A few times a year I, quite dramatically, crave pork carnitas. Carnitas are "little meats" in Spanish and the process is pretty much the same as making pulled pork with a pork butt. With carnitas you simply take the larger pork butt and cut it down into chunks or little meats. When I crave these, it's intense. As soon as I think of them, covered in foil slow cooking in my oven - I have to get to the store and buy my supplies.
Pork Carnitas Have Many Uses - Today I Give You Two of Them
My two favorite things to make with my delicious pork carnitas are sliders with barbeque sauce and, drumrollllll: TACOS!! You can probably tell I get a little more excited about the tacos. Pork tacos have so much more potential than beef tacos in my opinion. It feels like whatever I have on hand or randomly buy at the store, somehow works as a pork carnitas topping. With ground beef I feel limited: sour cream, tomato salsa, avocado. There are more uses for these crispy-on-the-outside, fork-tender little meats. You can make some beans and serve with rice. You could make a killer southwest-style frittata and serve for brunch. Pork carnitas quesadillas are an option with onions, cheese, beans and some kind of peach or mango salsa. I'm getting hungry for more tacos.
Seasoning Your Pork Butt is a Personal Choice
You are you and you know what flavors you like. Right? For me, the most basic jumping off point is salt, pepper, cumin and some kind of citrus. I usually go with either lime or orange. For this recipe I did orange since I like that version slightly better. There is another ground spice I like that you can sometimes find in the grocery store or that you may have to order an Amazon. It's Ras El Hanout. It's a Moroccan spice and can vary widely including such spices as: cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, dry ginger and more. If you're already buying it anyway, know that you can use it again with my Moroccan-Spiced Phyllo Meat Pie. If you don't have it, can't find it at the grocery store or just don't want to spend the money, you can SKIP IT and simply add a little more cumin to this recipe. However, Ras El Hanout is really delicious and I highly recommend you give it a try.
Serve a Crowd With Pork Carnitas or Freeze Some for Later
Pork carnitas are an excellent option for a large gathering like a sporting event (Super Bowl), movie night, family gathering, brunch with friends. You get the idea. There will not be a speck of food left.
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If you're making this for 2-4 people, you will have food for several days (great leftovers for lunches). You can also freeze the carnitas. When ready to use again simply defrost overnight in your refrigerator. I usually reheat them in a pan on low heat and covered with a splash of water. Tastes just as delicious as when you made them. When I made this batch for the video, I froze some and later made my Pork Carnitas Skillet Frittata with it - so keep that in mind too.
I hope you give this one a try. Gather your loved ones together and make a delicious meal. Share your stories, talk about how your day went, and hopefully laugh... a lot. Bust out the King's Hawaiian rolls for sliders or set up a fantastic taco bar with all the fixins'. Enjoy life and spread kindness out into the world.
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Pork Carnitas (Perfect for Tacos & Sliders)
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours 55 minutes
- Yield: serves 6-8 people 1x
Description
This fork-tender pork carnitas recipe is fantastic! You can make sliders or tacos for a crowd with all your favorite toppings! Easy to make then let it slow cook to perfection.
Ingredients
- 5.37 pound boneless pork butt/Boston butt (around 5 pounds is fine)
- 9 whole, peeled cloves of garlic
- 1 medium onion, chopped in chunks
- 2 oranges, peel & juice (about ½ cup orange juice)
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt (or 1 tablespoon regular salt)
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon ground Ras el Hanout (if you don’t have just double the cumin)
- 2 large bay leaves (or 4 small)
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
NOTE: Don’t forget to watch my video with step-by-step instructions and to watch me eat a crazy taco I made!
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Instructions
- Cut pork butt into uniform-sized pieces. As you are cutting the pork have your kitchen scissors ready to trim off hanging fat. We want some of that fat, but anything really thick or hanging off, cut it. Put all the pork pieces in a large baking pan and set aside to finish your prep.
- Peel oranges with a peeler tool. Try not to get too much of the white part from the orange since it can be bitter. Don’t press too hard on the peeler to get the best result.
- Peel your cloves of garlic and keep them whole.
- Cut oranges into smaller chunks to fit in a hand juicer.
- Rough chop one medium onion into chunks.
- Squeeze juice from oranges – should be around ½ cup total.
- Season pork with kosher salt (or regular salt – see ingredient list), cumin, ras el hanout, pepper, orange juice, garlic, orange peel, bay leaves, and onion. If you don’t have ras el hanout just double the cumin. Toss all ingredients to coat and well combine. Make sure ingredients like the garlic cloves and bay leaves are evenly distributed.
- Cover with heavy duty aluminum foil and wrap it as tight as possible. We’re steaming and slow cooking this to get it fork tender so we don’t want any air getting out. If you don’t have heavy duty foil, use a couple of layers of regular foil.
- Place the foil-covered pork in a preheated oven at 275 degrees and cook for 3 ½ hours until the pork is fork tender. Check it with a fork when you take it out of the oven.
- You can end the process right now and eat your pork. OR you can get it a little crispy on top like I do.
- Remove foil from pan and put all your pork in a bowl.
- Strain the juices, but don’t throw it away – save some.
- Transfer the pork back into the baking pan and pour some of the juice and fat over the pork.
- Move your oven rack up and put broiler on high. Broil pork for 5 minutes or until crispy. Keep watch on this so it doesn’t burn.
- Carnitas are done!! Make sliders or tacos for a crowd with this one. Toppings are endless – choose all your favorites. Watch my video to the end to see the slider and loaded taco I made. So delicious!
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