MEMBER RECIPE
Carnitas Recipe
By EarlyBird
This is authentic carnitas (shredded Mexican pork) with lots of flavor and very little effort. Yes, it does take time but most of the time is in the cooking.
Use the pork roast with the bone, which provides extra depth of flavor. The trick is reducing the juices after you roast the meat and adding them back in at the last step.
I had this recently at a cook-out and we just couldn’t get enough. Be sure to have plenty of corn tortillas, chopped red onion, limes and cilantro to top off your taco. This is the real deal. It’s like you have the world’s best taco truck parked in your kitchen!
INGREDIENTS
- 1 4-5 lb. bone-in pork shoulder or Boston butt
- 2 large onions, peeled and quartered
- 4 stalks of celery, chopped coarsely
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed with the knife
- 2 bay leaves (use fresh ones if you can find them)
- 2 teaspoons fresh chopped thyme
- 1 teaspoon of salt, approximately
- 1/2 cup of whole milk
- enough water to cover roast, about 3 quarts
INSTRUCTIONS
- Rinse pork and put it in a 6 to 8 quart Dutch oven, or other pot with a tight fitting lid. You can do this in your crockpot if it’s big enough.
- Add onions, celery, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, salt and enough water to cover meat, about 3 quarts.
- Cover with a tight fitting lid and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce to low heat and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. You can also put it in the oven at about 225 degrees for the same amount of time. You want it tender enough to fall off the bone, but not to become mushy.
- Transfer cooked pork to a baking pan and reserve the cooking juices. Shred the pork by hand or with a fork, and lay it evenly across the pan. Discard bone and any large pieces of fat or skin.
- Pour the milk over the pork and roast it in the oven at 325 degrees until the drippings are browned, scraping pan occasionally.
- Meanwhile, strain the reserved juices through a strainer into a sauce pan, and discard solids. Skim and discard fat. Boil over medium high heat to reduce the liquid to about 2 cups. This will take about 45 minutes.
- When the pork/milk are starting to brown, add the reduced juices back to the meat, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring and breaking the meat into smaller pieces. Allow the meat to continue to brown, repeatedly adding the juices to the meat bit by bit until done, the drippings mostly evaporated, and the meat is browned and crispy. Salt at the end to taste.
- You can do all of this the day ahead, and just heat up the meat in a skillet before serving. Make small tacos out of the meat using corn tortillas and add chopped red onions, cilantro and plenty of lime juice.
Member recipes are not tested by the CHOW food team.
@SAguy: Thank you for bringing this up -- I totally agree with your assessment. I think the term "traditional" is bandied about way too much in the food world, making it very confusing for the novice cook.
So the oven temperature seems way off... I cranked the heat after three hours to 375 during the 3rd step. I also had a double batch in but it should not have doubled the baking time. I also increased the final roasting temperature to 375 and used my convection oven to achieve a very fine batch of moist and crispy mouth watering-ly yummy Carnitas. Thanks for the recipe!
Very good recipe, although i did make a few alterations. I did not add the milk and instead just salted the shredded meat. Delish!
Traditional Carnitas de puerco are large lumps of Pork deep fat fried in a copper kettle in pork lard till crisp and brown on the outside.
once the meat is cooked and rested then it is pushed apart as "pulling pork"
Other than this method you are having, Puerco assado, puerco guisado, puerco a la orno...The cooking method determins what to call the pork dish. Like the recipe above, that...+READ
Traditional Carnitas de puerco are large lumps of Pork deep fat fried in a copper kettle in pork lard till crisp and brown on the outside.
once the meat is cooked and rested then it is pushed apart as "pulling pork"
Other than this method you are having, Puerco assado, puerco guisado, puerco a la orno...The cooking method determins what to call the pork dish. Like the recipe above, that places the pork in a pressure cooker, that is more of a pueroc Guisado...or stewed pork.
The end result maybe the same, tender pork, but not all methods make the pork "Carnitas".-COLLAPSE
Here's an easier, faster way to make Carnitas and they're wonderful too. Use a pressure cooker.
Get 4 lbs (ask your butcher) pork cuttings or 80/20 mix of 80% meat and 20% fat, at least.
Salt & pepper to taste
Put the meat in the pressure cooker with 2 tbl water. Close the lid and bring it up to pressure. Once the valve begins to hiss, set the timer to 45 min. Once the timer goes off, release...+READ
Here's an easier, faster way to make Carnitas and they're wonderful too. Use a pressure cooker.
Get 4 lbs (ask your butcher) pork cuttings or 80/20 mix of 80% meat and 20% fat, at least.
Salt & pepper to taste
Put the meat in the pressure cooker with 2 tbl water. Close the lid and bring it up to pressure. Once the valve begins to hiss, set the timer to 45 min. Once the timer goes off, release the pressure, open the lid, you'll see the meat is still without color but starting to get tender. Turn the heat back on and boil your meat (should have a rolling boil) until it's browned. The meat juices will get thicker and combine with the fat in the meat and will give you the taste you're after. Check them often and taste, you'll know, it'll take about and hour or 1 1/2 hours. Do not salt until the meat is done (it will make it tougher to cook), add salt and pepper at the end.-COLLAPSE
I am of the opinion that the best part of carnitas is reducing the cooking liquid until all the water is boiled out and frying the cooked pork in the rendered fat. Not good for you but it tastes great