Carnitas question

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
1

I am going to be using this recipe:

would you use the orange with or without the peel?

and what do you think of the recipe if anything and/or do you have a better one?

(I am all ears/eyes lol)

Thanks!

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2

With :slight_smile: He’s a very dependable cookbook author IMO.

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3

I would leave the peel on the orange, the oils in the skin add a different flavor from the juice.

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4

http://www.homesicktexan.com/2008/07/carnitas-houston-style.html I just stumbled upon that recipe . Seems interesting and makes sense . I put it on my favorites bar for later .

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5

wow thanks everyone! I used the orange with the peel

if there is a good amount of fat left would you skim some of it or leave it?

thanks again :slight_smile:

6

How much pork fat you eat is up to you. Skimming some off is totally ok.

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7

Thanks everyone, it came out a little dry actually

I am thinking of adding some chicken broth and or some vegetable oil

it WAS tasty tho! yum

8

I have made carnitas many times in the past with great results. I usually use orange juice instead of whole oranges.

However, this thread caused me to pop into my local carneceria, (la Michoacana), for a pound of their carnitas yesterday morning. I’m in Houston and can think of four places to get carnitas within two miles of my house!

My son and I had them for lunch yesterday as a tacos with pickled red onions and thinly sliced serranos.

Yummy.

9

Actually I found the recipe a little confusing on first read - so wonder what you did and if that maybe contributed to it being dry.

The recipe says to:

cook until the pork is fork-tender and the liquid has completely evaporated, 1½ to 2 hours. If the liquid hasn’t evaporated after 2 hours, transfer the pork pieces to a bowl and let the liquid continue to bubble away, stirring often, until it has.

It never has you return the pork to this liquid (which technically wouldn’t exist anymore since you let it bubble away until it completely evaporated - and honestly how do you cook liquid until it has completely evaporated all on it’s own . . . you’d be left with burnt residue all on your pot). Those confusing instructions aside, it makes me feel like this recipe may err on the dry side, especially for grocery store pork - which I find to be leaner and more dry than heirloom pork. So the dryness could be a result of both the type of pork and a recipe that tends towards dry. I’d try adding some stock and fat in combination (as was your instinct) and see if that helps bring it back at all.