Carnitas are the bomb… or at least they can be. You’ll know good carnitas when you taste them… fatty, salty, porky, tender, and delicious. If done right, they are the quintessential taco filling. When I think “authentic Mexican”, I think of carnitas tacos, a drizzle of salsa verde, and the classic garnish of cilantro & onion… and then I get hungry. Lucky for us, it’s really bleeping easy to make legendary carnitas at home.

All you need is pork, salt, heat, and time. The rest is extra. Specifically, you want to use pork shoulder, or pork “butt” as it’s marketed in some stores. The shoulder is a frequently used muscle filled with strengthening connective tissues (mostly collagen) that ultimately yield a tough cut of meat. This is why you likely won’t enjoy a piece of pork shoulder that’s quickly fried in a pan - the connective tissues won’t dissolve, and you will chew until your jaw hurts. In order to make this cut tender, you need to break down the tough connective tissue. This can be achieved through low and slow cooking. If done right, the collagen that is responsible for tightening the grains of meat will literally melt, converting into gelatin and providing a succulent mouthfeel that is nonexistent in leaner cuts of meat.

Also… fat is your friend here. Truly authentic carnitas are cooked in tubs of lard, essentially a large-scale pork confit. If you really want to explore the details, read up on this article about confit from my favorite food science author, J. Kenji López-Alt. To summarize, by confit-ing your pork, or cooking it low and slow in fat, you can maximize moisture retention, guaranteeing some delectable carnitas.

One contributing factor to the success of this method is that fat repels water. If fat is surrounding your meat, guess where the moisture attempting to escape your meat is going? Nowhere... For the most part, you are forcing all that good moisture right back inside the pork because the fat literally won’t let it leave.

This sounds magical and all, but you also must keep track of another important factor: temperature. Basically, the lower the temperature, the harder it is for moisture to escape. It’s the same thing as boiling a pot of water; the more heat you apply, the easier and faster your water will boil away as steam. Speaking of steam, once the moisture in the meat is hot enough to evaporate, it will readily escape and never return, regardless of any fat that may be providing resistance. Assuming the moisture within meat is mostly water, we can estimate its boiling point to be about 212˚F, equal to that of water. Therefore, to guarantee the best possible carnitas, you want to keep the meat cooking at a temperature under said boiling point, preventing that precious moisture from escaping as steam. One thing to note: ovens don’t perfectly transfer heat, so to achieve a cooking temperature of say, 200˚F, you probably need to set your oven to 225˚-275˚F, depending on your oven’s efficiency.

It goes without saying that the lower your temperature is, the longer the cooking process will have to be. If you don’t have the time or patience, feel free to crank the temperature up a few notches. I know it goes against everything I just described, but I’d say anything under 325˚F is acceptable. Yes, you will have some moisture loss through evaporation, but as long as you keep the temperature on the lower side, it should turn out fine. See, the rate of evaporation is directly related to temperature. The more you push the temperature past the boiling point, the faster your precious juices will convert into gas and fly away. Either route you go, I can guarantee that these carnitas will be more than edible. I may or may not have cranked up the heat myself.

Ingredients

Makes about 6 servings

• 1 big ‘ole pork shoulder

• Any neutral oil (canola, vegetable, sunflower)

• Salt

• Garlic - at least 5 large cloves

• Onion - I just used the leftover hunk of red onion in my fridge

• Bay leaves - 4 should do… A very necessary flavor in carnitas IMO

• Orange Juice - just a splash, or a squeeze from a fresh orange

• Cumin - a heavy pinch

• Oregano - a heavy pinch

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees F.

2. Chop your pork into chunks.

3. Salt liberally. I just heavily dust the chopped meat while it’s still on my cutting board.

4. Pick a cooking vessel that requires you to pack the pork tightly into a single layer (see image). Crediting no one else but Kenji for this awesome method. See, pork shoulder has plenty of fat on it… you could even say it has enough fat to conift itself (gasp). If you check on your pork while it’s cooking, you will see that the fat is melting off the meat and pooling at the bottom of the cooking vessel. By packing the pork into a shallow layer, you are maximizing the meat’s exposure to it’s own melted fat, ultimately creating the lazy man’s confit. That being said, you probably won’t see the entirety of the pork submerged, but there should be enough fat for some serious magic to happen.

5. Before it all goes into the oven, add all of your other flavorings along with a drizzle of oil. Give it a quick mix.

6. Place the pork into the oven, loosely covered. Cook for 3-4 hours or until it is fork tender.

7. Remove meat and set aside. Discard bay leaves. Shred meat once cooled. Mix some of the fat + juices back in with the shredded meat (sinful, I know).

8. My favorite part. Crisp up your carnitas. With all the natural fat, carnitas crisp up beautifully. I like to smoosh a serving of them onto a hot pan until you see browning at the edges - about a minute. Upon scraping off, you will immediately lay witness to a gorgeously brown, savory layer of heavenly crispiness. AKA, the perfect foil for the otherwise tender, meaty carnitas. Did I mention this was the ultimate taco filling?

9. Pile up on heated corn tortillas. Serve with salsa verde, diced onion, cilantro, lime wedges, and your favorite hot sauce… Enjoy.