Crock-pot Carnitas
February 20, 2008 by ryanandrea
Chances are, you’ll end up with a crock-pot as a wedding gift. Here are a couple ways to use it.
This is Becky’s recipe, which is very similar to mine, which I’ve since misplaced.
1 pork shoulder (mine was 4 lbs)
5-6 bay leaves
2 Tbsp oregano (dried or fresh)
1 Tbsp thyme (dried or fresh)
3 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
4 Tbsp Crisco or lard
1 onion, sliced
1 orange, skin on, halved and sliced
5 cloves garlic, quartered
Few turns of black pepper from pepper mill
3 jalapenos, diced
2 limes, juiced
3/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup beer
This works best if you cure the meat ahead of time.
Remove excess fat from shoulder, cut into two-inch cubes. Blend together bay leaves, oregano, thyme and salt in a mortar and pestle until it’s a well mixed power. Add paprika and cumin. Season all the pork with the mixture, place in glass container and cover tightly. Let sit at least two hours, or overnight if possible. You can use the ceramic part of the crock pot for this.
Before cooking, slice onion and orange, peel and halve garlic, chop jalapenos. Heat about half the crisco or lard in a pan on the stove, begin browning pork pieces on medium high heat. Pieces do not need to be cooked through, but you’re trying to create a little crunch on the outside. After 5 minutes, add onions and oranges to the pan, stirring so the onions begin to turn translucent. With this much meat, I had to do this step in 2-3 batches.
Once meat is done being browned, place pork/onion/orange mixture in crock pot. Add garlic, black pepper, jalapenos, lime juice, orange juice and beer. Cook in crock pot on high for about 4 hours, or on low for about 8 hours. It helps if you can stir a few times during cooking, because there will not be enough liquid in the beginning to cover all the meat. Test meat for tenderness, if the chunks are easily torn apart, it is ready.
Remove meat from crock pot and liquid using slotted spoon, and using two forks to shred pork slightly. Serve with warm tortillas and a tangy lime jalapeno salsa.
Salsa:
One white onion, finely chopped
15-20 pickled jalapeno slices, seeded and chopped
Salt
Pepper
2 tsp lime juice
Mix all ingredients together, refrigerate until use.
