Carnitas

Carnitas is a very famous Mexican dish. It consists of braised pork and can be eaten by itself (and tortillas, a chili sauce) or as the filling in tamales, tacos and burritos. The pork is first simmered for a long time to make it really soft and then braised in the oven to make it crispy. Since the recipe is very simple and does not involve any chili sauces everyone likes carnitas. You can add the heat on your own as you eat it.

Ingredients

• 2 (16 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 (4 pound) boneless pork shoulder
• 1 tablespoon chopped coriander (cilantro)
• 1 tablespoon cumin (comino)
• Corn tortillas
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 onion, quartered
• Chili sauce, such as Pico de gallo, chipotle or whatever you like
  

Instructions

1. Pre-cooking: Cut the pork meat in chunks and discard big pieces of fat, leave some fat as it adds to the flavor. Chop the cilantro if you need to.
2. Cooking: Set tall frying pan over mid-high heat. Add the pork, cilantro, cumin, onion and broth. If necessary, add water so that the meat is covered. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3-4 hours or until the meat is very soft and pulls apart easily.
3. Remove the meat and place it in a roasting pan, discarding the onion and broth, break apart the meat in smaller chunks.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees F, until the meat is brown and crispy.
5. Heat the tortillas and enjoy, you can serve it with your favorite chili sauce, chopped onions and cilantro.

Tips

A pressure cooker really helps here. If you like making dishes like this one often you should consider the pressure cooker. It will cut cooking time to a half hour.

Heating tortillas on a microwave: To heat tortillas you can wrap them in a kitchen towel and put them inside a container. Microwave 15 seconds per tortilla.

Posted by Chyrel at Recipe Goldmine 6/25/02 1:12:52 pm.

SOUTHWESTERN RECIPES