These Instant Pot Carnitas are easy to make when you use your Instant Pot Pressure Cooker! Juicy pork with crispy edges stuffed in a low carb tortilla…does life get any better? I don’t think so.
Instant Pot Carnitas is amazingly juicy braised pork that has been shredded with delicious spices. Serve as filing for tacos, burritos, or as a taco salad!
“As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”
I went on a whim the other day and made these instant pot carnitas. We love juicy pork any day of the week, especially with lots of lime juice squeezed on top. I’m not sure how carnitas are supposed to be made traditionally, but this is what I use to make them. Pork shoulder (obviously), a grapefruit, garlic, onion, bay leaf, spices, and salt.
My dilemma is always what to do with all of this leftover juicy pork. You can only make tacos on Tuesday, right?! Well, I have come up with some low carb ideas over the years that don’t include lettuce cups. Go ahead and thank me now.
- Instant Pot carnitas on top of cilantro lime cauliflower rice
- You can get a little more fancy and have instant pot carnitas mixed with cheese and stuffed into zucchini boats
- Carnitas, avocado, a runny egg, OMG
- Cloud bread, mashed avocado, carnitas, cotija cheese, cilantro and lime juice
- Pork nachos with carnitas!
- Just carnitas…boom. These are so good, they need no accompaniments.
My mouth is watering.
When these are pulled out of the instant pot they are so juicy, but to make them amazing, you have to crisp them up under the broiler for a few minutes. Its a small step that cannot be skipped. Then you must squeeze fresh lime juice all over them. This also cannot be skipped.
So have I mentioned that I love my Instant Pot? It is currently my most used kitchen appliance, behind my microwave. If you don’t own an Instant Pot yet, you can still make pork carnitas! You can use a slow cooker to make them, or you can use a dutch oven to make them. They will just take a bit longer.
- 1 4-5 lb pork shoulder , cut into large chunks
- 1 grapefruit , zested and juiced
- 1/2 an onion , sliced
- 4 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 tsp kosher salt
- lime juice and chopped cilantro for serving
Pour grapefruit juice into the liner of the Instant Pot
- In a separate bowl, add chunks of pork, grapefruit zest, garlic, oregano, cumin, chili powder, cinnamon, and salt. mix to combine
Add pork, onion, and bay leaf to the Instant Pot
- Replace the lid, make sure it is set to sealing, and press the manual button. Change the time to 35 minutes.
- After the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally. This could take 20-30 minutes.
After the pressure releases, remove the lid and use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the liquid and onto a baking sheet.
- Pre-heat your broiler.
- Using 2 forks, shred the meat and remove any large chunks of fat. Place the meat under the broiler and let the meat get brown and crispy.
- Serve with lime juice and chopped cilantro
My kids love these carnitas just the way they are or I put them in a low carb tortilla or some crispy corn tortilla boats. They love those! My son loves his with sour cream and olives.
Sometimes I'll make them a little plain white rice and put the carnitas on top when they are not feeling like tacos.
⭐ Did you make this Instant Pot Carnitas Recipe? Tag me on Instagram so I can see! @lowcarbwithjennifer
I just made these and the flavor is perfect! The instant pot makes it so tender and I love the cinnamon and cumin mix. Thanks for this recipe and easy instructions. My meat was frozen, so I cooked it for 48 minutes and natural release and it was perfect.
I am so glad you liked it, Debbie!
Do u place the pork on the trust in the pot? I was told meat should not sit on the bottom of the pot
You can use the trivet
This recipe is awesome. I’ve made it approximately 6 times thus far and even my friends that love traditional Mexican food say it is superb. One thing I did however was take the leftover juice and hit the sauté setting and allowed it to reduce. In addition to that I added some seasoning, lime juice and to thicken it up included some green bean starch (all I had on hand haha). After I broiled the carnitas I added this juice on top to give it a little more life and the rest is history.
How long should we broil?
About 5 minutes but you really have to keep an eye on it so they don’t burn
I made this today for nachos during football. It was also the first time I ever used my new Instantpot. This was a total crowd pleaser! The flavor was incredible.
could you substitute orange juice for the grapefruit juice?
yep!
This was the first recipe I made with my instant pot and I was a little nervous but it was super easy to follow and so different and tasty! Thanks for the great recipe Jennifer, my husband loved and toddler loved it!
What is the net carbs on this?
Made this tonight and I was a bit skeptical of the grapefruit addition. Did it anyway and it was amazing. I will be bookmarking this page and making this again. I’m so surprised how good this was. Thanks for sharing this.
One thing, cutting up the roast was a major PITA. Do you think it’d be possible to quarter the roast and cook it a little longer? This is only my 3rd InstantPot meal so I’m still trying to learn.
I’m so glad you liked it!
You can definitely leave it whole but it will need to cook longer.
Is manual set to high or low pressure?
High pressure
Hi Jennifer. To make this in a slow cooker, how long should I cook it for? Would I need to change anything else in the recipe to do this? Thanks.
Hi Ann! I would do 8 hours on low. Everything else will be the same.