Slow Cooker Carnitas and Rice (less than $1 per serving)

01/26/2023 by Nathaniel Lee

I love eating good, cheap food. I have fun creating dirt cheap recipes that aren’t bad for me like burrito bowls. So if that sounds cool to you, then keep reading. This is the cheapest meal I’ve ever made that is still packed with calories, nutrition, etc.

These slow cooker carnitas are good, dirt-cheap, and incredibly easy to make.

Slow cooker Carnitas and rice — Meal Prepify

Let me be real for a quick second.

I’m not really a food blogger. I don’t take pretty pictures. I don’t own a nice camera. And I definitely don’t have fancy staging props for my food. I’m the least food bloggery food blogger that exists, but I can promise you something that they can’t… I promise I won’t bore you with a research paper length intro about my personal life and why this recipe was a warm blanket for my soul on a hard day.

The recipe I’m about to give you is solid, but nothing out of this world. It’s a solid A-. If you’re trying to impress a date, don’t make this. Unless your date will be impressed at your ability to make cheap food that tastes good. But if you want to make 20+ servings of food for $20 that are easy to make, easy to reheat, and good for freezing, then this is the recipe for you.

If you ever need to feed a small African village or a group of teenage kids–this recipe will let you do it for cheap.

Want to pick up my favorite meal prep containers to store these pork carnitas?

This is the Utopia kitchen glass container set. These are microwave safe, oven safe, freezer safe, and dishwasher safe. Whip up your favorite meal prep and store them in these long-lasting containers!

Let’s talk about how to make these super cheap slow cooker pork carnitas.

Contents

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
Loaded Mexican Rice
Combine it all and eat!
- Here’s a full grocery list

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

Step one: Make your base

The first thing you’ve got to do is mix up your spices and liquid for cooking. Drop your spice mixture into your slow cooker or crock pot and mix them up.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp salt, pepper,
2 tsp paprika, cumin, oregano, cayenne, garlic salt or powder
3-4 bay leaves
Quarter cup of lime juice
Squeeze two oranges in (or 1.5 cups of orange juice)
2 onion (cut into big hunks)
2-3 cups water

Cost: $2

Tip: if you like it spicy, add in a can of chipotle adobo peppers.

Step two: Let’s talk meat

I’m making slow cooker carnitas.

So you need to buy yourself a hunk of pork. Get yourself a pork shoulder roast or pork butt. Don’t worry though, a pork butt isn’t actually from the pig’s rear end. The boston butt is just the top part of the shoulder. Even if you don’t pork, you can use this recipe with chicken.

Get a big one. At least 4 pounds. If you’re feeding a family and want leftovers for yourself, buy a 6 pounder.

Take it out of the package, give it a rinse and pat it dry. Cut the pork into 2-3 inch cubes. Drop them in your crock pot and mix it in with your base. Make sure it’s all good and coated.

Cost: $12 (pork shoulder runs about $2 a lb where I live)

Step three: Set it and forget it

Turn the crock pot on medium and set it to run for 8 hours. Don’t open the pork roast up. Just let it cook and enjoy the good smells.

Check Out Some Other Healthy Meal Prep Resources I’ve Written:

Loaded Mexican Rice

I’m going to make some loaded up Mexican rice or cilantro rice to go with your slow cooker carnitas or you can use later with a burrito bowl.

When the meat has about an hour left, go back to the kitchen.

Step one: Get out the following ingredients:

3 cups uncooked rice
1-2 cans of diced tomatoes (14.5oz can)
2 cans black beans
4 tbsp Olive oil
A LOT of Minced garlic (I’m talking like 3-4 tbsp)
2 Jalapenos (seeded & diced)
1 tbsp salt, cumin
2 tsp chili powder

Cost: $4-5

Step two: Cook your rice

Follow the instructions on your package. I usually rinse the rice really well and then add 2 cups of water per cup of rice to a pan. Get it boiling and then lower the heat and cook for 30 minutes or so depending on how much you’re making. If you something lower carb, you can use one of these healthy rice alternatives. Here’s a guide on how to make brown rice!

Step three: Everything else

Heat up the olive oil in a big pan. The biggest you have.
Add in the garlic & jalapenos until it’s fragrant.
Add the black beans and spices.
Pour in all the juice from the cans of tomatoes and then a few tbsp of water.

Get it boiling and continue slow cooking until most of the liquid is soaked up by the beans. Dump in the diced tomatoes and rice. Get it all good and mixed up.

Combine it all and eat!

Now you’ve got a whole pot of loaded rice and 6lbs of slow cooker pork carnitas.

You can stir it all up together if you want and enjoy with some corn tortillas or sour cream. Or you can just portion them out into meal prep containers.

You’ve got yourself a whole week’s worth of food for less than $20.

Total cost:

Meat + seasonings: $14
Loaded Mexican rice: $5

Servings: About 20 depending on how much you eat.

Here’s a full grocery list

Loaded Rice: $5

3 cups uncooked rice
1-2 cans of diced tomatoes (14.5oz can)
2 cans black beans
4 tbsp Olive oil
A LOT of Minced garlic or garlic powder (I’m talking like 3-4 tbsp)
2 Jalapenos (seeded & diced)
1 tbsp salt, cumin
2 tsp chili powder

Slow Cooker Carnitas $14

6lb shredded pork, shoulder/butt
1 tbsp salt, pepper,
2 tsp paprika, cumin, oregano, cayenne, garlic powder or salt.
3-4 bay leaves
Quarter cup of lime juice
Squeeze two oranges in (or 1.5 cups OJ)
2 onion (cut into big hunks)
2-3 cups water

Slow cooker carnitas and rice — Meal Prepify

Nathaniel Lee is an avid cook, drawing on his decades of home cooking and fine dining experience. He is a contributing chef at Mashed, and his recipes and contributions have been featured in Tasting Table, Edible Arrangements, Insanely Good Recipes, and The Daily Meal.