’ll need a very large pot to make this recipe.
- CARNITAS
- 6 lbs boneless pork shoulder (pork butt)
- 2 oranges cut in half
- 2 large carrots cut in half
- 1 onion cut into quarters
- 3 bay leaves
- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- RUB
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp oregano Mexican or regular
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Video: Making Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker Carnitas
To see the process of making carnitas in the Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker, watch the video in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Rub the meat with seasoning. Combine the rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Use your hands to apply the rub over the entire surface of the pork.
- Place the pork shoulder on the trivet inside the Instant Pot, fat side up. Add the oranges, vegetables and bay leaves, then pour the braising liquid over it. Place the lid on your pressure cooker and set it for pressure cooking.
- Pressure cook. Manually set the time to 90 minutes at high pressure. After cook time ends, allow a natural release of pressure. When the pressure pin drops, you can safely remove the IP lid.
- Shred the meat. Use a slotted spoon to carefully transfer the carnitas to a serving platter. Discard cooking liquid, cooked vegetables and oranges. Allow the meat to cool slightly, then shred by using two forks to pull the meat apart.
Another option is to transfer the meat to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Then, use medium-low speed to shred the pork carnitas meat.
Making shredded pork tacos
- Remove and discard cooked orange and vegetables from cooking liquid. Set aside.
- In a large skillet over high heat, add a tablespoon of oil and fry shredded pork in batches. Pour 1/4 cup of cooking liquid in and simmer until juices have evaporated and meat is crispy and caramelized.
- Serve with warm corn or flour tortillas. You could even make them from scratch yourself with this recipe for simple flour tortillas! Top them off with your favorite taco toppings, and enjoy the carnitas taco fiesta!
What to serve with pressure cooker carnitas
I like to serve pork carnitas on fresh corn tortillas, but use flour tortillas if you prefer them. The shredded pork is delicious with fresh lime juice, cilantro, and chopped onions.
The tacos are even more delicious if you spread some refried beans on the tortilla first, then load up the meat, and toppings like:
- roasted salsa verde
- fire roasted salsa
- pico de gallo
- avocado slices or guacamole
- Mexican pickled carrots
Here’s a look at what my old photos looked like back in 2013…
We quadrupled the carnitas batch for a party of 40 friends (to celebrate my birthday!) and I used my iPhone with the kitchen lights on. Really quality pics! I used to add fresh cilantro and orange concentrate to the boil and have since refined the recipe. 🙂
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This post, first published on Kevin Is Cooking Feb. 10, 2013, was updated with new content on Dec. 23, 2021.
Pressure Cooker Carnitas (Instant Pot)
Ingredients
Carnitas
- 6 lbs boneless pork shoulder (pork butt)
- 2 oranges cut in half
- 2 large carrots cut in half
- 1 onion cut into quarters
- 3 bay leaves
- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 3/4 cup orange juice
Rub
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp oregano Mexican or regular
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
For shredded pork carnitas tacos
- flour or corn tortillas
- refried beans
- 2 white onions sliced
- 1 bunch cilantro chopped
- 3 limes sliced
- pico de gallo
- salsa verde
- roasted tomato salsa
- guacamole
- pickled carrots
Instructions
Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker Carnitas
- Combine the rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Use your hands to apply the rub over the entire surface of the pork.
- Place the pork butt on the trivet inside the Instant Pot, fat side up. Add the oranges, carrots, onion, bay leaves and pour the chicken stock and orange juice over and cover.
- Manually set to High pressure for 90 minutes. After cook time ends, allow for natural release of pressure.
- Allow meat to cool slightly, then shred by hand using two forks, or transfer meat to bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and mix on medium-low speed until shredded.
- Serve with hot tortillas, refried beans, sliced onions, tomato slices, cilantro, limes and salsas of choice.
Optional: Crispy Pork Carnitas
- In a large skillet over high heat add a tablespoon of oil and fry shredded carnitas meat in batches, pouring 1/4 cup of cooking liquid in and simmer until juices have evaporated and meat is crispy and caramelized. Then go to Step 5 above to serve!
Stovetop Carnitas
- Combine the rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Use your hands to apply the rub over the entire surface of the pork.
- Add the rubbed pork, oranges, carrots, onion, bay leaves to a Dutch oven. Pour the chicken stock and orange juice over and then enough water to cover. Place the lid on the pot, bring to a boil, lower to simmer and leave lid slightly ajar. Cook for 3 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Carefully transfer pork from pot using a slotted spoon or spider to a large roasting pan. Discard the cooked orange and vegetables. Roast carnitas for 30 minutes, basting occasionally with cooking liquid.
- Allow meat to cool slightly, then shred by hand using two forks, or transfer meat to bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and mix on medium-low speed until shredded. For crispy carnitas, see above.
- Serve with warm tortillas and your favorite taco toppings.
Video
Notes
- I like to cook the tortillas on my stovetop gas flame to slightly char each side before serving.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
