Killer Pork Carnitas

by lisa | 26 December 2012 16:08

This recipe turned out so good! We tried making some wraps to put the pork in, but they turned out more like crepes (so we filled them with fruit and ate them after dinner instead).

Ingredients

2 pounds of pork shoulder or pork roast, cubed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 onion, cut into large chunks
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 cup of bone broth (or water if you don’t have any)
1/2 of an orange (juiced and save the spent orange)
Everything, including the orange

What to do

1. Preheat your oven to 300F /150 C. Combine all the ingredients in a large sauce pan, including the spent orange half and it’s juice. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat, uncovered. Once it simmers, transfer everything to a casserole dish, cover with foil and transfer it to the oven. Cook until the meat falls apart when prodded with a fork, about 1 1/2 hours.

Ready to be pulled apart

2. Remove from the oven and turn on the broiler. Use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the dish and place it on a large foil-lined baking sheet. Remove and discard everything else from the casserole dish except for the cooking liquid. Return the liquid to your sauce pan and cook on high heat on the stove and boil until thick and syrupy, about 20 minutes.
3. While the liquid is reducing, use two forks to pull each cube of pork into smaller pieces. Once the liquid has become syrupy, gently fold in the pieces of pork into the pot. Try not to break up the pork any further. Taste and add additional salt and pepper.
4. Spread the pork and the syrupy juice back onto the foil lined pan and evenly spread the meat around so there is a single layer of meat. Place the baking sheet back in the oven and broil until the top of the meat is well browned and edges are slightly crisp, about 5 to 8 minutes. Using a wide metal spatula, flip the pieces of meat and broil the other side until well browned and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes.