Best food ever department, 2 ways!
I love carnitas, it’s in my favorite food department. It’s good all the time. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. On tortillas, on a salad, with eggs, with pasta, mixed in Velveeta (God forgive me) and melted, with salsa, make burritos, enchiladas, the list goes on. Carnitas are the bomb. Period.
Carnitas are basically Mexican pulled pork. Slowly braised pork in a beer and citrus and pulled apart and cooked at a high temp to make crispy outer layer. Delish.
It takes a few hours to cook but it’s a one pot dish so it’s easy to make in a crock pot or a Dutch oven and finish in the broiler. So channel your inner Mexican grandmother and make a pot of Carnitas this weekend. There is a good chance that the 5 pounds of meat will be gone by the end of the weekend!
- 1 5-6 pound pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- rind from 2 oranges, zested
- 2 jalapeno peppers chopped
- 3 tsp salt
- 2 tsp pepper
- 1 tbs cumin
- 2 tsp corriander
- 1 Mexican amber beer (I use Dos Equis)
- 1 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 cups chicken broth (preferably homemade)
- Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees.
- In a large Dutch oven, heat olive oil. Add onions and cook on medium heat until translucent about 5 minutes. Add garlic, orange rind, jalapenos and pork.
- Add beer, orange juice and chicken broth. Meat should be covered, if not add a little more chicken broth.
- Stir in salt, pepper, cumin and coriander and bring to a boil.
- Cover and put in the pre-heated oven and braise for approximately 3 hours or until pork can be easily pulled apart.
- Remove from oven, remove lid and put back on stove on medium heat cook carnitas until the liquid has evaporated.
- Turn your broiler on high and line a cookie sheet with tin foil.
- In small batches brown meat turning for even browning until its a little crispy but not dried out.