These crispy delicious pork carnitas are made in the Ninja Foodi in less than 1 hour. Pressure cook them to tender and crisp them up all in one device.
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The full recipe with ingredients/instructions is available on the recipe card at the bottom of the post. Important tips/tricks are also included in the blog post.
I recently became the owner of a Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker with Air Crisper. What’s that you ask? It’s a magical device that Ninja has bestowed upon us. It’s a pressure cooker. It’s an air fryer. It’s a pressure cooker and an air fryer all combined in one device.
I’ll be doing a full and thorough review on the Ninja Foodie soon. Until then, I’ve been testing it out on different recipes to see if it really works as expected.
- Chicken Wings from frozen
- Chicken pot pie
- A whole roasted chicken (twice)
- And this pork carnita recipe
All of these have turned out wonderful. I wanted to go ahead and post this pork carnita recipe as it was one of my main determining factors of making the purchase.
I was in the market for a second pressure cooker and this one caught my eye. I love cooking meats in my pressure cooker but sometimes I want that extra crisp. I could always use my pressure cooker and then place my meat in the air fryer or oven...but if I can get it all done in one place, then why not.
Will the Ninja Foodi replace my Instant Pot and Air Fryer?
For me personally, it won't...but it's staying for sure. I'm not in love with the Air Fryer basket on the Ninja Foodi as there is no long handle.
I wanted two pressure cookers anyway and my Instant Pot does a mighty good job on pressure cooking, so I'll keep it too.
Ninja Foodi Pork Carnita Recipe
Of all the recipes I’ve made thus far, this is already one of my favorites. I love making shredded pork for multiple uses...tacos, burritos, rice bowl, sandwiches, etc.
I usually make it in a slow cooker or my pressure cooker but I always have to transfer the pork to the oven to really get it crisp. That’s an entire day of cooking...which I don’t have much time for.
This Ninja Foodi method allowed me to get it all done in less than an hour.
Here’s the video of me making this recipe in full. I’ll be making some more Ninja Foodi recipes to share as well. As always, Enjoy 🙂
Looking for more Ninja Foodi Recipes? Try these out:
Looking for more Air Fryer Pork Recipes? Try these out:
Air Fryer Mustard Glazed Pork Tenderloin
Air Fried Japanese Tonkatsu (Air Fried Boneless Pork Chops)
These Carnitas are great with this Homemade Salsa Recipe.
Pin Ninja Foodi Recipe: Pork Carnitas for Later
Ninja Foodi Recipe: Crispy Pork Carnitas
Ingredients
Instructions
- Place pork, salt, oregano, and cumin in Ninja Foodi pressure cook insert. Combine making sure the seasonings are covering the pork.
- Take the orange and squeeze the juices over the pork. Put the squeezed orange in the insert, along with the onion, garlic cloves, and ½ cup chicken broth.
- Cover the Ninja Foodi with the pressure cooker cover, ensuring the valve is set to seal. Set the Ninja Foodi to High Pressure and cook for 20 minutes.
- Once the 20 minute timer is complete, do a quick release by switching the valve to vent. Once all the pressure is released, open the lid and remove the orange, onion, and garlic cloves.
- Set the Ninja Foodi to satué and select md:hi. The liquid will begin to simmer. Allow the liquid to cook until it reduces, about 10-15 minutes.
- Once the majority of the liquid has reduced, press stop on the Ninja Foodi and then close the Ninja Foodi Air Crisp lid.
- Select Broil and adjust the time to 8 minutes.
- Once complete, use the crispy delicious meat in tacos, bowls, sandwiches, wraps, etc. Top with cilantro or any of your favorite toppings.
Liz says
Excellent recipe! This was one of the first recipes I tried with my foodi. Followed to a "T" first go around and it was very good. Second time, I made with 6lbs of pork. I did cut back on the cumin because we aren't big fans of cumin. The 6 lbs took a little longer to crisp, but that's it. One of our favorites...and my husband isn't a big pork eater.
Tanya says
That's so awesome! and yes, making more is a great idea for meal prep and freezing 🙂
Bryan Hughes says
This was great, but I changed it a little. I added a tsp of chili powder. 1/8 tsp of chipotle powder and a 1/2 tsp of onion powder. Then I put all of the other ingredients, but instead of chicken broth I added 1/2 cup of pineapple juice with 1 tsp of better than bouillon. Then through pineapple slices. I followed the cook time. Then removed everything but the pork. Cooked the liquid down until almost gone. Then chopped up the pineapple and onion and through that about back in the pot. Followed the broil instructions. It was amazing. It tasted like my favorite El Pastor at my favorite street vendor in Cabo San Lucas.
Tanya says
Yummy! I love how you modified it too! Thanks for leaving the comment, I'm going to try it your way next time 🙂
Sara says
These carnitas were delicious! Thank you!
Andrea says
Wow, this was amazing!
Andrew says
Did you have to add any liquid for the pressure cooking portion?
Tanya says
Hi Andrew, I only added the 1/2 cup chicken broth and the juice from the orange. The Ninja Foodi only needs about half a cup of liquid to come to pressure. The pork and onions also release extra liquid during the pressure cooking cycle as well.
Wendy says
I'm in Pork Carnitas Heaven! That was amazing!
Chelsea Fowler says
I had to leave a comment. This was fantastic!!! I too was a little scared this would be bland with the small amount of ingredients, but boy was I wrong! It is perfect. I had some leftovers and cooked it up with my eggs this morning. Super yummy.
Courtney says
Do you think this recipe could be doubled? Or would it be better to do two batches? Just got my Foodi for Christmas and want to make tacos for NYE! Thanks k you!
Tanya says
I think the recipe could be doubled. Just keep the same time when pressurizing. When crisping you may need to stir it halfway to make sure all the meat gets equally crisp.
Taryn says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I received a Foodie for Christmas, and this recipe was my first to try out. After crisping the meat, I removed it and cooked a cup of rice in the remaining broth with some new chicken broth mixed in. It paired nicely with the tasty meat. My family and I loved this meal, and I will be making this again!
Tanya says
Yay, welcome to the Foodi club and I'm so glad you enjoyed this recipe. I love your idea of using some of the leftover broth for rice. I'll be doing that next time I make this. Thank you for the awesome idea!
Piriya T says
So I made this last night and oh my gosh this is soooo good! We honestly didn't even eat it with any tortillas or anything. Just the pork as is straight out of the pot. The flavors are so tasty from the pork itself. I will admit at first I was worried with the simple seasonings you had listed but I followed it straight through and it was perfect. When I had purchased my pork from the store, I wasn't able to get just 2 pounds. Mine came in one big butt of 8 pounds. So I just cut it down to roughly 2. I added a little more than 2 cups of broth because I had some leftover and just wanted to use it all. When it came time to saute/sear, I had quite a bit of broth left so I just let it saute for probably another 10 minutes. It worked out really well and made the meat even more tender. Then when we air crisped, it came out beautifully. My boyfriend enjoyed it so much that he requested I mixed it up more and crisped it even more. This recipe is definitely staying with me. I'm actually making more of this recipe right now since I have 6 more pounds of pork! Thank you for sharing this recipe!!!
P.S. I agree with above reviewer. I'm loving my Ninja Foodi more and more when I find recipes like this.
Kim says
Ok it turned out delicious on our end!
Thank you for sharing!
Rayco Kornegay says
Can this recipe be done with a frozen pork butt whole roast.
Jasmine says
Thanks, these came out perfect. It makes me love my Ninja Foodi even more!
Tanya says
It’s raw pork.
Melody says
It would be helpful to know if the port is suppose to be frozen, raw or cooked.
Tanya says
It’s raw pork.
Krista says
I think she means 'thawed' or frozen.