Carnitas a la Canarygirl
Slow cooked, spicy shredded pork.....Prep for the meat only took about 3 minutes, if that, and after cooking, another minute to shred it. The sauce is really simple too, and the addition of freshly chopped cilantro at the end just really livens it up. I used the carnitas in burritos this time, but I think it would be great in tacos, empanadas, taquitos, pretty much anything, really.
Ingredients:
3 lb pork loin roast
salt and pepper to taste
garlic powder (a generous amount)
1/4 cup chili powder
ground cayenne to taste
a sprinkle of oregano
1 large red onion, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jar tomatillo salsa (10 ounces)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 bunch chopped cilantro (about 2/3 cup after chopping)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 300ºF (150ºC).
Place roast in an oven proof dish with a cover.
Season roast with salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cayenne and oregano.
Cover and bake for 5-6 hours, until shreds easily.
Drain off juice, reserving for the sauce.
Shred meat, cover and reserve.
Make sauce:
Sautee onion and garlic in a splash of oil just until tender.
Season with cumin and add tomatillo salsa.
Add about a cup and a half (or more) of the reserved meat drippings.
Simmer about 10 minutes, then toss in cilantro and adjust seasonings.
Pour over pork and toss to coat.
The pork may be a bit soupy, but the juice really gives great flavor...just use a slotted spoon to prepare burritos.
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Comments
I cook a pork roast once in a while with achiote seasoning, have you ever tried that? The preperation is basically just packaged achiote mixed with lime juice to make a paste and then smeared all over a pork roast. I top it with halved habaneros and onions and then wrap the whole thing with banana leaves and cook it in a slow cooker. Bayless calls the preperatino cochinita pibils.
After I start it I slice a red onion super-thinly and put it in a container of fresh squeezed lime juice and let it pickle in the lime juice all day.
When it's ready I reduce the drippings in a skillet and use it as sauce and serve the shredded pork with the sauce, pickled onions, hot sauce (Taptio works really well) and fresh corn tortillas. So good.
That recipe needs a fairly fatty cut of bone-in pork to work. I tried it with a leaner roast once and it was overly dry. What I like about your recipe is that I think it would work well with a leaner roast since it would have a larger quantity of sauce.
Mmm... shouldn't be this hungry at 9:30 AM.
Thanks, Brian! :) Cochinita Pibils...YUM. That's Cuban, isn't it? Achiote is one of those things I can't get here...in general, Mexican/South/Central American stuff is hard to come by...unless it's Columbian (we have a huge Columbian population here). We do have a variety of different paprikas, though...I wonder if one of them would work. Banana leaves we have a plenty. haha Those pickled onions sound fabulous...I make something called, "pink pickled onions" (in fact today I am making them with pulled pork--Alvaro's mom asked that I make it for our family lunch today) that go with vinegar, pickling spice and rosemary...I'll get a pic--they're great with anything--I think on brats they'd be great, on burgers, too. The roast that I used for the carnitas was just a regular loin roast...fairly lean, but it did produce about 3 cups of juice...slow cooking it makes it buttery tender too--a crockpot would work perfectly for this. Once again, I am envious of your fresh corn tortillas...jeez I better eat some breakfast. I'm starving to death now. :P hehe
Narami, thank you so much! :) Are carnitas prepared a similar way in Puerto Rico? My husband *loved* the food there the 3 times he went. :)
Achiote isn't easy to find here either but it is available. If you had an amazing surplus of time you could make your own :)