Another episode of “Protein Cooking” is up and live on BariatricTV.com – this time I’m making Carnitas. Once you make this you can use the meat in all sorts of ways, from tacos and burritos to just straight up with some home-made salsa to top it off. Carnitas basically means “little meat”, and while I show doing this with the traditional pork, try it with beef if you want.
Oh yea, and as long as I can keep up with ideas and getting the videos made in time for Mike to do the editing, you’ll be seeing a new video from me on Monday’s over at BTV. Let me know if you have any ideas for upcoming stuff you’d like to see me do.
Alright, on to this week’s show.. here’s what you need:
3-4 pounds pork – shoulder roast, country style ribs, whatever is on sale – boneless or bone in.
1 baseball sized onion – sliced
1 lime – sliced
2-3 jalapeno peppers – chopped
3-4 cloves garlic – chopped
2 cups beef or chicken broth – try to use low sodium
2 packets taco seasoning
cooking oil
Heat a large (preferably cast-iron) skillet or dutch oven over high heat. Add about a tablespoon of cooking oil and then the meat, turning after about a minute or so to brown all sides of the meat.
Season the meat using the taco seasoning like a dry rub, coating as well as you can. You can also use your own blends of spices, cumin is a popular one for carnitas along with cayenne pepper. Garlic powder, onion powder, even some ground oregano work good together too. You shouldn’t need any salt, there will be plenty added with the broth.
Pour the broth in to a 4-5qt crock pot, then add a layer of onions and limes followed by the meat. If you are using cuts of meat like country style ribs add the meat followed by more onions and lime and then the rest of the meat, top with remaining onions, limes, garlic and jalapenos. cover the crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Check after about 7 hours to see how it’s going. When it’s done, the meat will easily pull apart when checked with a fork. You can cut the cooking time to about 5-6 hours by cooking on high, but check it after 3.5-4 hours.
When done, use a slotted spoon or tongs to remove the meat to a bowl, strain as much of the onions and such from the broth and set aside. If you’re not going to eat this right away you put the broth in the fridge for awhile, any of the fat that cooked out of the meat will rise to the top and solidify so you can just pull it off and have a nice, low-fat broth to go with your meat.
Using a couple of forks, shred the meat while it’s still warm. Once it’s fully cooled you can portion it up and freeze it for future meals.
This works really great for my mexi-sagna recipe or just straight up with a side of home-made refried beans!
Let me know your favorite recipe using carnitas in the comments below.
Hi Rob – thanks for sharing this! The smell comng from the kitchen had me drooling all day.
It was really good, but putting the lime slices (with skin) in the crockpot made the liquid (and some of the meat) extremely bitter, like the taste of a thick orange peel.
Just wanted to suggest to others who might make this to either squeeze the lime juice in and discard the rind OR save the lime juice for the finished product.