Slow-Cooker Carnitas

Serves4
Prep10 minutes
Cook6-8 hours

Ingredients

1pork tenderloin, cut into 4-5 pieces
1 tspcoarse salt
1 tspgarlic powder
2 tspcumin
½ tspdried oregano
½ tspcoriander
¼ tspground cinnamon
2bay leaves
2 cupschicken broth

Preparation

Mix together salt, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, and cinnamon in a bowl. Coat the pork with the spice mixture.
Place the bay leaves in the bottom of a slow cooker and arrange the pork on top. Pour the chicken broth around the sides of the pork, being careful not to rinse off the spice mixture.
Cover and cook on low until the pork shreds easily with a fork, about 6 hours.
When the pork is tender remove from the slow cooker and shred with two forks. Use cooking liquid as needed to moisten the meat.
Serve in tacos, burritos, or burrito bowls with your favorite toppings.

Measurement notes for this recipe

The spices are small amounts, so the metric toggle uses standard metric spoon sizes: 1 teaspoon is 5 ml and ½ teaspoon is 2.5 ml. Two US cups of broth is 473 ml, which you can round to 475 ml or 500 ml without hurting the dish, since the broth only needs to come partway up the pork.

Pork tenderloin usually comes in packs of 1 to 1¼ pounds (450-570 g). If yours is bigger, leave the broth alone and scale the spices up in proportion. If you're cooking for more than four, use two tenderloins and double the spices.

Cooking time

Tenderloin is lean, so it's done sooner than a pork shoulder. Check at 6 hours on low. If it shreds easily with a fork, stop; cooking it much longer will dry it out. A slow cooker set to high will do the job in about half the time, but low gives a more tender result.

Ways to serve it

Tacos on warm corn tortillas, burritos, burrito bowls over rice, or on top of nachos. Moisten the shredded pork with spoonfuls of the cooking liquid, and if you want crisp edges, spread it on a sheet pan and put it under the broiler for a few minutes. Set the oven by dial or by the oven temperature chart.