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  • Mexican Carnitas/Pulled Pork (with a little help from my pressure cooker

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    Mexican Carnitas/Pulled Pork (with a little help from my pressure cooker
    Prep: 30 min Cook: 40 min Servings: 6
    by Foodiewife
    397 recipes
    >
    I absolutely love pork carnitas. The meat should be tender on the inside, and crispy on the outside. Authentic carnitas braises the meat first, with aromatics. Then it's deep-fried. This recipe braises the meat (I used my pressure cooker to cut the oven braising time from 2 hours to 35 minutes). Then, the meat is "pulled" and coated with the brining liquid (reduced to a syrup). The broiler gives the crispy outside. We enjoyed ours with homemade corn tortillas, thinly sliced radishes and cilantro and a bit of fresh lime juice. This is also delicious in burritos or as a tamale filling. Click on the recipe source to see how I made this. (Recipe comes from America's Test Kitchen, Season 10)

    Ingredients

    • Pork
    • 1 (3 1/2-to 4-pound) boneless pork butt, fat cap trimmed to 1/8 inch thick, cut into 2-inch chunks
    • Salt and ground black pepper
    • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
    • 1 small onion, peeled and halved
    • 2 bay leaves
    • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
    • 2 tablespoons juice from 1 lime
    • 2 cups water
    • 1 medium orange, halved
    • Tortillas and Garnishes
    • 18 (6-inch) corn tortillas, warmed
    • Lime wedges
    • Minced white or red onion
    • Fresh cilantro leaves
    • Thinly sliced radishes
    • Sour cream

    Directions

    1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees.
    2. Combine pork, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, cumin, onion, bay leaves, oregano, lime juice, and water in large Dutch oven (liquid should just barely cover meat). Juice orange into medium bowl and remove any seeds (you should have about 1/3 cup juice). Add juice and spent orange halves to pot. Bring mixture to simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until meat is soft and falls apart when prodded with fork, about 2 hours, flipping pieces of meat once during cooking.
    3. NOTE: I used my electric pressure cooker, on HIGH, for 35 minutes.
    4. Remove pot from oven and turn oven to broil. Using slotted spoon, transfer pork to bowl; remove orange halves, onion, and bay leaves from cooking liquid and discard (do not skim fat from liquid). Place pot over high heat (use caution, as handles will be very hot) and simmer liquid, stirring frequently, until thick and syrupy (heatsafe spatula should leave wide trail when dragged through glaze), 8 to 12 minutes. You should have about 1 cup reduced liquid.
    5. NOTE: This took closer to 20-25 minutes, for me.
    6. Using 2 forks, pull each piece of pork in half. Fold in reduced liquid; season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread pork in even layer on wire rack set inside rimmed baking sheet or on broiler pan (meat should cover almost entire surface of rack or broiler pan). Place baking sheet on lower-middle rack and broil until top of meat is well browned (but not charred) and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, flip pieces of meat and continue to broil until top is well browned and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes longer. Serve immediately with warm tortillas and garnishes.

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    Comments

    • ShaleeDP
      ShaleeDP
      Such a wonderful recipe.

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