The Mexican Recipe I can't Stop Eating

If you've never had carnitas then you've been missing out big time. It is hands down one of my favorite tacos to order. However, when most folks make it at home they just put it in a slow cooker and miss out on so much flavor. Well, I'm going to try to bring your favorite Mexican restaurant right to your kitchen and use a few classic techniques to make sure we have insanely delicious pork carnitas. Let's start with the prep. Sound good? Let's cook. I've got two different cuts of pork here. A bone-in pork shoulder which weighs about three and a half pounds and a full rack of St. Louis spare ribs which weighs about two and a half pounds. Now what I want to do is cut these down a little bit to make them easier to cook. Beginning with the ribs, I'm going to slice them into three to four bone segments so that they easily fit in the pot. And for the pork shoulder, Now you could leave it bone in but this is a pretty big piece that I want to cut down to speed up the cooking process a little bit and when it comes to removing a bone from any piece of meat you want to use a boning knife or even a chef knife and you simply carve around the bone staying as close to it as possible to ensure you remove as much meat as possible. And now for this deboned pork shoulder I'm just going to cut it down to roughly one pound pieces Totally okay to eyeball it here. And for any leftover fat or bone, I'm just going to pop it in the freezer because, hey, pork stock, why not? And then just a quick wash to the cutting board with hot water and soap. And there are definitely some authentic recipes out there that use every part of the hog. I'm talking the hooves, the jowls, everything. And if you can get some of those parts, amazing. But I'd much rather you have the opportunity to make this. And the two cuts that I use here, ribs and pork shoulder, are almost always accessible to everybody. Even if you can just get pork shoulder, that would be great. Now, other two really common cuts are known as the pork loin head. And this cut comes from in between the neck and the back. The other one, It's the shoulder end of a pork loin. You know that side that's a little bit deeper red in color and has a little bit more fat on it? That is what you want. Now, lastly, a very traditional ingredient is pigskin, or better known as cuerito. Yep, I've been working on my pronunciation. You can probably really only find this from a local Latin supermarket. If you can't get it, no sweat. But if you've got it, I will show you what to do with it right before we cook it. All right, for now, let's season up our pork. Now at this stage, what I'm going to do is transfer the pork onto a rack over a sheet tray, and you know me, lined with parchment paper, and we want to generously season all sides with coarse salt. We'll probably use in between one and a half and two tablespoons total, but remember, this is a lot of pork here, and we want to make sure it is flavorful. And when seasoning, season high. Be about a foot away to cover as much surface area as possible. If you're too close to what you are seasoning. It can just clump up in one area and you'll miss out on the entire cut of protein being properly seasoned. And this pre-seasoning process, also known as dry brining, is going to allow the salt to penetrate deep down into the pork to ensure every bite is delicious while also drying out that surface area on top to make sure we get a beautiful Maillard crust. I'm placing it in the refrigerator uncovered. Now, you can do this for as little as four hours and all the way up to 48 hours. I prefer to do overnight, which is roughly 12 to 16 hours. And once you are ready to cook that pork, we're going to take it out of the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature just to take the chill off, which is only 20 to 30 minutes. You'll also notice how dried out the outside surface is of that pork. That is going to help to get that perfect brown crust. Now when it comes to cooking carnitas, traditionally it would be cooked in a large copper pot known as a cazo de cobre. Now if this pot was brand new, you would properly cure it or season it through a process of scrubbing it with salt, baking soda, and limes to make sure nothing sticks in it. Now these pots can be pricey and they have absolutely no impact on the overall dish. So any large pot like this one will absolutely do. And for me, I'm going to be using a large two and a half gallon Rondeau pot. Now I love these wide Rondeaus because they cover so much surface area. That way nothing gets buried towards the bottom. You could, of course, use a regular three gallon pot and it could be enameled, nonstick, cast iron or stainless steel just like this one. And because it is very classic to do so, we are going to be cooking this pork carnitas in pork lard. And you're going to need quite a bit of it. I have roughly four pounds. Now, because this is a shelf-stable item, you can actually purchase this through Amazon, or there's a good chance your local butcher will also sell this. And lard is just one of the many fats that I absolutely love to cook with, along with tallow, ghee, clarified butter, avocado oil, and olive oil. We're going to crank the heat to in between low medium and medium or until it reaches about 325 degrees Fahrenheit. And of course, I realize not everybody's going to purchase lard or even has access to it. There's only so much rendered bacon fat that you can keep around. However, you can absolutely use a neutral flavored oil. I would probably use avocado oil here if I didn't have lard. And during the cooking process, the pork will render its flavors and its fats into the oil making it extremely delicious. So don't sweat it if you don't have any lard. Remember earlier I mentioned pigskin or cuerito? Well I have two strips here that are roughly 12 inches by 6 inches that I picked up from my local Latin grocery store and this is a very classic ingredient to use in carnitas. Another popular dish cuerito is used in is something known as chicharron. Now what I like to do to soften it up and get rid of any impurities is just submerge it in water and about a tablespoon of coarse salt. I just mix it in and let it sit for one hour. And remember this ingredient is totally optional to this dish. Let's head back over to our Rondeau pot. You can see we're at that perfect 325 degrees Fahrenheit cooking temperature that I want. Let's start by adding in our pork shoulder cuts. These are bigger and they're going to take longer to cook. So we're going to add these right to the fat and we are We are going to cook them for 30 minutes. However, There's a little trick here. You have to come back every three to four minutes and move the pork around to ensure it is not sticking to the pot or to each other. I do this with tongs or even a wooden spoon. The goal is just to keep things moving every few minutes. Now the pork will immediately take the temperature of the lard from about 325 degrees Fahrenheit down to about 250, 275 without even adjusting the temperature. Now this is going to be the Perfect cooking range for these long, slow cooks in fact. We're essentially confiting the pork, so no worries, do not adjust any temperature. Now, I've actually only ever seen this recipe done live once, outside of, of course, me testing it before making it in this video. The guy's name was Juan, or we used to call him Juanito, and I worked with him at a restaurant in St. Louis, and he was from Michoacan. And when he made it, he made a ton of it because there were so many kitchen staff who wanted to try it. And upon researching it for this recipe, the style of Michoacan is famous and considered some of the best carnitas around. So after about 20 minutes of the pork shoulder cooking, you might notice that the bottom of the rondeau starts to turn a little bit brown. Guess what? That is fond. That is flavor. And just like in my other technique of moving protein around a pan to help brown it up, we're going to do the exact same thing with each of these pork shoulder cuts. Just take 15 to 20 seconds on each cut and move it around the bottom of the pan, sort of mopping up all that fond. Now the reason for doing this is to get a deeper, darker Maillard brown crust on there, which in return is just going to give us more flavor. Now after 30 total minutes of our pork shoulder cuts I'm now going to add in our ribs and we will cook these for a total of 30 minutes along with our pork shoulder while repeating that same process of constantly moving everything around every two to three maybe four minutes to ensure nothing is sticking and they're getting beautifully brown. So the total cooking time at this point has been 60 minutes. 60 total for the pork shoulder, 30 minutes total for the ribs. Now if you have cuerito, This is when you want to remove it from the water. Just take it out and let it air dry on some paper towels. Then I'm heading back to the cooktop. I've got a beautiful brown on everything. What I'm going to do is start to add in a few aromatics and seasonings to help make our pork carnitas that much more delicious. Starting with... One peeled and quartered yellow onion. You could also use a red, white, or sweet. Then eight to 10 whole garlic cloves. We're next going to squeeze in two oranges, and then we're just going to add those oranges right in there. Followed up with two limes, the exact same process. Squeeze in the juice and then add them to the pot. What we're trying to do is create more of a sour orange juice flavor. Now, if you want to skip the oranges and the limes, what you can do is purchase something known as naranja agria. This is already made sour orange juice, and you can absolutely pick this up at any local Latin grocery store. But if you ask me, I'm always going to opt for fresh ingredients when I can. And next, really quickly, and you can of course pre-prep this, I have a one square foot piece of cheesecloth. I'm adding in two tablespoons of dry oregano. Two tablespoons of dried thyme and then two bay leaves. I'm just going to wrap it up and firmly tie a double knot of butcher's twine and cut off any excess. We're going to add that right to the pot and then give it a generous season of coarse salt. Maybe about a tablespoon. This is a lot of liquid and it's just going to further help season it. Next up, and I love this, I'm going to add in a 14 ounce can of evaporated milk. You could also use whole milk if you'd like. We are going to stir this in there. Now the calcium in the milk will soften the protein in the pork by reacting with the enzymes. So this will essentially help further tenderize our pork. Then at this stage, again, if you have that pork skin or cuerito, we are going to add that right over the top of everything. And we are going to cook this for a total of 50 to 60 minutes while coming back every four to five minutes and moving everything around to ensure nothing is sticking. And everything is being perfectly cooked while becoming perfectly golden brown. And in the end, we want the pork to roughly read about 190 to 195 degrees Fahrenheit internally. You could go further to that 200, 205, like a pulled shredded smoked pork. That part is up to you, but traditionally it shouldn't completely fall apart on you. And this right here looks absolutely fantastic. Then what we're going to do is remove the pork from the lard and place it on a rack over a sheet tray just to get rid of a little bit of that fat. We're going to let it rest for about 10 minutes. And speaking of lard, yep, we've got a lot of it. Cool it to room temperature, strain it through a coffee filter, then be sure to label it lard, and it will be good for up to six weeks at room temperature. Again, it is shelf stable, and you could probably get three to four more deep fries out of it as long as it's not too dark. And you can also use it as a fat when cooking anything. And in Mexico, this is the most traditional fat. So cook it with your rice or your beans. But this, my friends, is gold. Do not waste it. Now this will obviously feed quite a few people and I don't know anyone who's ever made carnitas for two so when you do make it be sure to invite some family and friends so they can eat it too. Also a huge shout out to Victoria S from Highland who was such a wonderful gracious guide in helping me to make this my own while also holding fast to those traditions of Michoacan. In fact, you most likely will not have the same recipe twice if you ate it at different households in Mexico. That is the beauty of this dish. All right let me show you how to plate this up. Now you could use your hands to break up all the meat or you could chop it like I'm doing with a chef knife. Remember carnitas translates to tiny meats so the goal is bite-sized pieces. Now for the cuerito I'm also just gonna cut it down into bite-sized pieces and this has such a fun texture and flavor. Then once all the meat is prepped I'm going to squeeze on the juice of one lime then a quick season of coarse salt. I'm mixing everything together and of course I'm stealing a few bites because I just can't help myself and the perfect crunch from the maillard and the beautiful tenderness and flavor from the citrus and lactic acid makes this meat absolutely incredible. Now of course carnitas is super popular in tacos so I always like to double up warm corn tortilla shells. I've got an amazing homemade recipe if you want to check that out. Load it up with that carnitas pork. Then a very traditional topping is salsa verde. I also have an awesome quick recipe video that you can check out. Then some diced onion, chopped fresh cilantro, and a few limes, and this thing is perfect. You could additionally add on your favorite toppings like pickled jalapenos, pickled red onions, or even queso fresco. These are legit insanely good. Honestly, I'm not even sure I have the words for this. Simple preparation with some classic techniques thrown in, and you've got some dang tasty food. And if you just love tacos like we do, you have to check out my birria. The flavor, the consomme, the combo of lamb and beef. You have to make it. I've got an awesome recipe video. I'll see you on there.