Juicy Flavorful Carnitas No Lard Food

CARNITAS MICHOACANAS

Steps:

• Cut the meat into large chunks, or leave it on the bone if the hunks will fit in the pot you are using. Salt them well.
• Fill your pot with the lard and heat it to about 200°F or thereabouts. You might need more than 3 quarts. Remember, you will be able to reuse this lard later, and almost all of it will stay in the pot, so fear not.
• When the lard hits temperature, add the pork. Now, there is an order to things. Different pieces cook at different rates. Longest cooking bits, in order, are: hocks, feet, tongue, heart, jowls, shoulder, ribs, hind leg, skin, belly, loins. Depending on what you are using, add the longest cooking bits in first. In general, wait 30 minutes before you put in the next item. Even loin will ultimately need 1 hour, though, so keep this in mind. Carnitas is a process.
• Once you put in the first pork item, add all the remaining ingredients and let things cook at about 195°F, more or less, until all the various piggy bits are soft and tender. Normally this takes about 4 hours, but could be more with wild hogs.
• When the meat is starting to fall off the bone, remove it from the lard and let it cool a bit. Carefully debone it. If you are using feet, this will be fiddly. Now, you have two choices. If you don't care about reusing the oil, heat it to 350°F and fry the pork until the exterior is crispy. If you do want to reuse the lard, remove all but about 1 cup and then sear the pork bits in that lard until crispy.
• Chop and shred the meat as you like and serve. It will keep a week in the fridge and freezes well.

PORK CARNITAS (MEXICAN SLOW COOKER PULLED PORK)

Steps:

• Rinse and pat dry pork with a paper towel.
• In the bowl of a 6-quart slow cooker, add pork, salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, onion, garlic, lime juice, orange juice, coke, and bay leaves.
• Cover and cook on low heat setting for 8-10 hours, or high heat for 5-6 hours (until the meat falls apart).
• Remove pork and shred with two forks (DO NOT DISCARD THE LIQUID!)

JUICY, FLAVORFUL CARNITAS (NO LARD)

Steps:

• Trim large chunks of fat from the pork shoulder, but leave some fat on for flavor.
• Cut pork shoulder into large chunks. I usually cut them to about half the size of my fist.
• In a large pot, add the oil to the bottom of the pan and brown the pork. Add in the ground herbs while browning the pork.
• Once pork is browned, add the first bottle of beer. Using a wooden or silicone spoon, scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen the delicious browned bits.
• Add the remaining ingredients to the pot(reserve half of the cilantro for later), cover and slow cook for 3-4 hours on low heat or until pork is tender and falling apart.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Remove pork from pot and place into a foil-lined, large baking pan. DO NOT discard the liquid stock.
• Turn the pot with the liquid stock to high heat to reduce the amount of liquid.
• Using two forks, shred the pork in the pan completely.
• Add in reserve cilantro.
• Pour enough of the liquid stock into the pan to halfway cover the pork. Return pot to heat. Place pork in oven.
• Check pork every 15 minutes or so, turning gently and adding liquid stock until all the stock has been used.
• Remove pork from oven when there is almost no liquid left in the pan.
• Serve and enjoy!

3-INGREDIENT CARNITAS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Add pork, water or chicken stock, and 1 tablespoon salt to a large dutch oven with a tight fitting lid. Liquid should just cover meat. Add additional as necessary. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Transfer to oven and cook, about 3 ½-4 hours, until meat is very tender and liquid is reduced to 1 cup. Baste meat every 45 minutes with cooking liquid.
• Increase heat to 400 degrees F. Remove pot from oven and drain all but 3 tablespoons fat from pot. Add cumin, cloves, cayenne, and 2 teaspoons black pepper. Stir to combine, and return to oven. Roast, stirring after 10 minutes, until meat is browned, crisp, and liquid is evaporated, about 20 minutes more.
• If meat is very fatty, you may need to continue to drain fat as pork crisps. Season to taste with salt and and pepper, and serve in tortillas, with cabbage, sour cream, pickled red onions, cilantro, avocado and serranos chiles.