Prepping the Pork

1. Rinse the pork and pat it dry.   Then cut it into 3 chunks.
2. Heat a large sauté pan with 1 T olive oil.
3. Sear each pork chunk on all sides, on at a time in the sauté pan.  This part of the process gives the meat more flavor. You may need to add more olive oil with each chunk of pork.  As each chunk is finished searing (about 1 min per side), place it in the slow cooker.  If you happen to have a searing feature on your crockpot, like this Cuisinart Crockpot, then you do not need to use a separate pan.

Seasoning the Pork

1. Peel and quarter a yellow onion.  Place the onion quarters at various positions in the crock pot with the meat.
2. Measure out seasonings and combine in a small bowl.
3. Now sprinkle the seasoning rub on the meat, evenly distributing it.
4. At this point you can halve your limes and using a juicer (this is our favorite juicer/squeezer from Amazon), squeeze the juice of 2 limes onto the meat.  Then squeeze one half of an orange on the meat.

Cooking the Pork

1. Set your crock pot to 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high, depending on your serving time.
2. Once the meat is cooked, you can take each piece out of the crockpot and transfer into a shallow bowl or baking dish to shred it.  You can also remove chunks of fat that remain.
3. Once all of the meat is shredded, return it to the slow cooker to soak in the juices. Now, you can turn the crockpot to warm and the meat is ready for serving when you are!
4. You can also add a crisping phase to the shredded pork, if you prefer crispy taco meat.  You would heat a sauté pan on medium high and put a small amount of shredded pork in the pan at a time to crisp it by tossing it in the pan with tongs.

Assembing and Serving Pork Carnitas Tacos

1. While the meat is slow cooking, you can prep taco toppings of your preference.  Wash and chop cilantro leaves, make some Guacamole, shred cheese, etc.
2. Warming your corn tortillas up for a small group is easy in the microwave. You can moisten a paper towel to line a plate and put 5-8 small tortillas on top. Warm them up for 20 seconds, approximately.
3. If serving a larger crowd, you can set your oven to its lowest temperature and place tortillas on a metal baking sheet, overlapping them a bit so you can fit several on the pan.  Warm them for 5 minutes at least, but you can take them out of the oven as you need them or put them all into a tortilla warmer to be available for guests.
4. Place a small mount of shredded meat (slightly drained if using it straight from crockpot), add shredded cheese, pico de gallo, Guacamole, and cilantro.  Salsa and sour cream are also great to have available.  Serve and enjoy!