Carnitas

It’s no secret that we love tacos in our house. Honestly, they are a perfect family meal. My kids love them and I love feeding them to the kids. The combination of protein, carb, a little veg….its healthy and yummy. They can assemble them on their own and everyone gets to customize them their own way. For a little variety and an attempt to make life easier this week I decided to make a huge pork shoulder that could be shredded for carnitas tacos and then the next day I could use the leftovers for some variety of pork green chili that we all love. I used my Instant Pot for this recipe to keep the cook time to one hour, it could be adjusted easily for a slow cooker. Let’s start with the tacos.

What you need:

4 lb pork shoulder or pork butt

1 lime

1 orange

4 clove garlic

1 sweet or yellow onion

1 jalapeño, seeds optional if you like heat. I removed them for the kids.

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cumin

3/4 tsp smoked paprika

salt and pepper

This is SO easy. I used my Instant Pot because I wasn’t organized early enough in the day. You could very easily do this in the slow cooker, but for this size pork shoulder I would allow 8-9 hours on low.

First squeeze the juice of one orange and one lime into the pressure cooker or slow cooker. Now add one whole jalapeño that you have sliced in half and removed the seeds if desired. Add one onion that has been halved or quartered. Add 4 cloves of garlic. Rub the pork all over with the spices. Sprinkle salt and pepper all over. I used a shoulder that had been tied by the butcher, makes it easily transferable to and from the Instant Pot. It’s fine if you don’t have it tied but it will be trickier to remove. Add to the pressure cooker. With the Instant Pot I selected the meat/stew meat option and cooked for 60 minutes and then allowed it to slow release for about 5 minutes before just switching it off on my own. If you are using your slow cooker adjust depending on your personal slow cooker but most of them will probably take 8-9 hours. The pork is finished when it shreds easily with a fork.

Remove the pork and shred the meat with a fork. Discard the soggy pepper and onions but reserve a bit of the juices. Return the pork to a dish with the drippings, so much flavor in that sauce. We like to place it on a baking tray and broil it for 3 minutes to get some of the edges extra crispy, this is optional. Serve with all of your favorite taco toppings. We used Cotija cheese, fresh cilantro, lettuce, and hot sauce.