Pork Carnitas
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: South American
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 3 pound pork shoulder
  • ½ white onion (quartered)
  • 1 medium orange (quartered)
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 cinnamon stick (cut into 3 pieces)
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 275°F.
  2. Remove skin from pork shoulder, setting aside for later use, then cut the pork into 2 inch cubes, and season with 1 tablespoon of salt.
  3. Add pork into a dutch oven, packing tightly, so there are no spaces between the pieces of pork.
  4. Squeeze orange quarters over pork, and add the oranges pieces to the dutch oven, proceed to fill the dutch oven with the white onion, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick.
  5. Pour vegetable oil into dutch oven, there should be enough to cover the pork, if necessary add a bit more vegetable oil.
  6. If you have a piece of pork skin leftover, place it over top of all the ingredients, and place the lid on the dutch oven.
  7. Place in oven, cooking about 3.5 hours until pork is cooked through and tender enough to easily shred with a fork.
  8. Once the pork has cooked, remove it from the dutch oven, straining off any excess oil.
  9. Place in a large bowl, and shred with two forks, seasoning to taste with salt & pepper.
  10. Strain the rest of the oil and drippings into a large enough measuring cup or bowl, and allow the fat to separate from the drippings.
  11. Once the fat has risen to the top, remove it from the surface with a flat spoon.
  12. If the pork ends up being a touch dry, you can add a few spoonfuls of the fat to the shredded pork before broiling.
  13. With the fat and liquid from the pork separated, save 1 cup of the liquid portion for the salsa verde (recipe link below), if you don't have 1 cup of the drippings, supplement the rest with water.
  14. Before serving the pork, spread it on a large pan or casserole dish, and broil in the oven on high, about 5-6 minutes, allowing the edges of the pork to crisp up. Remove the pork from the oven, mixing around, and placing back in for another 5-6 minutes to crisp some more.
  15. If not serving immediately, cover with foil to keep warm.
  16. You can also make the pork in advance, storing in the fridge, and following the broiling process above to reheat and crisp up the pork before serving.
Recipe by The Adventures of Bob & Shan at https://theadventuresofbobandshan.com/pork-carnitas/