Friends, I present to you the easiest recipe EVAH.
We're talking 4 ingredients and a couple of steps resulting in piles of tender shredded pork that is so flavorful and delicious that you'll find yourself eating bites of it straight out of the fridge at 1am when you get up for a glass of water.
Not that I'd know...
Carnitas are a staple to Tex Mex cuisine. It's simply pork that is slow roasted or braised. You can find it served up in tacos, enchiladas, burritos, taco salads, burrito bowls, you name it!
This recipe has been fail-proof for me. I've blogged about it before and have made it several times since. It's super easy and yields fantastic results.
You take a relatively cheap and fatty piece of pork and simmer it in water and orange juice until all the liquid cooks off. Then you raise the heat and let the fat render itself. You end up with lean, tender, and slightly crispy and caramelized pieces of pork just begging to be stuffed into a flour tortilla.
This is the perfect Sunday afternoon meal! Throw it on your stove and just let it do it's thing until dinner time.
Carnitas
3 pounds of pork butt, with plenty of fat
1 cup of orange juice
3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of salt
Cut pork into strips (three inches by one inch) and add it to a large pot with the liquids and salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered on low for 2 hours. Do not touch the meat.
After two hours, turn heat up to medium high, and continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the pork fat has rendered (about 45 minutes). Stir a few times, to keep it from sticking to the bottom of pan.
When the pork has browned on both sides, it’s ready (there will be liquid fat in the pan). Serve either cubed or shredded (pork will be tender enough that just touching it will cause it to fall apart).
1 cup of orange juice
3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of salt
Cut pork into strips (three inches by one inch) and add it to a large pot with the liquids and salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered on low for 2 hours. Do not touch the meat.
After two hours, turn heat up to medium high, and continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the pork fat has rendered (about 45 minutes). Stir a few times, to keep it from sticking to the bottom of pan.
When the pork has browned on both sides, it’s ready (there will be liquid fat in the pan). Serve either cubed or shredded (pork will be tender enough that just touching it will cause it to fall apart).
Source: Homesick Texan
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Y.U.M.
ReplyDeleteI concur!
DeleteLove, love, love carnitas! And Matt loves them now too (can you believe he'd never eaten carnitas before we met??). I've got to try Lisa's method, it sounds amazing. I've made them in the slow cooker before, and while it tastes fantastic, I think it should more accurately be entitled something like slow cooked pulled pork tacos, because the fat never really engulfs them.
ReplyDeleteI've also tried a method where you braise the pork shoulder in lard - like, no water, just lard. It may have been really authentic Mexican, but it was almost too much. I mean, yes, fat equals flavor, but there can be too much fat taste in something.
Yes, try it! They are so good. Like, I'm dreaming about these carnitas good. I agree that crockpot carnitas turn into pulled pork. I like my carnitas to be browned, caramelized, and sorta crispy. And salty!
DeleteI love carnitas, and I'll have to try your version with OJ. I love how easy it is! Thanks so much for sharing this at Saturday Night Fever!
ReplyDelete