Monday Meals: Carnitas

Happy spring! Oh, wait... half of the Cool Dads Bloggers live in Wisconsin; where today the current temperature is below freezing. Whomp whomp. We've been cooking A LOT of food to compensate for the fact spring still hasn't showed up. This past weekend we made carnitas; which is Spanish for "tasty little pieces of meat that get crispy on the outside, but nice and tender on the inside- cooked in a tasty citrus marinade". We've got mad lingual skills here; let me tell you.

But seriously. We found this carnitas recipe last year and fell in love almost  instantly. It's another one of those great recipes that tastes like you put a lot of effort into it... and you really didn't. If you can cut an onion, squeeze an orange and put ingredients in a Dutch oven, than you too can make (and devour) carnitas.


Pork Carnitas(recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated)

4 pound boneless pork butt, fat trimmed and cut into 2 inch cubes
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 onion, peeled and halved
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
2 Tb fresh lime juice
2 C water
1 medium orange, juiced and keep the spent halves

Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat to 300 degrees.  Combine all the ingredients in a large Dutch oven, including the spent orange halves and juice.

Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat, uncovered.  Once it simmers, cover pot and transfer it to the oven.  Cook until the meat falls apart when prodded with a fork, about 2 hours.

Remove the pot from the oven and turn on the broiler.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the pan and place it on a large foil-lined jelly roll pan.  Remove and discard everything from the pot except for the cooking liquid.  Place pot over high heat on the stove and boil until thick and syrupy, about 20 minutes.  You should have about 1 C of liquid remaining when it is finished.

While the liquid is reducing, use two forks to pull each cube of pork into three equal sized pieces.  

Once the liquid has become a syrup, gently fold in the pieces of pork into the pot.  Try not to break up the pork any further.  Taste and add additional salt and pepper.

Spread the pork back onto the foil lined pan and evenly spread the meat around so there is a single layer of meat.  Place the jelly roll pan on the lower middle rack of the oven and broil until the top of the meat is well browned and edges are slightly crisp, about 5 to 8 minutes.  Using a wide metal spatula, flip the pieces of meat and broil the other side until well browned and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes.  Serve immediately in a tortilla with all your favorite toppings.

We served the carnitas along with a delicious black bean recipe we found:
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/01/quick-and-deliciouso-cuban-style-black.html

It was a meal all three of us loved; and we had to stop ourselves from eating the remainder of the leftovers we had promised our Nanny. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew