These carnitas rice bowls pile cilantro lime rice with crispy, juicy, slow-cooked carnitas and fresh pico de gallo, cilantro, and avocado lime dressing.
If you are new here, there is something you need to know about Hungry Hobby and why you may just love this recipe and love it here at HH.
I'm a Dietitian and Mom of 3 (currently at the time of posting this recipe, 6 and under.) I'm busy, and while I love to cook, I don't love it at 5 pm on a weeknight, ya feel me? I take shortcuts, and you will find them in this recipe. I cook the meat, but then I use pre-made ingredients to build these bowls. If you want to make everything from scratch, go ahead. I don't have that kind of time, and if you don't either, welcome. In these bowls, the slow cooker does the heavy lifting for you, and once you build these easy bowls, they will blow you away with flavor and become a new weeknight staple, I promise.
The Best Carnitas Rice Bowls
Carnitas is a recipe that gives and just keeps on giving, and while I love burritos, salads, tacos, and more, nothing quite stands up to how easy it is to throw a rice bowl together and call it good.
- Convenience. Once the meat is done, you can have these bowls ready in less than 3 minutes. You could meal prep a whole week in less than 10 minutes.
- You can make a big batch of meat. Whether you have a crowd to feed, want to meal prep, or even have some freezer leftovers, these carnitas rice bowls can do it all, sometimes a combo of all three, depending on how much meat you make.
Let's Talk Ingredients: Carnitas Rice Bowl Ingredients
- Carnitas - For my carnitas, fresh limes are essential. Leaving the limes in the slow cooker or instant pot while you cook the meat will take it to the next level. I also like to stuff a full head of garlic cloves into the meat while it's cooking and throw in a sliced onion. For the seasonings, I use a blend of oregano, sugar, basil, paprika, chipotle chili powder, salt, and black pepper.
- Cilantro Lime Rice - It's not rice bowls without....rice! I used steam in the bag, but if you have a favorite recipe, feel free to use it. Also, the cilantro lime rice is a nice touch, but plain brown rice or white rice is great too, especially if you are using a sauce on the bowl. See notes about steam in the bag rice under storing and freezing, it's only good for one day. Or, for a low-carb swap, you can make my cilantro lime cauliflower rice.
- Pico De Gallo - I love pico de gallo for a lot of fresh veggies and flavor, without a lot of work. Most stores have small to large containers prepared and ready to go! More options here would be diced tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, or zucchini for something fast and crisp!
- Avocado Lime Dressing - I got a giant bottle of Primal Kitchen Avocado Lime Dressing at Costco (see my healthy costco grocery shopping list). Not sponsored, again, I just like saving time where I can! You could also add flavor with salsa, guac, sour cream, or a drizzle of another dressing like chipotle ranch or jalapeno ranch.
- Fresh Cilantro - it's optional, but it's worth picking up at the store along with the other bowl ingredients.
- Avocado - Diced avocado is also optional; you may want to skip it if you are in a calorie deficit, but if not, it's a delicious creamy addition.
- Cotija Cheese - I always have some of this salty, delicious cheese on hand; to me, it elevates any meal made at home to restaurant quality. It's that little something extra that is totally worth it! You could also use Mexican cheese or make these bowls dairy-free.
- You could also add some black beans for extra fiber as well! I often do add black beans, but last time I made these I didn't have any in the cabinet.
Find the printable recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Carnitas Rice Bowls
Season and prep the meat. First, you'll season your meat by rubbing seasonings all over it. Then, you'll want to fire up a skillet with a little oil and sear the meat on each side. I know this is an annoying step, but I've done it both ways (with and without searing), and I can tell a big difference. Once you've seared it then you will cut 12 slits in the meat and stuff it with garlic.
Choose your cooking method. If you are short on time, you can use the instant pot to make the meat in about 90 minutes or so, depending on the cut of the meat. If not, it takes about 8-10 hours in the slow cooker. You'll add your meat to the instant pot or slow cooker with a sliced onion, water, and fresh limes/lime juice.
Shred and broil your meat right before serving. When done, the meat will basically fall apart. Then, remove it from the crockpot, shred it with two forks, and broil it. This will make your meat crispy on the outside with a melt-in-your-mouth texture on the inside that can't be matched.
Assemble rice bowls. You can assemble rice bowls with whatever toppings you desire! My suggestion is a combination of rice, cilantro, pico de Gallo, dressing, and cotija cheese. But check out the ingredient section above for more ideas!
How to Freeze and Store Carnitas Tacos
To freeze carnitas rice bowls: I love how freezer-friendly carnitas are! I actually have a whole post on freezing/defrosting these carnitas here. With the bowls, cilantro, avocado, and pico de Gallo won't freeze that well. And if you are using pre-cooked rice that you heat in the microwave, I have concerns about safety issues when freezing and reheating. Look up reheated rice syndrome, it's real and scary AF. Technically, it should be safe, but I don't like to take chances with rice. So, I recommend following the instructions to freeze the carnitas and then getting your bowl ingredients fresh from the store when you are ready to defrost your meat.
To store and meal prep: This recipe also works great for meal prep, assemble bowls (minus rice), store in the refrigerator, and reheat in the microwave when you are ready to eat! Again, when using steam in the bag precooked rice, it is technically only good for ONE day. I know, that is a bummer, there are prices to convenience, I guess. So if you want to meal prep this, you either need to cook your own rice (honestly, plain rice is delicious too if you don't want to spend time making homemade cilantro lime rice, especially if you have a sauce on the bowls you won't even miss the cilantro lime flavor to the rice) to extend shelf life, or just heat the rice as you go through the week. I usually heat it for lunch and save the second portion for the next day. Another option for meal prep using my carnitas meat would be to make my meal prep carnitas burrito bowls.
Carnitas Rice Bowls
Equipment
- Slow Cooker or instant pot
Ingredients
Carnitas Ingredients
- 4 lbs pork shoulder or pork butt
- 2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoon coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp chipotle chile powder
- 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 12 garlic cloves
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 cup water
- 1-2 limes
Instructions
- Slow Cooker Instructions:
- Combine all ingredients for the rub (oregano, coconut sugar, basil, chipotle chile, smoked paprika, sea salt, and black pepper) in a jar or ziplock bag (really whatever you want). Rub the seasonings all over the pork shoulder. Make sure to get every crevice!
- Add avocado oil to a large nonstick pan on medium-high and brown all sides of the pork shoulder. 1-2 minutes on each side should be plenty! Once the pork is browned, place 12 small slits all over the pork shoulder, then stuff garlic chunks down in each slit.
- Add ½ cup water, followed by the pork and onion slices, to the slow cooker. Squeeze the juice of 1-2 limes over the top. (PS If your limes are big, stick with one or it will be VERY limey.)
- Cook on high for 6-8 hours or low for 8-10 hours. You can check doneness by trying to shred it. It should be EXTREMELY easy to shred when done. Shred the pork. You can do this in the slow cooker and then drain or just pull out the pork shoulder and do it on your cooking board. Keep the broth if you plan to freeze the meat!
- Crank the oven to broil and spread the pork accross a foil-lined sheet pan for 3-6 minutes.
Build Rice Bowls
- Build bowls by adding meat, rice, cilantro, pico de gallo, dressing, avocado and any other toppings you want!
Notes
Nutrition
Kelli says
yum yum