Mamas Carnitas Recipes

MAMACITA'S PORK CARNITAS RECIPE - (4.3/5)

Steps:

• adjust oven rack to low/mid oven. Heat to 300 in a Dutch oven pot on stovetop, combine pork, broth, Mex. seasoning, Bay leaves, onion, garlic, lime juice, salt, sugar and pepper. Juice the orange into the pot and throw the 2 spent orange halves in with the rest. Liquid should just barely cover the pork. Bring mixture to simmer on stove top, then cover and transfer to oven. Cook about 2 hours. Remove pot from oven and turn oven to broil. With a slotted spoon, remove pork chunks to a shallow pan. Place a large strainer or seive over a bowl. Remove the orange halves and bay leaves and discard. With your slotted spoon, scoop the remaining chunky solids from the cooking juice and place them in the seive. Squish the solids to smash out all the liquidy flavors into the bowl. Discard the smashed solids. Add the bowl of squished juices back into to the pot with the cooking liquid and bring to a boil on stove top. Cook down the liquid until reduced to about 1 cup and is thick and syrupy, 20 minutes or so. Season to taste if needed. Meanwhile, back at the pork pan, shred the pork with 2 forks into 1 inch(ish) chunks ("carnitas" meaning little meats) Mix the pork "carnitas" and about 1/2 the PICO DE GALLO back into the thickened cooking liquid. Mix well. Spread the pork mixture onto a deep baking sheet and place in oven/broiler. Broil until the tops of the meats are brown and crisp. DONT LET IT BURN! Keep an eye on it! Stir carnitas mixture in pan and continue to brown.. be careful, you want it well roasted but not burned. Remove pan from broiler and scrape the roasted carnitas into a dish, stir in the remaining PICO DE GALLO and serve with warm corn tortillas and queso fresco!

CRISPY PORK CARNITAS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).
• Remove fat from pork; cut pork meat into 2-inch cubes and roughly chop fat.
• Mix pork, garlic, olive oil, orange peel, orange juice, salt, bay leaves, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and 5-spice powder together in a bowl until pork is coated completely. Transfer mixture to a 9x13-inch baking dish. Place baking dish on a baking sheet and cover baking dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pork is fork-tender, about 3 1/2 hours.
• Set oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven's broiler.
• Transfer meat to a colander set over a bowl. Remove garlic, bay leaves, and orange peels from baking dish and pour accumulated juices from the baking dish over meat in colander into the bowl. Return meat to the baking dish and drizzle accumulated juices over each piece of meat.
• Cook meat under the preheated broiler for 3 minutes. Drizzle more accumulated juices over meat and continue broiling until crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer pork to a serving plate and drizzle more accumulated juices over the top.