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If you can’t tell by now, I could eat Mexican food all day, every day. And especially when I’m doing a Whole30, I do 🙂 That’s why I make this paleo carnitas recipe almost weekly, and I eat these carnitas with tons of different topping variations for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

My favorite way to serve this delicious paleo carnitas recipe is over romaine lettuce, salted fried plantains, a pico de gallo or salsa, and guacamole. You don’t even need a salad dressing because all of the flavors together are to die for! Go ahead, make these paleo carnitas and let me know what you think!

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Paleo Carnitas Recipe

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Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 lb pork shoulder (also called pork butt)
  • 1/4 c olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 C water
  • 2 poblano peppers, chopped
  • 2 T minced garlic (about 8 cloves)
  • 1 t cumin
  • 1 t oregano
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 t salt
  • 2 t pepper

Instructions

  1. Remove any large areas of fat from the pork, then cut into 2 inch pieces. Place in an instant pot, crock pot, or dutch oven.
  2. Add remaining ingredients.
  3. For an instant pot, cook on the Meat/ Stew option for the default setting of 30 minutes.
  4. For a crock pot, cook on the default meat setting, or about 10 hours.
  5. For a dutch oven, brown the meat on all sides. Then bring the liquid to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Finally, place in a 450 degree oven without a lid to brown for 30 minutes.
  6. Remove just the pork, leaving all other ingredients behind to discard. Shred and enjoy!

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