Farm Girl Carnitas Recipe
Farm Girl Carnitas
How to feed a crowd, where everyone leaves happy.
I show my love through cooking for others. So if I wanna get a group of us together, it’s often, “Come over. Let’s eat tacos.” Everybody loves tacos. Without any extra work on your part, people can make them vegetarian by leaving off the meat. Or your guests can just not use the tortilla and eat fewer carbs. Serve them with corn tortillas, and poof, they are gluten-free. Whatever their diet, they can find a way to eat them.
One of my favorite meats to serve is pork shoulder. It’s cheap, you can buy a lot of it, and leftovers (if you have any) only get better. It freezes really well.
Ingredients
10 pounds pork shoulder | I like the flavor the bone adds, but you could also do boneless
Salt
Vegetable Oil
Water
6 oranges | I like to mix different varieties if possible
1 cinnamon stick | Even if you double this recipe, only ever use one stick, otherwise, it is overpowering
2 tablespoons chile powder | more or less depending on your preference for heat
2 tablespoons ancho chile powder
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 onion cut in half | keep skins on
1/2 head of garlic | smashed
Instructions
Step 1.
Rub your pork shoulder all over with a good amount of salt. Don’t be shy. Refrigerate for 1-3 days. If I can plan ahead, I really like the results of three days. It is worth it.
Step 2.
Cut up your pork shoulder into 4’’-5’’ cubes. Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be perfect. You are simply looking to cut it into large chunks. If you are using a bone-in shoulder, just do your best cutting large chunks around the bone, keep the bone with meat on it as one of your chunks.
Step 3.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Step 4.
Heat the oil in the bottom of your high walled roasting pan. Get the pan nice and hot. Sear your pork chunks deeply golden brown on each side. This takes longer than you would think. Don’t overcrowd the pan and don’t mess with the meat while it is searing. Just flip it to the next side and let it do its thing.
Step 5.
While the meat is searing, measure out all of your spices and put them into a bowl. Juice your oranges, save the juice off to the side. Fill up a large glass of water and put that also off to the side.
Step 6.
Once your pork is completely seared, make room in a corner of the pan and add your spices. Constantly stir them and don’t let them burn. They will combine with the fat in the bottom of the pan and make a paste. Continue stirring for a minute or so until the spices become very fragrant.
Step 7.
Pour in the orange juice. Be careful! It will splatter. Immediately afterward, pour in your water. Continue to add water until the meat is 3/4 submerged in liquid.
Step 8.
Braise until fall-apart tender. Usually 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Flip the meat over every 30 minutes.
Step 9.
Pull the pan from the oven and put on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Stir around to cook off the last of the liquid. Carefully to not shred the meat too much during this process. You still want it chunky. Once the liquid cooks off, the meat will begin to brown. I like the deep, dark, crispy parts, so I brown mine longer. Continue until your liking. Enjoy. Finger-licking good.
Serve With
Typically I have these items for people to choose from the build their tacos. But get creative. There are no wrong answers.
Seared and scorched poblano peppers and onions
red cabbage
cilantro
pickled red onions
radishes
creamy garlicky lime sour cream sauce
salsas
Tip
IF, you happen to have leftovers. The pork freezes really well. I usually bag up 2-pound servings, label them well, make sure they lay flat, and throw them in the freezer. Because I freeze them flat, the bag freezes in a thinner layer, and it defrosts quickly. Perfect for a quick Sunday morning breakfast skillet, or pulling together dinner last minute after a long day.
I now always make a double batch, and plan to send half of it to the freezer… though let me be honest, rarely does that much make it there…