This traditional Mexican dinner dish is a hit in our family! Carnitas street tacos are a popular Mexican dish. They are made up of small, soft corn tortillas filled with tender, succulent shredded pork. The pork is cooked slowly in a Dutch oven with classic Mexican seasonings and flavors.
Whenever we make carnitas, we serve them in a variety of ways. Street Taco style, however, is my personal favorite. My kids prefer their carnitas served over a rice bowl. My husband tries to stay low-carb and serves his over mixed greens.
Street taco style just happens to be my favorite one 😉.
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🛒 Ingredients
Here is a quick recap of everything we are going to need just to make the carnitas side of this recipe. See the full recipe below for all the exact measurements. Garnishes and topping are in a separate category below so you can pick and choose what else you need!
- Corn or Flour Tortillas
- Pork Shoulder or Pork Butt - Cubbed
- Cumin
- Red Onion - Quartered
- Orange Juice
- Garlic
- Oregano
- Bay Leaf
🌮 Toppings
While we typically serve ours with a variety of toppings such as fresh cilantro, diced onion, salsa, lime, and avocado, one of the best parts about this recipe is you can really make it your own. Add extra bursts of flavor and texture with pickled red onions, jalapenos, or a good squeeze of lime!
Here are some of our favorites (plus some recipes included)...
- Pickled Red Onions & Pickled Jalapenos
- Fresh Cilantro
- Fresh Squeeze of Lime
- Guacamole
- Mexican Crema (think thin sour cream but better)
- Cotija or Queso Fresco
🥘 Equipment
We used a Dutch oven to braise our carnitas low and slow. You can use a crockpot or slow cooker but you will lose the extra flavor punch browning the meat gives you.
If you are nervous about the cost of buying a Dutch oven, don't be! You can get a great quality one for around $40-$50 nowadays, and they are incredibly versatile.
📖 Instructions
Let's get started making our Dutch oven carnitas! Prep your onion by cutting it into ⅛ths, cutting through the root of the onion. This way the root will hold the onion together a bit. Set Aside.
🔪 Prep
Cube up the pork shoulder into dry chunks around 2-3" cubed. Utilizing boneless pork shoulder for this task will make it 10 times easier! Ensure to pat the pork shoulder dry with paper towels before cubing. The more consistent the size of the cubes, the more evenly they will cook.
Searing
Put your dutch oven on high heat. Add olive oil to coat the bottom. Season the first batch (6-7 pieces) of pork liberally with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. We will only be adding small batches of the pork to the pan at a time.
If we overcrowd the pan we won't get the brown crust we are looking for. Add the pork to the pan and DON'T move it around. Let it sit for 3-4 minutes or until it releases from the pan by itself and has a nice golden brown color.
Flip each piece, but don't stir/move them all around. Just a simple turnover. Once they have browned on the second side, remove them and set them aside. Repeat this process until all your pork has been browned.
Once all your pork has finished browning, return it back to the dutch oven with the red onions and garlic.
⏲ Braising
Add orange juice, chicken stock, cumin, oregano, and bay leaves. Mix until distributed. Bring to a simmer and then cover with the lid. (I like to put foil on my lid so it doesn't get as dirty).
Move to a 350-degree oven for 3-4 hours or until your pork is fall apart tender.
Once fork tender, remove the pork and put it into a deep-sided pyrex style dish, and cover to keep warm.
🔥 Reducing & Crisping
Take the remaining liquid in the pot and put it back on the stove to reduce it by about 75% or as much as you can without burning. Once it's nice and thick, pour that delicious liquid back over the pork. Mixing together and breaking the pork into smaller pieces at the same time.
Turn the oven on broil, and put the pork mixture back in the oven for just a minute or two. DO NOT TAKE YOUR EYES OFF IT. It will go from perfect to burnt in less than 1 minute. Note: this whole step is optional if it seems scary.
🌮 Laying the Flavors
- Start assembly by adding around ¼ cup of carnitas to each taco.
- Next add your pickled red onion and cilantro, jalapeno, and guacamole as desired.
- For garnish, lightly drizzle your Mexican crema and sprinkle with cotija cheese.
- Finish with a squeeze of lime and take a big bite. You earned it!
Classically this dish would be served with corn tortillas that have been slightly charred. However, you do you. Both corn and flour will be delicious. Use what you have or what you like.
👩🏼🍳 Chef Tip
Toasting or charring your tortilla adds a deep flavor that I highly recommend, however, it's not for everyone. If you have a gas stove, simply turn your burner on to medium heat and throw your tortilla on top. Flip every 5-10 seconds until you start to see a slight char.
If you have an electric stove, throw them under the broiler for just a few seconds watching super carefully as you don't want them to dry out or burn.
Making your street taco your own is mission-critical. The carnitas themselves are deep in flavor and slightly sweet, so adding a bright pop of acidity or a creamy salsa makes a huge difference. Here are some of my favorite recommendations...
🥡 Leftovers
This carnitas recipe makes a lot of food, so you very well might be leftovers you could use for meal prep throughout the week. I've personally found that most pulled pork gets a "leftover" flavor and it isn't my favorite.
If you freeze this immediately, you can preserve the fresh flavor better than leaving it in the fridge for a few days.
We recommend checking out our full article about how to best store and reheat your carnitas along with unique ideas for leftovers!
📖 Recipe
Pork Carnitas Street Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
Pork Carnitas
- 20 Corn Tortillas - or flour
- 4 pounds Pork Shoulder - boneless is easier
- 3 tablespoon Olive Oil
- Kosher Salt
- Fresh Ground Pepper
- ½ cup Orange Juice
- 1 quart Chicken Stock
- 1 Red Onion
- 2 Bay Leaf
- 2 teaspoon Cumin
- 2 teaspoon Oregano
- 1 tablespoon Garlic
Toppings & Garnish
- Fresh Cilantro
- Guacamole
- Pickled Red Onion
- Pickled Jalapeno
- Mexican Crema
- Cojita Cheese
Instructions
Making the Carnitas
- Prep your onion by cutting it into ⅛ths, cutting through the root of the onion. This way the root will hold the onion together a bit. Set Aside.
- Cube the pork shoulder into chunks around 2-3" cubed. The more similar in size, the more evenly they will cook.
- Season the first batch (6-7 pieces) of pork liberally with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.
- Put your
- Add the pork to the pan and DON'T move it around. Let it sit for 3-4 minutes or until it releases from the pan by itself and has a nice golden brown color.
- Flip each piece, but don't stir/move them all around. Just a simple turn over.
- Once they have browned on the second side, remove and set aside.
- Repeat this process until all your pork has been browned.
- Once all your pork has finished browning, return it back to the dutch oven with the red onions and garlic.
- Add orange juice, chicken stock, cumin, oregano, and bay leaves. Mix until distributed.
- Bring to a simmer and then cover with the lid. (I like to put foil on my lid so it doesn't get as dirty).
- Move to 350-degree oven for 3-4 hours or until fork tender.
- Once fork tender, remove the pork and put it into a deep-sided pyrex style dish, and cover to keep warm.
- Take the remaining liquid in the pot and put it back on the stove to reduce it by about 75% or as much as you can without burning.
- Once thick, pour that delicious liquid back over the pork. Mixing together and breaking the pork into smaller pieces at the same time.
- Turn the oven on broil, and put the pork mixture back in the oven for just a minute or two. DO NOT TAKE YOUR EYES OFF IT. It will go from perfect to burnt in less than 1 minute. Note: this whole step is optional if it seems scary.
Assembling Your Street Tacos
- Over an open flame lightly toast your tortillas until the edges are slightly charred.
- Start assembly by adding around ¼ cup of carnitas to each taco.
- Next add your pickled red onion, jalapeno, guacamole, and freshly chopped cilantro as desired.
- For garnish, lightly drizzle your Mexican crema and sprinkle with cojita cheese.
- Finish with a squeeze of lime and take a big bite. You earned it!
Video
Notes
- This can be crockpot friendly but only to a certain point. I 100% recommend still browning the pork in a pan, and then deglazing the pan (adding some chicken stock to get all the brown bits off the bottom). Reducing the liquid at the end is still an option, but you'd need to transfer that liquid back into a pot on the stove.
- If you don't have a dutch oven, I would recommend looking into one. You do NOT need to spend $300+ on a Le Creuset. I have a link to a dutch oven that's under $50 here.
- You don't have to broil the reduced liquid if you don't have time or are nervous, but it browns the remaining sugars in the sauce and gives it a little crispy texture at the same time. I recommend trying it at least once.
- Don't snack on the pork the whole time the sauce is reducing. It's a rookie mistake and you won't be hungry for dinner. I have learned this lesson many many times.
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