Carnitas (Pulled Pork)

[Striper Club]

Recipe geared towards slow cooker (crockpot)

1 – Medium Onion
1 – Lime
1 – Orange
2 – 12 OZ Bottles Dark Beer
3 lb – Boston Cut Pork Shoulder
3 – Large Jalepenos (Fresh & roughly chopped)
3 – Cloves Garlic (minced)
1 TBSP Cayenne Pepper
1 TBSP Ground Black Pepper
1 TSP Garlic Powder
1 TSP Ground Sea Salt

Corn tortillas, cilantro, more beer, more onion and hot sauce for tacos!

Marination Stage 1:
- Take your roast and place it in a large ziplock bag
- Pour in bottle of beer
- Add 1 chopped jalepeno
- Add 2 cloves minced garlic
- Seal bag and marinate in fridge for 24 hours

Marination Stage 2:
- Remove roast from fridge, drain and discard marinade and pat dry
- Combine Cayenne, Black pepper and salt in a bowl
- Rub dry spices over roast
- cover (or bag) roast and place in fridge for 2-6 hours

Cooking:
- Remove roast from fridge and allow to get to room temp (or close enough)
- Slice onion, lime and orange into wheels
- Layer bottom of slow cooker with onion, lime and orange slices
- Add roast on top of first layer
- Add another slice of lime and orange
- Open other bottle of beer
- Pour in half of beer to slow cooker
- Add remaining jalepenos and garlic to the beer in cooker
- Drink remaining beer
- Cook on low for 8-10 hours until internal temperature is 170 F
- Remove from slow cooker and shred with 2 forks, discarding bone and fat
- Arrange shredded meat in a broiler pan and broil for a few minutes, slightly crisping the meat
- Serve them up with some cilantro, onion and hot sauce over warm corn tortillas

* You can also add your favorite BBQ sauce and serve over sandwich buns

[bad habit]

n i c e o n e :cheers:

[wind troller]

Great recipe, just got off the river and this sounds soooo good, you have a microwave version. :smile:
I'll try it this weekend for sure, thanks for taking time to share!
:wave:

[OceanBlue]

I have just two words for you: THANK YOU!

I love carnitas! Have always wanted to know how to do it. (okay, that was more than 2 words :grin:)

[JustCallMeDave]

Good recipe, but I would increase the amount of beer in the recipe so that you have more left over to drink. :cheers:

[Striper Club]

Oh, I don't think that is too much of a problem when I cook. :wink:

[RODACTION]

0

[Striper Club]

Hmmm. Since I finally wrote this one down, I will have to cook some up as well for Sunday (begin marinating tomorrow). One of the most amazing things about this recipe, aside from being incredibly easy and nearly foolproof, is that pork shoulder costs about a buck a pound!

So...figure a 3lb shoulders costs $3, then spend another $1.50 on veggies/fruit and cover the cost of beer...

Not bad...

Thing about carnitas...it is just pulled pork that gets a little broiler time to crisp the ends. If you have a smoker or inderect charcoal grill, use that. Slow cooker does the trick, and it does not have to be tended too quite as much.

ANY effort towards the marination process will gain you rewards far and beyond any paltry quasi-Mexican carnitas that the NW has to offer. Around here, it pays culinary dividends to be able to whip up some quality mexican food.

I think I may have posted a carne asada recipe a couple years ago....I will check. If I hadn't, that comes next. For now though, enjoy this simple and unreal mexican treat. Treat it like chili--the more time you take, the better it will be...that and you will cook up a ton of food without spending much cash at all.

One last note:

Slow cookers do not allow for much evaporation--when you add liquid for a nice braising--just add about 1/3 as much as you would if you were going to roast something in the oven...I am no slow-cooker expert by any means, but you can pretty much tell what is going on after a couple dishes.

Bon apetit..

[wind troller]

Striper Club,
Thanks much for sharing this fine recipe, my house smells like heaven, all the lime, orange, onion, and cilantro. I kinda feel like I'm in Mexico, just waiting for the Margarita! This one was fun to cook, looks nice when you are loading up the crockpot, and makes you feel like a five star chef. Great eats, you all have to try it!
Thanks for sharing, I'm waiting for the carne asada recipe.
tightlines,
Al

[bassin]

I have it marinating now, tonight it get the rub. Then in to the crock pot. Can wait to try it.
Thanks

[bassin]

carne asada Sounds good to: Could you post that one up too.
Thanks

[Striper Club]

Absolutely. I just need to write it out. Will see if I have a lull in work today! :wink:

[bassin]

It came out great. Thanks again.

[Dr Strangelove]

I did this recipe with beef shoulder roast that was a rather tasteless, too-lean cut of beef from Costco. I chunked the roast into 3x3" cuts and used the crockpot after a 24hr marinade. The results were fabulous, even better as left-overs the next day, using a rice-shredded meat filling for grilled tacos with Frank's Red Hot sauce and fresh cilantro. Tonight is the third leftover installment. It's that good.

[Riverliver]

Striper Club I studied in the culinary arts in Guadalajara Mexico and have made Authentic Carnitas more then a couple times… Your recipe sounds wonderful in fact I plan on making it this weekend.. But true carnitas is simply pork (normally shoulder or tender loin) seasoned with salt n pepper then simmered in lard (Not Boiled or fried) for a couple hour then allowed to drain. Pulled apart and served warm.. The pork shouldn’t retain any color or be aloud to brown or crisp in any fashion.

[OceanBlue]

Greg! I finally got to try this recipe. I used pork tenderloin. Marinated it starting on Tuesday evening. Did the dry rub part last night and threw it in the crock pot this morning. I added more of everything because the roast was about 5 lbs. We ate it late this evening. Didn't need a thing but a little cheese, sour cream and avocado to add to the tortillas.

I gotta say we must have eaten 3 lbs - just 2 of us! I feel like I am what I eat fer sher!

Finally had to put it away in order to stop eating. WAY too good!

Thanks Brutha (I think)

:grin:

[Striper Club]

Every new thing I try with the crock pot, I find that it is one of the most fabulous inventions...EVER. Especially, for us folks that have no place to put a smoker or indirect-heat bbq.

I pretty much use the same recipe for beef brisket, but replace citrus (lime, orange) with red potatoes. Unreal, every time. With the lack of evaporation, a little liquid goes a long way so it is really hard to mess up. This recipe gave me a ton of confidence in the slow cooking thing as pork shoulder is like 99 cents/lb! :wink:

Never triec the tenderloin though--I take it that all was quite well, OB?

[OceanBlue]

Absolutely fabulous with the tenderloin. It did dry out just a tad when I re-warmed it, but it's to be expected considering that it was pretty darned lean. I reserved the juices from the slow cooking. I'm thinking about making fried rice or something with it. Good stuff!

I love the crock pot. The best, moistest turkey I've ever had comes from a crock pot. Not pretty, but darn tasty! Way better than deep fried turkey- a whole lot cheaper & safer, too!!

[Striper Club]

Indeed. What is lacking in presentation is certainly made up for by flavor. The drippings make for a fantastic gravy as well...hmmm...what to do next...

[Jennie@ifish]

Oh, man.......... and I'm cooking fish tonight?
Wow. I gotta do this! Tomorrow!

[SeaSparrow]

We made it this weekend and it was good. Only suggestion I have is to use a valencia orange or other thin skinned orange. The white part was thick in the orange we used and that bitterness carried through to the finished meat. Otherwise, I should have used only the zest and then peeled the orange before slicing. Still good though! :food: