Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

The other day I was looking for some slow cooker recipes and came across Gina's Skinny Taste.  I've been on  her blog before, but it's been a while.  She has tons of light and healthy recipes as well as conversions for Weight Watchers!  All of her recipes look absolutely divine, but I was most intrigued by her lightened up Chipotle style meat.  I LOVE Chipotle and Moe's so this was super exciting!

After looking over several options like the Chicken Ropa Veija  and the Barbacoa Beef  I settled on the Mexican Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas.  I'll definitely be back to try the others though. ;)

I used a 1.5 pound pork loin to make these since it's such a lean cut of meat and our grocery store didn't have the pork shoulder that was listed in the original recipe.  It was the perfect size for us.  My only suggestion is to use reduced sodium broth and then adjust the salt content to taste after you shred the meat.  When I liberally seasoned the meat, I didn't take into to account that the adobo seasoning listed salt as its first ingredient. 

Also, 2 chile peppers made this just spicy enough to give it a kick without making us break out in to a sweat. I loved the flavor that the peppers gave to these.

We served our Pork Carnitas up in a tortilla with a mixture of lettuce, cilantro, lime juice, avacado and white onion.  Tomatoes would have been a great addition too.  Next time, I'm thinking about a nice crunchy taco shell with these or a burrito!  Yummm!

Recipe:
1.5 lb pork loin
3-4 cloves of garlic cut into slivers (I used bottled minced garlic.)
cumin
dry adobo seasoning (like Goyas)
garlic powder
1 c low sodium/low fat chicken or beef broth
2-3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2 dried bay leaves

1. Salt and pepper pork.  Brown all sides in a hot, lightly oiled skillet.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Make small slits in pork and fill with garlic.  Sprinkle with lots of cumin, adobo seasoning and garlic powder.  
2. Chop peppers and place in crock pot with broth and bay leaves.  Place meat on top.  Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours.  
3. Remove meat and shred with 2 forks.  Discard bay leaves.  Return meat to the crock pot and toss with liquid.  Add more liquid if needed.  (Mine was a little salty, so I added water instead of more broth. )  Add more cumin or salt if needed.  Cook an additional 15 minutes.

Source: Gina's Skinny Taste
Printable Recipe

 

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