(Thanks to Dave for letting me moonlight on his blog – now my pictures of cooking have a place to live)

I made my first attempt at carnitas in 2006. Seems the traditional method involves a large copper cauldron filled with lard, so that wasn’t going to be practical. While slowly deep frying a giant hunk of pork sounds delightful, my kitchen was not going to accommodate such an undertaking. My approximation was to slow cook a pork shoulder in butter, oranges, sugar, and some spices. After a few hours I cut off the fat and reduced the liquid to a sauce (adding a bit more sugar) After glazing the hunks of meat I threw them into a very hot oven. The result was crusty on the outside, moist on the inside, and all-around a source of delight. I’ve used this basic technique a few times since, varying the spices along the way. The results have always been excellent.

Lately I have tended to avoid the “butter step”: as it seemed superfluous to add a few sticks of butter to an already fatty cut of meat. I haven’t missed it. I also don’t really consider what I make to be carnitas, though it continues to be inspired by those flavors.

Ingredients

• 1 large pork shoulder (I usually use the “picnic shoulder”, about 5lbs raw)
• 1 yellow onion
• 2-4 oranges (or more, to taste — I used about 6 clementines last time I did this)
• 3 cups broth (I usually use chicken, but any tasty broth will do)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or I like to use jaggery when I have it around)
• 1/2 cup Dry Rub (or more, to taste) — you can make up your own, buy one, or use something like what I did in the pictures (all amounts are approximate):
  • 1/4 cup smoked salt
  • 3 TB garlic powder (or even better: use fresh, minced garlic)
  • 3 TB Oregano
  • 2 TB Cumin
  • 2 TB Thyme
  • 1 TB Black Pepper
  • 1 TB White Pepper
  • 1 TB sugar (brown or white)
  • 2 tsp Cinnamon
  • Zest of 1-2 oranges (I used the zest from 5 clementines in these pictures)

Prep Work

1. Zest the oranges, set zest aside to use in your dry rub or to add to the broth
2. Juice the oranges, saving both the juice and the juiced orange carcasses
   
3. (if necessary) mix your dry rub
   
4. Cut the onion into small pieces — I usually quarter it then run through a food processor slicer blade.
5. Dry the meat and, if possible, bring to room temperature

Phase I: Get the Meat Ready To Hang Out

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250°
2. In a heavy dutch oven, heat a couple tablespoons of high heat oil with a bit of salt (I like to use smoked salt for this). Once the oil is just starting to smoke, place the meat in with the fattier side down. Brown it for about 5 minutes, until the fat is nicely browned.
   

   Turn it over and brown the other side for another 3-5 minutes (optionally, brown the other outside edges, but you are just looking to get some nice browning going to flavor your onions and the broth). Once browned, remove the meat and set aside.

   
3. Immediately throw the onions in to brown in the fat that melted off the meat. Stir occasionally until translucent. This should take about 5-7 minutes, but you can let it go for quite a while, as long you don’t burn the onions.
   
4. While the onions are browning, rub the meat with the Dry Rub all over. Be sure the fattier side gets a nice coating, as that will be the side not in the liquid, but save about 1TB of the rub to sprinkle on right before you put the meat in the oven.
5. Once your onions are the way you want them, put the meat in with the fattier side facing up (which allows the fat to drip down over the meat as it melts).
6. Pour in broth to a depth of about 1-2 inches, being careful not to submerge too much of the meat. Then, pour the orange juice over the meat. Sprinkle the remaining TB of Dry Rub on the top of the meat.
7. (optional) Put the juiced orange carcasses on the top of the meat to help everything stay moist.
   
8. Cover the dutch oven and place it in the oven. Let it cook for at least 3 hours, probably 4-5 hours. I sometimes leave as long as 8 hours, though at that point the meat will completely fall apart. About 3/4 of the way through you can remove the orange carcasses and turn the meat over. I like to put a few of the onions on the top of the meat after turning it to be sure it doesn’t dry out.

Phase II: From Tasty to Sublime

1. Remove the meat from the dutch oven and place on a shallow baking pan. Turn your oven to 500° (or as hot as it gets) – you can also use the broiler, but that must be done with great caution, as it’s easy to burn the glaze and get too much of a charred flavor.
   
2. Pour the liquid from the dutch oven into a separator (or just remove the oily top layer yourself), then pour the non-oily bottom layer into a small sauce pan. At this point I like to add the brown sugar or jaggery and/or more orange juice (and sometimes more cinnamon or other spices, depending on the flavor I want for the glaze), but that’s optional. Reduce the liquid over medium heat until it becomes viscous enough to stick to the meat, about the consistency of a gravy.
   
3. While the sauce is reducing, cut the meat into large chunks, removing the larger pieces of fat (unless you love to eat hunks of fat). I usually just discard the fat at this point, but you can save it to cook with beans or whatever turns you on.
   
4. When the sauce is reduced to a glaze, use a basting brush or just spoon it over the meat, coating it as much as possible. If the meat isn’t falling apart (which it usually is) you can try dipping the pieces of meat into the glaze using a slotted spoon. Reserve the rest of the sauce to use over the finished meat as a gravy.
   
5. Put the glazed meat in the 500° oven for about 3-5 minutes. Watch is closely, as the time will vary depending on how much sugar is in the sauce and the moisture content. You want to see just a hint of blackening at the edges, at which point you want to remove it immediately or risk having hunks of char. You can’t really go wrong, so if you get impatient just take it out.

You can serve this meat with tortillas and taco fixings. I also like to serve it over polenta or rice, depending on the spice mix. If you cooked the meat enough, you could probably just go right to “pulled pork” (with or without the glazing step) if you prefer. Ideally, the meat should have a nice crust on the outside and be succulent inside. This meat should keep well for a day or two in the fridge (or even longer).