Crock Pot Carnitas with Roasted Vegetables

I am going to start by saying sorry. This is not an all-in-one crock pot meal. It is however easy, and the pork carnitas that is in the crock pot will provide you with many delicious meals!

This is one of those recipes that if you can spend 1-1/2 hours on a Sunday (or some week day when your kid(s) are in school), you will have many meals out of it. The 1-1/2 hours includes all the prep and getting the pork into the crockpot, prepping the veggies for roasting at dinner time, and cleaning up!

Step 1:

So, it starts with the pork carnitas. I used the recipe Crock Pot Carnitas from Popular Paleos website. It is an easy recipe to follow, all you need to do is mix spices, sear the meat, get it in the crock pot and deglaze the pan. Please go to the link to find the ingredients and directions. The only thing I have changed is that I double the spices that go on the meat (I just don't feel like there is enough) and I also sometimes use 1 cup of 100% orange juice instead of juicing two oranges.

Here is the seared meat in the crockpot.

Seared meat with the deglazed pan juices and citrus added. Note that I cut one of the pork pieces in half so that all the meat is in the liquid. It doesn't need to be covered in liquid, but at least sitting in it is best. 

Step 2:

After I get the meat in the crock pot and set the timer for it to cook for 5 hours on low, I like to prep the vegetables for the roasted vegetables I will be making at supper. This means they are ready to go, and I can clean up the kitchen! 

For this meal I decided to cut up broccoli (my all time favorite vegetable roasted), sweet bell peppers, leek and potatoes. I should also mention that all the beautiful vegetables came from our local CSA Crossroads Community farm, that is how I selected what to roast. You can mix all the veggies, except put the potatoes in a seperate bowl with cold water so that they don't brown. You can then stick both bowls into the refridgerator until ready to cook.

Step 3:

Dinner!

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Drain the water out of the potatoes, dry off in a clean towel, and toss with your cooking fat of choice and salt and pepper. Do this with the other bowl of vegetables also. I like to then put the potatoes on one cookie sheet, and the rest of the vegetables on a seperate cooking sheet. Once the oven is preheated I put in the potatoes first for 10 minutes (they take longer). After 10 minutes I mix the potatoes around so that they continue to brown evenly and then I add the other pan of vegetables into the oven also.  Cook both pans for another 15 minutes and check. At this point I usually mix both pans again and give them another 10-15 minutes or so. It is really up to you how brown you like your veggies. We like them really crispy!

While you are cooking the vegetables (or when the 5 hours are up) you should follow the carnitas recipe. I would like to add also that if your crockpot runs a little hot, you may want to check the pork after 4 hours. Pork can dry out easily. After it is done, I like to shred and brown enough of the pork for this meal and for one more meal in the next day or two. After browning the meat I like to add in enough of the cooking liquid to make it moist and cook a few more minutes. This step is especially important if your pork is on the drier side. With this meal I will be eating the meat by itself while my family will eat it in buns. I will serve it with the roasted vegetables.

 

Meat with added cooking liquid.

The second portion will be used in tacos for my family and on a taco salad for me. You need to decide how much meat will be enough for your family. As suggested in the recipe, I store the rest of the meat in whole pieces and save the cooking liquid in a separate container. This freezes well!

I promise you that the meat tastes better then it looks in this photo! Enjoy!