Authentic Pork Carnitas, Mexican Night at the Rellenos House

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chilerelleno

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Menu

Pork Carnitas
Frijoles Rancho / Charro / Barracho
Arroz Mexicana aka Mexican Rice
And all the trimmings...

Authentic Pork Carnitas

Chunks of pork butt marinated in Sour Orange juice.
Then slow cooked in lard till tender, and finally flash fried for that wonderful crunchy exterior.
Well salted and served up hot and fresh.
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TACOS!

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Alright, alright, alright... I'll cop to it.
I somehow bumped the gas and scorched :emoji_fire: my pot of frijoles.
Bad enough that I dumped them down the disposal, hence no frijoles in the pics.

Good news is that I don't have sleep on the couch tonight.
Think about it :emoji_laughing:
 
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Looks great. I make carnitas from time to time but use my pulled pork. I've never heard of 'slow cooking in lard'. What temp would that be and for how long? Thanks.
 
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Man those look good! You are on fire! I did Rick Bayless sous vide recipe last time and split in half. One bag raw went into freezer. After looking at yours its time to come out. I like the sous vide for this as you don't need as much lard.
 
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Jeez, Chile, I am at a loss for words. Those are some of the most amazing looking carnita tacos I've ever seen!! I'm with you on the sear being necessary to create authenticity and that crunchy char is amazing. They wouldn't be the same without that...and those tacos are nothing short of spectacular my friend. Glad to see more top-shelf coming out of Cocina Relleno!!

Robert
 
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Looks great. I make carnitas from time to time but use my pulled pork. I've never heard of 'slow cooking in lard'. What temp would that be and for how long? Thanks.

I don't have a specific temp/time to give you, just a slow simmer till the meat is tender. But not so tender you can't handle it without it falling apart.

When it comes to authentic Carnitas some people use different mixes of water, milk, juice and other items in with the fat, e.g. onions, garlic, sour oranges/rinds.
When using just water/fat, the water steams off leaving just the grease, and then you fry the pork to finish it.
Some use straight lard and just turn up the heat to deep fry as is.
Other people will remove the pork and finish in a frying pan.

In this cook I had sour orange juice and pulp in the oil, leftover from the marinade.
I didn't rinse after the marinade because i wanted more flavor subtle as it may be, I also tossed in a palmful of salt.
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So once the pork was near tender I dumped the oil mix from the dutch oven, added another 1/2inch of oil and fried in the dutch oven.
 
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Looks great. I make carnitas from time to time but use my pulled pork. I've never heard of 'slow cooking in lard'. What temp would that be and for how long? Thanks.
I try to cut a pork butt into approx 3 inch chunks.
Chunks smaller than others will cook faster, remove till ready to crisp.
A slow simmer, how to explain, one third or less of a rolling boil, which in this case would be a grease fire.... LOL.
Chunks that size take about 2.- 2.5 hours.
I stir the chunks about every 20 minutes for even cooking.
At 2 hours I start checking for tenderness with a probe, I want a little resistance, like peanut butter not soft butter.
Then I either deep fry or pan fry.
I generally use a 12qt cast iron, and wish I had a 16-20qt.
With the 12qt you can cook enough to serve 7-10 people about 3-4 tacos each.
 
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I have never actually made "the real deal" carnitas with the meat in fat. I generally use leftover pork butt form pulled pork. But now I wanna do the real deal.....thanks for posting the how to Chile!
 
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