Marisabel's family recipe for carnitas. Looking to the web for measurments beyond "make a small cup with your hand..." she discovered David Lebovitz's recipe to be very close to what she had been verbally told. The below represents her version, including her mom's additions, having used meausrments helped along by his recipe.
Prep Time30mins
Cook Time3hrs30mins
CourseBrunch, Dinner, Entree
CuisineMexican
Keywordcarnitas, pulled pork, tacos
Servings12
AuthorMarisabel
Ingredients
5lbsboneless pork shoulder, cut into 4" chunks trimmed of excess fat(but not all of it, you want it to stay a bit moist)
1-1 1/2tbspcoarse sea salt
2tbspneutral vegetable oil
1cupbroth(chicken is fine, I've used vegetable broth in a pinch)
1cinnamon stick(3-4 inches)
3tspcumin(we love cumin so we tend to up this flavor)
1 1/2tspchile powder(some chile powders can be spicy, mine tends to be so I use less when it's just the kids and I)
1 1/2 tspancho chile powder
1largebay leaf(or 2 smaller ones)
3-4cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly sliced
1/4of an orange(or 1/4 cup orange juice)
To Serve
tortillaspreferably homemade
salsa verdepreferably homemade
finely sliced iceberg lettuce
shredded cotija cheese
radishes sliced into matchsticks
Instructions
Prepare the Chef!
Press play on our "Carnitas, Cumbias & Craft Beer" Spotify playlist! A noted in the full post, music is an important ingredient and also aids in getting the chef in the correct emotional state, less any negative energies spoil the taste of the food.
Pick your poison. Perhaps a “una tequilita,” (a shot of tequilla), some strong coffee, or craft beer, like Marisabel would have?
Prepare the Carnitas
Chop to size, trim excess fat (if needed) and generously salt pork pieces.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat oil in a roasting pan or deep dish oven proof cast iron skillet (with lid). Brown the pieces of pork in a single layer, on medium/high turning them as little as possible. You want them to be nicely browned on each side. Cook in batches if needed, don't crowd them.
Remove pork from the pot once nicely browned. Blot away any excess oil/fat and pour in a cup of broth, scraping down the pan to release the brown bits.
Turn off heat. Add the cinnamon stick, chile powder, cumin, ancho, bay leaf, garlic and squeeze the orange quarter or add the orange juice into the pan, place the pork back into the pot in one single layer if possible, add enough water to submerge them about 2/3 of the way.
Braise in the oven for 3 hours. (You can also leave it on the stovetop and simmer for 3 hours if needed with the lid on). Turn the pork a few times during coking until there's less than 1/2 cup of liquid. After about 3 hours, check your pork for tenderness/meat is falling apart (may be less depending on how small you cut your pork pieces) remove the pork from the pot onto a dish to cool.
Don't discard the liquid in the pan- set aside.
After pork has cooled, shred them into bite size pieces, discarding any big pieces of fat. I've used a couple forks before but my mom says your clean hands are the best and quickest tools in the kitchen for this job.
Return the pork pieces back into the roasting pan and cook in the oven for a bit longer until the remaining liquid has evaporated. 30min-1hr. This is by preference. Some recipes will say to evaporate until the pork is crispy and caramelized...but we like our carnitas partially caramelized- we leave just a trace of liquid.
I find that if you turn the shredded pork minimally (maybe twice) then some of the top pieces become caramelized while the inside stays moist.
If you're making tacos that night, I'd prep all the things you need for this while the shredded pork is finishing off. We love our tacos simple and flavorful (stovetop heated corn tortillas, freshly made salsa verde, finely sliced iceberg lettuce, and shredded cotija cheese...sometimes finely diced radish).
Notes
Marisabel's notes:"A few years ago I searched the web for a solid carnitas recipe and found David Lebovitz's recipe was strikingly similar to the one my mom verbally told me. The ingredients are mostly similar with my mom's addition of broth, and orange. And since I feel I'm still learning, I appreciate when there are specific measurements instead of my mom's "create a cup with your hand..." or "a pinch of this..." when her pinches are more like tablespoons. So here's my adapted version with my mom's small additions." Megs' NotesWe had to make some adjustments starting w/ my accidental meat order, but it was TOO good so I'm noting it for next time for us, and so that you can learn from my mistakes.
I ended up with 6 lbs of bone-in (accidental order), but it turned out so well I'd do this again. I also left a fair amount of fat on the pork and yet never had to remove any later in the process. To accommodate the extra meat, I upped the other ingredients a tad. It was so good, and we were so happy to have that quantity, that I will always get that much from now on!
Spices: Our chili powder is from India and is extra potent so i decreased that and added more of the others.
Clementines worked great in place of orange juice.
I started in a dutch oven, where I had browned the pieces in batches. Partly this was to get the flavor off the pan, and partly its cuz 6 lbs of meat plus everything else didn't fit in my largest roasting pan! I do think that things moved faster in the roasting pan due to the increased surface area, so maybe it's time to ask Santa for a large roasting pan.
Never had to do step 8! Just when I was expecting to take it out due to the amount of liquid left, i noticed that it was already breaking up small. Not sure what letting it cool, breaking up and then recooking does except make it it a more manageable temperature for breaking up by fingers. It certainly didn't taste like we missed anything by skipping the cooling part, but...