For my brother-in-law John’s 30th birthday my sister and I threw him a ‘fiesta’ with some semi-authentic latin cuisine – its kinda one of our favorite types of foods (we grew up in LA after all). That was a year and a half ago. I’ve made this several times since then, including for a group of guys from Central America who all gave me the stamp of approval. One even asked me ‘are you sure you’re not a Mexican?’ – which was hilarious. I’ve been asked time and time again for the recipe so I took a picture of my hastily scrawled recipe in my recipe notebook and text it. I’m glad that I finally got to properly write the recipe and share it with you!
much love.
jess
Jessie’s Carnitas
Author:
Ingredients
- 2 3 to 4 lbs pork shoulder butts, room temperature
- 5 large oranges, juiced
- 2 brown onions, sliced
- 4 – 6 cups stock, chicken or pork
- 1 bunch of cilantro, stemmed
- 6 garlic cloves
- 6 bay leaves
- 3 cardamom pods, crushed and ground with shells removed
- 4 tablespoons kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons garlic powder
- 3 tablespoons onion powder
- 2 tablespoons Spanish paprika
- 2 tablespoons cumin
- 2 tablespoons coriander
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees.
- In a cast oven dutch oven place the room temperature pork, sprinkle the kosher salt until well covered. Next sprinkle all of the spices over the meat. Pour in the orange juice and stock. Cover with sliced onions, cilantro, garlic and bay leaves. Cover and cook for 6 – 8 hours or until the pork is fork tender.
- Turn oven to broil. On a rimmed baking sheet place the chunks of pork and break apart with the tongs. Spoon ½ – 1 cup of cooking liquid on to pork being sure to include some of the rendered fat. Place pork on the top rack and broil for 10 minutes or until top layer of pork is well caramelized.
- Remove and let sit 5 minutes prior to serving.
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