I love a hearty soup. I also love food that makes itself. In this slow cooker recipe, you’ll find the best of both worlds. Tender seasoned pork, drowning in rich tomato-y goodness ready to serve and demolish when that crockpot timer goes.
In the ingredient list below, you’ll see my home grown carnitas seasoning mix. I’m a big fan of using this seasoning with any meal where flavors head south of the border, not just on pork. Make yourself a big batch, keep it in a jar, and enjoy that subtle pride that comes with making your own seasoning mixes… Okay maybe that’s just me! Enjoy nonetheless.
For the Pork in this recipe I like to use a roast from the shoulder, sometimes called the boston butt. This is the same portion of the animal that one would use for barbeque pulled pork. That’s exactly what we’re going for here in our soup, pull apart tenderness. If your roast is bone in, leave it whole until serving we’re you can shred it off the bone. On the other hand, if your piece of pork was packaged boneless, you can follow my directions below as that was what I had on hand that day. Here we go!
Crockpot Carnitas Soup
Ingredients:
2-3+ lbs Pork Roast (Shoulder/Boston Butt)
1 Tbsp avocado oil, coconut oil, or ghee
1-2 heaping Tbsp of “Better than Bouillon” chicken base
¼ cup of Taylor’s Carnitas Seasoning
- Equal parts oregano, paprika, cumin, ground coriander, garlic powder, onion powder, ground pepper, and salt
- Half parts cinnamon
- (Optional) half/quarter parts cayenne pepper
1 medium onion, diced small
1 red bell pepper, diced small
1 cup of sweet corn (optional)
4-5 cloves of garlic (or 2 heaping tsp of pre-minced variety)
1 can of black beans, drained (optional)
1 can (10oz) rotel (or flavored diced tomatoes of your choosing)
1 can (7oz) diced green chilis
2 cans (14.5oz) diced tomatoes with juices
3 cans (14.5oz) tomato sauce
1 cup of water
For the broiling:
1 tsp ground black pepper
1-2 hefty pinches of kosher salt
Directions:
- For a boneless pork roast, cut the roast into a few large pieces, laying them flat on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil.
- Setting the oven to a high broil, pat the portions dry and liberally salt and pepper both sides. Broil for 3-6 minutes per side (depending on the power of your oven). Desired appearance is that of a “sear”.
- Place all the ingredients into a large crockpot in a similar order to the list above.
- Cook on HIGH for 4-5hrs, or ideally on LOW for 7-9hrs.
- When ready to serve, remove pork pieces and shred with two forks
- Return meat to the crockpot, giving it a good stir.
- Enjoy and serve with extra seasonings/additives (hot sauce, red pepper flakes, cheese, etc).
– Written by Taylor Gish