Michoacán Style Carnitas

[mvscal]

The basic premise is to braise pork shoulder low and slow in lard until it is fork tender, remove it, crank the temperature on the fat and briefly deep fry the chunks of pork. The ideal is a cripsy outside with a moist, tender center and then shredded.

3 lbs pork shoulder
3 lbs lard
~1/4 cup fresh lime juice
salt

Cut the pork into largish chunks, generously salt and marinate in the lime juice for 1-2 hours or so.



Heat the lard in an enameled casserole on medium heat. Use a candy thermometer (they're dirt cheap and in any grocery store) to monitor temp.



When it gets to 275, add the pork carefully and make sure it is completely covered. If it isn't, I suppose you could top it off with vegetable oil but that isn't optimal. Stabilize the temp at 200 and simmer for ~ 2 hours.




Remove the pork and raise the fat temp to ~350. Carefully lower the pork into the fat with a metal, slotted spoon or wire basket piece by piece. Fry for about 1 minute. Slabs of fat might pop off from the meat. Scoop those out and set aside. Fry em up good after you finish the meat and add them to the mix.



Shred the pork and season with salt if necessary then serve with warm corn tortillas. The traditional taco is just diced white onion, chopped cilantro and hot sauce. I used a fresh tomato salsa instead. This is good poverty food. Everything below costs less than $20 and will serve 4-6.

[Dinsdale]

Throw some cilantro in while you're simmering it, too.

Hard to go too heavy on cilantro in carnitas.

[Mikey]

Looks good.

Or, you can just buy it over the counter from the hot foods section at the Northgate Market.

Maybe not as cheap or as awesome as doing it yourself but damn good and you can still feed a small army for $20.00. Plus, with all the time you save you can go out and mow your own lawn and pick your own avocados.

Not a very good video, but this is the definite go-to place for semi-do-it-yourself Mexi food. Variety of meats is about twice what you will find in most anglo supermarkets, plus the selection of prepared stuff is amazing - carnitas, asada, adobada, barbacoa, chicharones, etc., etc.

[trev]

Did you get a new pot?

I've bought lard or cooked in lard. Does this dish have a gazillion grams of fat?

[mvscal]

No, I've had that casserole for a few years now.

As far as having a gazillion grams of fat, I would say not. It's just pork, salsa of some kind (salsa verde is also great with pork) and corn tortillas. Unless you're planning on loading it into a huge flour tortilla with a shit ton of sour cream and cheese, I wouldn't worry about it. It's good, clean fuel. I don't feel bloated or lethargic at all after eating this.

[Dinsdale]

You can make the same carnitas recipe using water instead of lard, but it's just not the same.

But I've been served some water-simmered carnitas that was pretty darn good.

[mvscal]

Evidently you don't even need water. I almost used this technique. I'll probably try it in the future. It's an interesting article and goes into some of the science behind the superiority of fat as a braising medium for this dish. He just covers it in veg oil, tightly wraps it in foil and then puts it in the oven and counts on the fat that renders out to braise and then broils the shreded pork to get the crispies. I'd use bacon grease myself with this technique not veg oil and I totally disagree with his seasoning. Carnitas should be pork and salt period, full stop. Feel free to spice up the salsa all you like, but the pork should be basic and really doesn't need anything else.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/07/the- ... -lard.html

He's got a lot of good stuff on his blog. Definitely worth a read.

[Truman]

You can make the same carnitas recipe using water instead of lard, but it's just not the same.

But I've been served some water-simmered carnitas that was pretty darn good.

This. Pork shoulder in water-to-cover. Cool, pull, brown, then simmer in red chile sauce. Carnita broth works great mixed with masa and a bit of lard for tamales.