Carnitas

Mike McCune - originally posted to Flickr as carnitas

 Now we come to the carnitas. These are better bought from the meat counter at your local Mexican grocery store. They are greasy salty pieces of slowly fried pork. Unless you are a master fryer on your stove, you can not do this at home. This is not an argument, it is a fact.

But, if you do not have a local Mexican grocery store, you can make do with your crockpot. Start with a hunk of pork, add the spices you want, and slow cook it in your crockpot until the pork pulls apart. We do at times (because we have access to an over) baked the finished carnitas before pulling them apart to crisp them up a little bit. 

We use several recipes at home, I've linked them below. I've also listed the spices common in the recipes in a sort of meta recipe. I usually don't measure the spices, I just dump them in. For an added burst of flavor, quarter as many onions as you want and throw them into the crockpot along with a handful of whole garlic cloves. Finding a slow-roasted garlic clove in your taco makes your mouth happy.

Common Spices:

Salt (to taste)

Cumin (I love cumin and just dump it in a tablespoon at a time)

Oregano (See Cumin and do the same)

Coriander (Some people argue that a little coriander goes a long way, I am not one of those people) 

Chicken Broth (about a cup or two to keep the meat moist)

Recipes:

Slow Cooker Carnitas

Best Slow Cooker Carnitas (Typically this is the recipe I follow)

Crockpot Carnitas

Slow Cooker Carnitas

For the needed sides (Mexican Rice and Beans) start here: Mexican Food

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by mccun934 at https://www.flickr.com/photos/51035597937@N01/2904750647. It was reviewed on 26 October 2009 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.