Slow Cooker Carnitas

A slow cooker is a must for any busy cook. You can't beat throwing some ingredients into a slow cooker before heading to work, and coming home to a great smelling apartment and dinner ready. I tend to use mine more in the fall and winter, but really it would be a good way to avoid spending time in the hot kitchen in the summer. I had some pork butt in the freezer so I decided to make carnitas, as it would be a great way to use up some of my tomatillo salsa that I made last week. By the way, the pork butt does not actually come from the pigs rear end, it's part of the shoulder. This is also another one of those dishes that doesn't photograph nearly as well as it tastes, the recipe is below.

Ingredients
2 lbs pork butt or pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
2 Tablespoons chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
2 teaspoons pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 onion, quartered
1 12 oz bottle of beer, only use beer you would drink, if you don't like to drink it you don't want it in your food
1-2 avocados, sliced
corn tortillas
tomatillo salsa
hot sauce (optional)
sour cream (optional)

Instructions
Place pork in slow cooker. Season pork with salt, pepper, oregano, and chipotle pepper, and place onion on top.  Take a couple sips of beer (I don't care that you're probably doing this in the morning before work, it will make your day go better) and then pour it into slow cooker.  Cook on low setting for 6-8 hours, until meat is tender and pulls apart easily. Shred pork with fork.

Warm tortillas; either by cooking on medium high heat on stove top for 3 minutes each side or by covering with a damp paper towel and heating them in the microwave for 1 minute. Assemble carnitas by placing shredded pork, avocado, and tomatillo salsa in tortilla.  Add hot sauce and/or sour cream if desired.

Enjoy!