Hey guys!

I love going out and getting carnitas street tacos.

When their good the meat is juicy and almost buttery with the grease/juice.
Deliceous.

I see pork usually on sale cheap and want to get good at these!
If you got a good recipe or method please share!

Thanks guys!

guarantee its probably going to be a S&P , granulated garlic, ground cumin, and probably chili powder in the rub/ marinade, sometimes limes or lemons in the recipe to help breakdown the meat

What kind of meat do you think is best? Shoulder, ect.?

ok, carnitas, one of my absolute favorites.  I get an 8-9lb pork shoulder. and use the following recipe.

this stuff goes into the dutch oven or crockpot with the meat.
1 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, dized
5tsp salt
2ish tsp ground black pepper
8 cloves garlic, minced
juice of 3 oranges (yes really)

rub for the meat:
2tbsp oregano
4tsp ground cumin
6tbsp oive oil.

mix up the ingredients for the rub and coat all sides of the meat with it.

meat at this point can go into the crock put or dutch oven (I prefer cooking it in an enameled dutch oven) and you want it in there with the fat cap facing up.

put all the other ingredients into the dutch oven, you want about half of onions and garlic sitting on top of the fat cap, the other half at the bottom of the dutch oven.

cover and cook that sucker. with my dutch oven and on my stove I let it go about 8-8.5 hours on medium low.  you want the meat to be falling apart tender, it should take almost no effort to shred the meat, if it's that tender, you're there. the last step it to grab a skillet and toss some of the pork in there with a little oil. let is brown on the bottom a little then toss it a bit, you want some crispy ends but also some buttery smooth and soft meat.I also usually add a small splash of the drippings from the dutch oven to the skillet.

speaking of, all that delicious left over liquid in the dutch oven can be thickened with some cornstarch or a roux and makes a kickass sauce to go on tacos.

This is the recipe I use.  



I do them in the crock pot instead of the oven, then I crisp them up under the broiler.  Sooooo gooooood!!!

ETA:  Forgot to mention I leave out the cinnamon.  I feel like even a tiny bit is too much.

Look up Hawaiian pork tacos

Some recipes call for a crock pot. That's fine in a pinch, otherwise you can smoke the shoulder then let it soak in the juice. Or do a hybrid smoke initially then finish in the crock pot. That will give you a smoky flavor and tender meat without having to tend to the grill all day

We did a recipe this weekend very similar to what hawaiinate posted and it turned out really good.  I went one step further and added a pineapple salsa to go with it.  I used red onions instead of white for the salsa though.

Salsa

Thanks everyone! Im gonna try these recipes out in the next week. I will post a dinner pic here after.

A friend of mine makes the best.

Alberto’s Carnitas:

Here are the basic ingredients.If you google Pernil Asado you get a crap ton of different recipes, which I’ve tried a few, but I always go back to my old faithful.   Here’s what I used on mines that I’ve been using for as long as I’ve been cooking that recipe.  

Pork shoulder/Boston butt would also work.   ~10-12lbs.  
Olive Oil  = Just enough to mash it with the garlic around ¼ cup or ½ cup depending on the size of the shoulder.
½  half head of garlic or  around 6-8 cloves of garlic.  I like enough garlic to send Dracula away for a while, but that’s your decision, the garlic really tones down once it cooks with the meat and gives it that kick ass flavor.
Peppercorns and or black pepper
Adobo (Goya brand) – Since I used both peppercorns and some ground black pepper I used the one without black pepper.
http://www.goya.com/english/product_subcategory/Condiments/Adobo
¼ cup of dried oregano.

There is not specific  math or amounts on how much  seasoning should be used, but it should be evenly coated when done.      I take the olive oil and the garlic and I mash it together in a mortar and make it a paste ,  I poke holes in the shoulder and rub it with this oil / garlic paste until is evenly coated, add the dried oregano,  the adobo, and peppercorns and black pepper to your taste.The trick is that once you have rubbed the meat, just put it in the fridge for 24 hours and let it sit.

For baking this all depends on the size of the shoulder you use.  But  4hrs to 4 ½ hours at 300 degrees covered with foil,  towards the end, remove cover and increase the temp to 400, for 15-20 minutes,  to make the skin crispy( if you went with a pork shoulder that has the skin on top).    

The trick on it is just let it marinate for 24 hours prior if at all possible

I have a feeling that this ^ is AMAZING! This too shallst be tried in the kitchen of beaucoup. Without doubt. I think a 12 pounder could produce a weeks worth!

The secret is frying the meat in rendered pork lard at a very low temperature and stirring constantly.

Otherwise it is just braised pork (also delicious but not the same).

Thats intetesting!
Is that why really good carnitas taste so juicy and buttery with flavor?

I have a cousin who makes them on special occasions.  Makes them in large quantities in a big vat like you'd see in a Mexican grocery store.  My favorite are the ribs, "cueritos" (braised pork skin), and, believe it or not, "buche" (braised pork stomach).  Delicious!!!!

I've tried this place when I visited L.A.  Good stuff.

8 Types of Carnitas

I get the sirloin roast packs at winco for $1.48lb. And my recipe is as follows.

cut roasts into fist sized chunks. Dust in large bowl with

chili powder
cumin
garlic powder
onion powder
salt n pepper

let sit in fridge an hour or so

in large (3+gal) stock pot, add 3-4lbs snow cap lard (Sold in 1lb bricks, 4lb buckets at our local stores. Winco has best price usually.

put on med high.

to the lard add 5 smashed garlic cloves, and 2 quartered limes.

when its a liquid add your pork. Bring it up to a med simmer, then reduce to the lowest simmer you can get and cover. Simmer on low for 4 hours, stirring gently every so often to prevent bottom burn.

remove from pot with slotted spoon, and cool a bit. Chunk by hand.

I also add fresh lime juice, cumin, chili powder, salt n pepper to taste. Just enough to give it a little extra depth.

la tumba todo makes a great tortilla.

the recipe



the science behind the recipe


You should give el pastor a try though. It's super easy and really delcious

FIFY

Logan45,

I did this yesterday and it turned out great.  Thanks for posting the recipe!

You're welcome.  Glad you liked it.

Do shredded pork in the crock pot. Then you fry it. Season it with whatever floats your boat. I use a spice blend sold by a company called spices, inc, that I buy all of my dried peppers from. Their Mexican spice blends taste great (I think they have ancho, chipotle, garlic, onion, mexican orgegano, cumin and a few other powders in the mixes). I usually rub the roast all over with olive oil and the seasoning. Then I add more of the seasoning as I fry it. Makes for great tacos, and is pretty hard to mess up. 

I finally figured out how to prepare store bought corn tortillas so that they don't fall apart. I put a cast iron comal at medium high heat, put the tortillas on one at a time, heating it ten seconds per side, and then I let them steam for 5 minutes wrapped in foil. 

ETA: You can do it for beef and chicken too. 

I've read that the secret to authentic carnitas street tacos is Coke. Mexican Coke.
The sugar caramelizes along with the sugars in lime and orange juices used in some recipes.

There is a ton of recipes on Google.
In any case, my mouth is watering and I'm off to the store later for a pork shoulder.

Used the confit method today.

Fuuuuuuucking delicious.

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What is the confit method

The method retroangles described.  Low temp oil frying.

True carnitas are fried in Manteca (lard) then slow stewed with Coca Cola, milk and oranges in a copper kettle. I cut up a pork shoulder, cover in a half/half mixture of Adobo seasoning and fajita seasoning, fry them until golden brown in lard, then put into a slow cooker with one bottle of Mexican beer, a whole white onion thinly sliced, three jalapeños quartered or halved, two oranges quartered with juice squeezed into the crock pot and then put in peel and all. Cook for 8 hours on low pull out and shred into a glass dish, strain liquid and put into dish with the pork and put under the broiler to crisp it up slightly.

Tried this... while I like the method and the science behind it (it yielded the PERFECT texture), something just wasn't quite right with the recipe/taste compared to my local Mexican joint. I'm not sure which is more "authentic" but I definitely prefer that of my local Mexican joint.

That being said, I like a punch of flavor, and these seemed a bit bland. It seemed the spices/ingredients were pushed to the wayside to let the pork shine, and it left the spices a bit lacking?? Just conjecture on my part. I will definitely use the method there, I will likely try a different recipe next time though...

I cheat.

Smoked pork butt left overs shredded.  Wet with mojito sauce.  Heat up and pig out.

I've played with recipe over the last year and definitely change some things up. I mix more cumin and paprika in with it, and toast them all in a skillet with dried chiles. then a lot of times use duck fat if it's available, instead of the vegetable oil they recommend.

Boston butt works well and shreds well after smoking. You can add BBQ sauce to some of it too.

For tacos chopped green chilis and chili powder in the meat sets it off.

I still prefer lingua in my tacos.

Being local, go to Winco, and buy pork carnitas meat. (It's labeled as such and wrapped in cellophane on Styrofoam trays.)  Cheap!  We cook in a crockpot, so buy the crockpot liners while you're there.  Also, a small bottle of orange juice, along with the real oranges, limes & onions.  Follow this recipe.  Cook on low, take meat out and shred it, toss back into the juices.  Also, the left overs freeze really well in a ziplock bag.  https://damndelicious.net/2014/10/10/slow-cooker-pork-carnitas/ .  Add or alter any pepper flavoring to suit your tastes.  If you have time, by all means broil it, normally we are too impatient.