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Carnitas
Posted by Chyrel at recipegoldmine.com 6/25/02 1:12:52 pm
Carnitas is a very famous Mexican dish. It consists of braised pork and can be eaten by itself (and tortillas, a chili sauce) or as the filling in tamales, tacos and burritos (yuk). The pork is first simmered for a long time to make it really soft and then braised in the oven to make it crispy. Since the recipe is very simple and does not involve any chili sauces everyone likes carnitas. You can add the heat on your own as you eat it.
2 (16 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 (4 pound) boneless pork shoulder
1 tablespoon chopped coriander (cilantro)
1 tablespoon cumin (comino)
Corn tortillas
2 bay leaves
1 onion, quartered
Chili sauce, such as Pico de gallo, chipotle or whatever you like
Pre-cooking: Cut the pork meat in chunks and discard big pieces of fat, leave some fat as it adds to the flavor. Chop the cilantro if you need to.
Cooking: Set tall frying pan over mid-high heat. Add the pork, cilantro, cumin, onion and broth. If necessary, add water so that the meat is covered. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3-4 hours or until the meat is very soft and pulls apart easily. Remove the meat and place it in a roasting pan, discarding the onion and broth, break apart the meat in smaller chunks. Bake for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees F, until the meat is brown and crispy.
Heat the tortillas and enjoy, you can serve it with your favorite chili sauce, chopped onions and cilantro.
Tips:
A pressure cooker really helps here. If you like making dishes like this one often you should consider the pressure cooker. It will cut cooking time to a half hour.
Heating tortillas on a microwave: To heat tortillas you can wrap them in a kitchen towel and put them inside a container. Microwave 15 seconds per tortilla.
Carnitas
This is one thing you can do with extra pork roast. Serve with warmed flour tortillas, more lime juice and finely chopped avocado.
2 to 3 cups cooked pork roast pieces
At least 1/2 cup chopped scallions
Juice of 1 Mexican lime
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
Salt and pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine all ingredients in a roasting pan coated with nonstick spray. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes on highest rack in oven. Then turn on broiler and broil about 5 minutes to desired shade of brown.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
