These healthy slow cooker carnitas are made with lean pork tenderloin, and I make them ALL the time. If you follow me on Instagram, you already know this. It’s the easiest, tastiest, LEANEST protein to keep on hand and throw into everything… with 21.6 grams of protein in every 100 grams.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Easy Low-Fat Crispy Slow Cooker Carnitas
- Ready In: -27008586 minutes
- Serves: 10 -12
- Calories: 141 cal
- Protein: 21.6g
- Fat: 2.3g
- Carbs: 7.1g
- Why You'll Love It: One of my favorite proteins to have in my fridge at all times! So easy, so lean and super tasty. My whole family is obsessed.
I first shared this pork in my favorite staple tostada recipe, but I reference it so often that it deserved a post of its own. I usually make it on a Sunday morning so all the work is done early and I come home to dinner that’s basically ready. Once the pork is tender and shreddy, I crisp it up in a big skillet. That’s the part that makes it taste like real carnitas.
Then it’s ready to put in seriously anything. Rice bowls, burritos, tacos, tostadas, enchiladas, pitas, pizzas, nachos… should I stop? I should stop. Sandwiches? You get it. If you love having shredded pork ready to go, my red enchilada shredded pork is another good one.
Can You Use Pork Tenderloin for Carnitas?
YES. Traditional carnitas use pork shoulder, which has a lot more fat. I use pork tenderloin because it’s so lean, with only 2.5 grams of fat per 4 ounces. Trim off any fat you see, sear it for flavor, and let it get super tender in the salsa. A final crisp in a hot pan gives you those golden edges. If you’re a tenderloin fan like me, try my brown sugar spiced pork tenderloin with chimichurri or balsamic herb pork tenderloin too.
Are Carnitas Healthy?
They can be! Carnitas are usually cooked low and slow in a lot of fat. This version uses lean pork tenderloin, green salsa, garlic, onion, and a little cooking spray in the pan. That keeps each 100 gram serving at 141 calories with 21.6 grams of protein and only 2.3 grams of fat.
Can You Make Carnitas in the Instant Pot?
Yep! Season the pork and sear it right in the Instant Pot on the sauté setting. Cover it with the salsa mixture, seal the lid, and cook on manual for up to 45 minutes. Let it naturally release for 10 to 15 minutes, then open the vent. Shred it and crisp it up the same way.
Important Ingredients and Substitutions
- Pork tenderloin: I get mine at Costco and usually use one package, which is two small loins. You want 2 to 3 pounds total. It’s SO lean, and that’s the whole point here.
- Herdez green salsa: One 16 oz jar does all the work as the cooking liquid. Any green salsa works if you can’t find Herdez.
- Frozen garlic cubes: I always use the ones from Trader Joe’s or Stater Brothers. They save so much mincing. 8 fresh cloves work too.
Before You Start Cooking
- Plan for 4 to 6 hours. That’s the slow cooker time, plus about 15 minutes of prep. Short on time? Use the Instant Pot method above.
- Cut the pork into 3 to 4 inch chunks. Shorter chunks shred into shorter pieces, more like real carnitas.
- Don’t skip the sear. A hot pan with cooking spray and a nice brown crust on all sides locks in SO much flavor.
- Weigh your onion raw if you track macros. I used about 250 grams. Make a note before it goes in the pot. Here’s how I add a recipe to MyFitnessPal.
How to Make Healthy Slow Cooker Carnitas
- Trim and cut. Trim the fat off the pork, pat it dry, and cut it into 3 to 4 inch chunks.
- Season and sear. Season liberally all over with season salt. Sear on all sides in a hot pan with cooking spray until it has a nice brown crust.
- Slow cook. Move the pork to the slow cooker and cover it with the salsa, garlic, and onion. Cook for 4 to 6 hours, until tender.
- Shred. Pull out the chunks and shred them in a new dish. Pour a little more than half of the cooking liquid over the pork and toss.
- Crisp it up. Fry as much as you need in a hot pan until it gets a good brown on it. Or spread it on a pan and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.
The skillet is the ONLY way we crisp it now… AND for sure with any leftovers. It’s quicker than the oven and SO good.
What to Serve with Carnitas
Pile it into tacos, burritos, rice bowls, or those tostadas. Top it with mango salsa or pineapple radish salsa and a drizzle of my two ingredient skinny chipotle creme.
For sides, I love a scoop of corn avocado salad, cilantro lime slaw, Mexican chopped kale salad, or a pan of skillet Mexican potatoes. If we’re not eating it all that night, I keep the rest juicy and crisp up just the portion we’re eating.
How to Freeze Carnitas
This is one of my favorite proteins to have in the freezer, and it’s on my list of macro-friendly freezer meals.
- Freeze the carnitas juicy, right out of the slow cooker or Instant Pot, with a little of the cooking liquid. The juices keep the pork from drying out.
- Portion into freezer bags, squeeze out the air, and label with the date and grams.
- Thaw overnight in the fridge, then crisp up just what you need in a hot skillet. That’s my favorite way to make leftovers anyway, so it’s like they were made fresh!
- Keeps up to 3 months.
Want more Mexican-inspired meals for the freezer? Try my classic taco meat, Instant Pot smokey honey cilantro chicken, creamy Mexican chicken bake, or cauliflower rice enchilada skillet.
If you want a plan for the whole week, my macro-friendly meal plans send you a new menu and a categorized grocery list every Thursday, with the macros already done.
Carnitas Calories and Macros
One 100 gram serving of these healthy slow cooker carnitas, weighed juicy right out of the crockpot, has 141 calories, 21.6g protein, 2.3g fat, and 7.1g carbs. The recipe makes 10 to 12 servings. You can also search Lillie Eats and Tells Crispy Carnitas in MyFitnessPal and log the grams you take out of the pot.
Crisping shrinks the pork a little because it loses water, but the macros stay the same. So 120 grams of juicy pork might be about 100 grams once it’s crispy. If your recipe is logged with the juicy weight, log the juicy weight of your portion. If I’m lazy, I just log a little extra. Don’t stress!
Come say hi on Instagram, I share what we’re eating all week.
Easy Low-Fat Crispy Slow Cooker Carnitas
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds pork tenderloin Only 2.5 fat for 4oz- I get mine from Costco and usually do one of the packages which is two small loins.
- Season Salt
- 16 oz jar herdez or some green salsa
- 8 cloves of garlic I always use these frozen cubes from Trader Joes or Stater Brothers
- 1 medium white onion diced- weigh it raw and make a note before you add it I used about 250 grams- or estimate if you’re into that because it’s an onion.
Instructions
- Trim fat off meat and pat dry.
- Cut into chunks, 3-4 inches long. (This helps the pieces be shorter later like carnitas.)
- Season liberally all over with season-salt and sear on all sides in a hot pan with cooking spray to lock in flavor. Get a nice brown crust on it.
- Move to a crock pot and cover with the salsa, garlic, and onion and cook for 4-6 hours or until tender. Shred it and toss in juices. (I like to pull out my chunks and shred them in a new dish then pour a little more than half of the liquid over it. Toss in those juices and then proceed to fry it up.
- OR for instant pot: Season meat, sear in instant pot on sautee setting, then cover with salsa mixture, seal lid and vent, press manual, and up to 45 minutes. When it’s done, let it naturally release for 10-15 minutes, then open the vent , then lid when it lets you easily.
- ***You can use the meat like this, or spread it on a pan and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes to get some crispy pieces, more like authentic carnitas. OR… my favorite way (AND THE ONLY WAY WE DO IT NOW… AND FOR SURE WITH ANY LEFTOVERS) is just crisp up as much as you need in a hot fry pan. Quicker than the oven and SOO good when it gets a good brown on it!
Notes
- I don’t want to overcomplicate this, but if you track macros and appreciate things being precise, you’ll want to account for that shrinkage that happens in the second cook. So if you crisp up the entire recipe, you can use the FINAL crispy carnitas weight as your end number… the one you use for your number of servings if you use this method to add your recipes. BUT, if you’re going to use it for different things and not always serve it crispy, I’ll use the final juicy weight in the “number of servings” in my recipe and then when I go to crisp up a pan for dinner, I’d weigh a portion into the pan (600 grams for instance) and then weigh it again after it’s crispy and see by what percentage it shrunk. If I’m lazy I’ll just log a little more than I take to account for it. So don’t stress. (Cooking it takes away some water leaving all the macros but less weight so 120 grams of pork is now maybe 100g but you’re still getting the macros from 120 grams of juicy pork so if you’re recipe reflects the macros of the juicy pork, you’ll want to log that full 120 grams of it.)
Tried this recipe?
Tag @LillieEatsAndTells on Instagram with #LillieEatsandTells! We’d love to see your creations!
What is “season salt”
This recipe is absolutely amazing for how easy it is! I highly suggest crisping the pork like Lillie suggest, it’s happiness on a plate!
The flavor was SO good! Love the flavor from the season salt and searing. So easy, will be my go to for sure.
I made it for dinner in my instant pot, and it was fabulous. We cooked it on a Sunday and crisped it up for dinner on Monday night. Used it multiple ways – in a quesadilla for my daughter, by itself for my son, on top of a sauteed squash and zucchini for my husband, and on top of jicama tacos for me.
I didn’t even pull the meat out to shred it. I used my handheld kitchen mixer to shred it inside the instant pot; even fewer dishes, less mess, and super simple! This one will be on repeat!!
I just made this for dinner and it delicious and so easy to make! Thanks for sharing this with us.
Trying this now. Maybe I missed it but do you cook on LOW in crockpot?
So yummy! Thanks for another great recipe! Also, the oven bake at the end made it all the more wonderful. Great advice.
Definitely one of my go to meals! I like to meal prep before each new college semester and this one is PERFECT for meal prep.
The best! Even my 9 year old at this on a tostada for days!!! Win im my book!!!!
A family favorite! We all love this meal
One of the best recipes Ever! So universal… can be prepped and used all Week in different meals!
My hUsband anD i absolutely love this recipe! We’ll Crisp up some street taco sIze corn tortillas in the oven anD top them with oaxaca cheese + carnitas + homemade salsa, aVocado, anD lime…DELICIOUS! The pork is so flavorful and makes amazing leftovers!
So easy, so good. Always a crowd pleaser!
This was one of the first recipes of Lillie’s that I made and my whole family loved It.
This is a staple in our house. It is so flavorful and versatile! I use the Instant Pot and it works great. We love having this on hand for meals throughout the week. Thanks, Lillie!
I maKe this almost weekly! It is wonderful And makes great leftovers too— try it with a fried egg!
This is yummy and versatile.
Such a DELICIOUS and easy recipe !! Pretty sure after the first time i made it (which is a couple months back because its noW on constant rotation) my boyfriend decided he wants to get married lol these are just that good and Your fam will think YOU’RE a chef!!
MAke these at least once a week-seriouslY the best and easiest source of protein to put with everything!!!
Do you only use the onions if you cook it in the slow cooker? Thanks!
No i use them in the instant pot too! For sure!
This was delicious. I made it in a dutch oven in a Breville toaster oven on the slow cook setting on low for 4 hours. The first tenderloin I made was delicious out of the pot, but when I crisped it at 350 for only about 10 minutes and it became dry. The second time I made it, I just skipped crisping it. If I want to crisp it, should I slow cook it for a shorter time? The texture was perfect at 4 hours-it easily shredded. Or should I crips it at a higher temperature? Would love any advice you have.
Can you make this in a dutch oven in the oven? I don’t have a slow cooker or instant pot. If so, what temperature and how long?
I absolutely love this recipe! I’ve made it every week for probably 3 months now! I just don’t get sick of it, it’s so easy to prep and the macros are fantastic. I finally bought an instant pot this week mainly to make this recipe! It was a breeze! Try this! It’s so simple and everyone loves it!
Fantastic recipe! Whole family loves it…
Have you tried making double/triple the servings? If so, how long do you leave in instant pot/crockpot? Thanks! Excited to try this recipe (:
Quick question- do you add any liquid in addition to the salsa mixture for the instant pot? I always seem to get the burn notice with my instant pot so now I’m gun shy 🤣
This is some of the best meat I’ve tried! What a great recipe, and the macros are aweome too! It’s easy and simple, crisps up nicely in the pan and the flavor is amazing! We’ve been eating it in tacos, quesadillas, rice bowls, and on salads all week. It will be a staple!
I’m so glad you loved it!
How long would I cook in the instant pot if the pork was still frozen?
I’m so sorry I’m just responding to this! And I’ve actually never done the pork from frozen because I always want to chop into chunks and sear… so I can’t say with confidence! So sorry!
I just made this and am blown away! I used pork shoulder and spent about an hour (seriously) trimming off every bit of fat I could find.. next time I’ll try the loin if I can find it! … after I got done with that it was so easy and turned out absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for sharing your ways!! I ate with rice and your chipotle cream sauce. YUM 😋
Yum! And so glad it was a success! Thanks for letting me know!
Maybe I missed it but it says move to crockpot for 4-6 hours but it doesn’t say whether it’s on high or low. Which one do you typically do? Thanks!
I’m so sorry I just saw this! I need to find a better way to catch my comments from my phone. And you didn’t miss it! I didn’t think to put it oops! Probably because I’m not always precise myself on this stuff… So to be honest I’ve probably done both and it works! But generally low. High if I’m worried at all that I could run short on time. Don’t know if I’ve noticed a difference! Hope it worked if my response was too late!