Carnitas
Carnitas is confit, Mexican style: pork cooked slowly in a little liquid with lard; the liquid gradually boils away and the meat finishes in its own fat, tender enough to fall apart under a fork. But that is not the end — success is decided in the final quarter of an hour, when the shredded meat is crisped. Without that step carnitas is simply wet braised pork; with it you get the contrast of a soft centre against crisp browned edges.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Salting the meat 60 min
- Braising 150 min
- Reducing the liquid 25 min
- Crisping 15 min
- Serving 15 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneSalt the meat an hour ahead
Cut the shoulder into 6 cm chunks, rub with salt and leave in the fridge for an hour. In that time the salt has a chance to penetrate deeper and season the meat evenly.
Ingredients: 2000 g pork shoulder · 150 g lard · 1½ tbsp salt
Put everything in a pot and barely cover
Arrange the meat in a wide, heavy pot with the lard, the onion cut into quarters, the garlic and the spices. Halve the orange, squeeze the juice into the pot and drop in the halves. Add the milk and enough water that the liquid barely covers the meat. Too much liquid means boiling rather than confiting — the meat then leaches out instead of taking on flavour.
Ingredients: 1 pcs orange · 1 pcs onion · 6 cloves garlic · 3 pcs bay leaves · 1 pcs cinnamon · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tbsp oregano · 200 ml milk · 1000 ml water
Liquid barely covering — this is not meant to be a boil.Braise two and a half hours uncovered
Cook over very low heat, uncovered, for 150 minutes, until the meat falls apart. Without a lid the liquid evaporates gradually and by the end only fat remains — and that fat is what crisps the meat in the final phase.
Ingredients: 2000 g pork shoulder · 150 g lard · 1½ tbsp salt
Boil off the remaining liquid
Remove the orange, onion, cinnamon stick and bay leaves and keep cooking for 25 minutes, stirring gently now and then (if there is still a lot of liquid, raise the heat to medium), until only melted fat is left and the meat begins to sizzle in it. The milk has separated into fine white curds — normal, and they caramelise sweetly.
Ingredients: 1 pcs orange · 1 pcs onion · 6 cloves garlic · 3 pcs bay leaves · 1 pcs cinnamon · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tbsp oregano · 200 ml milk · 1000 ml water
Shred coarsely, not into threads
Lift the meat out and pull it apart with two forks into coarse pieces, not fine strands. Carnitas should have bites where the structure of the meat is felt — shredded to threads it dries out under the grill within minutes.
Ingredients: 2000 g pork shoulder · 150 g lard · 1½ tbsp salt
Coarse pieces, not threads — threads dry out.Crisp under the grill for a quarter of an hour
Heat the oven grill to its highest setting (about 250 °C). Spread the meat on a tray in a single layer, spoon over two tablespoons of the fat and slide it onto the second shelf from the top for 12–15 minutes, stirring once. The edges should be dark brown and crisp, the centres moist. This step is what makes carnitas.
Ingredients: 2000 g pork shoulder · 150 g lard · 1½ tbsp salt
Dark crisp edges, centres still moist.Serve in tortillas with onion and lime
Warm the tortillas on a dry pan and pile in the meat, scattering over raw onion and coriander with a squeeze of lime. Without acid and raw onion carnitas is very rich — those two are a counterweight, not a garnish.
Ingredients: 16 pcs corn tortillas · 1 pcs white onion · 1 bunch coriander · 3 pcs limes
Before you start
Milk and orange
Lactose from the milk and sugars from the orange caramelise in the final phase and give the meat its characteristic faintly sweet edges. Coca-Cola is sometimes used for the same purpose and works — milk gives a subtler result.
Do not throw away the fat
Strain it, separate it from the jellied juices at the bottom and keep it in the fridge for up to a month. It is lard flavoured with orange and spice, excellent for frying potatoes or eggs, or for the next batch of carnitas — in Mexico carnitas fat is traditionally reused.
How much meat per person
Two kilos of raw shoulder gives about 1.2 kg cooked, which is two tacos each for eight people. Carnitas freezes very well — crisp it only after thawing, since crispness does not survive the freezer.
