Carnitas are little bits of crispy delicious pork that make the best tacos. These are taqueria style carnitas you can make at home.
Pork poached in lard. What is better than that? Sound crazy to you? Consider this. Duck confit is duck poached in duck fat. And duck confit is probably the second greatest thing you can put in your mouth.
The concept is not exclusive to the French. They may not have invented it. It could be Mayan. I don’t know. I do know carnitas are pork poached in lard until meltingly tender. Low and slow. Like BBQ. But in your oven. This is pork heaven.
In Mexico they make carnitas in giant pots of barely simmering pork lard. They don’t change the lard. It just gets more and more flavourful as literally tons of pork shoulder pass through it.
It’s perfect. The pork seasons the lard and the lard seasons the pork. Pure pig goodness.
carnitas
Ingredients
- 3 lbs boneless pork shoulder cut into 2-3 inch cubes
- 1 orange halved
- salt to dry brine. Around 2 tsp of kosher salt. Less if using table salt.
- 2 onions quartered
- 2 bay leaves
- 4-5 cloves garlic split
- 1 cup rendered pork lard melted vegetable oil can be substituted if you can’t get lard
Instructions
Dry-brine the pork
- One or two days before you want to serve the carnitas, slice the pork shoulder in half (for a 3 lbs roast).
- Salt liberally.
- Wrap and refrigerate.
Make the carnitas
- Pre-heat your oven to 275F.
- Cut the pork into large 2-3 inch cubes.
- Place the pork, bay, garlic and quartered onions in an oven proof dish just barely big enough to hold the ingredients. Make sure there’s a bit of extra height so you don’t spill hot oil onto your floor (yes, I did that the first time I made these)
- Squeeze the juice of the orange over the pork then nestle the two rinds in with the pork and onions.
- Pour enough pork lard overtop to just cover the meat.
- Cover tightly with foil and cook until the pork is fork tender. This takes about 3-5 hours. This step will vary from oven to oven and the size of the pork chunks. Temperature control in ovens is not all that precise. Start checking it after about 2 1/2 hours.
- When the meat is fork tender use tongs to remove the pork. Shred the pork. A couple forks works well for this.
- Pour 6-7 Tbsp of the pork lard over the top of the shredded pork. Save the rest to do other things. It’s now become about the best thing there is on the planet for frying eggs FWIW.
- The pork will give off some liquid as well. Use a fat separator. Serious eats suggested making a cooked salsa with this leftover liquid. Not a bad idea at all.
- When you are ready to serve, set your oven to broil with the rack about 4 inches from the element. Place the pork and fat on a sturdy cookie sheet. Broil until a bit of the pork starts to crisp (2-4 minutes). You want a mix of crispy bits and tender bits. Just a little crunch. Don’t go crazy.
- Taste and season. Depending on how much salt you added for the dry-brine you may or may not need more salt.
- Serve with pico de gallo or salsa of your choice. A little squeeze of lime adds a nice bright flavour. A bit of cilantro works nicely.
Notes
Nutrition
Gyudon is that beef rice bowl you see everywhere in Japan. It’s delicious and it’s super easy to make. Japanese fast food.
There’s nothing to it. Beef, onion and a simple sauce served up on a bed of rice. Maybe topped with a poached egg if you want to get really fancy. Some pickled ginger. A bit of green onion.
Gyudon is the Yoshinoya beef bowl
This is that beef bowl. The Yoshinoya beef gyudon. The Japanese equivalent of the fast food burger.
Yoshinoya is a chain that’s all over Japan. There’s a few in California as well. I still remember the first time I had it. Love at first bite.
Like most things Japanese there’s more than meets the eye. Yoshinoya has been serving up gyudon since 1899. Yes, I got the date right. And it’s huge. Everywhere.
It’s not even the biggest gyudon restaurant chain in Japan. That title goes to Sukiya. Another huge chain. Haven’t been to Sukiya. Will have to try that next time.
