Mexican Pulled Pork (Carnitas)
Ingredients
- 13-pound boneless pork shoulder/buttfat cap trimmed to 1/8 inch thick, cut into 2-inch chunks
- 2tablespoons coarse salt
- 1teaspoon black pepper
- 1teaspoon cuminground
- 1small onionpeeled and halved
- 2each bay leaves
- 1teaspoon oreganodried
- 1each limejuiced
- 2cups water
- 2each orangeshalved, and juiced
Yield:
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 ˚F degrees.
- Combine pork, salt, pepper, cumin, onion, bay leaves, oregano, lime juice, and water in Dutch oven (The liquid should come up about 1/2 the sides of the meat).
- Juice orange into medium bowl and remove any seeds (you should have about 1/3 cup juice).
- Add orange juice and the peels of the oranges. orange to pot.
- Bring mixture to simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
- Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until meat is soft and ALMOST falls apart when prodded with fork, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, flipping pieces of meat once during cooking.
- Remove pot from oven.
- Transfer pork to bowl; remove orange halves, onion, and bay leaves from cooking liquid and discard.
- Place pot over high heat and simmer liquid, stirring frequently, until thick and syrupy, 8 to 12 minutes.
- You should have about 1 cup reduced liquid.
- Using 2 forks, pull each piece of pork in half.
- Fold in reduced liquid; season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Spread pork in even layer on wire rack set inside half-sized sheet pan .
- Place baking sheet under broiler (salamander) until top of meat is well browned (but not charred) and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes.
- Using tongs, flip pieces of meat and continue to broil until top is well browned and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes longer.
- Serve immediately with warm tortillas and garnishes.
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