Tacos de Carnitas recipe

Juicy shredded pork tacos with tomatillo salsa

Posted 2023-10-24

Time

Prep: 25 minutes
Cook: 4h 10m

Ingredients

Meat

• 1.5kg boneless pork shoulder
• 1 medium orange
• 0.5 medium white onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil

Salsa verde

• 6 medium tomatillos
  • If you can’t get tomatillos, Waitrose sells tomatillo salsa you can use instead of making it
• 2 jalapeño peppers
• 0.5 medium white onion
• 2 cloves garlic

To serve

• 24 corn tortillas
• 1 medium white onion
• ~6g (1/2 cup) chopped fresh coriander leaves and stems
• 150g (1 cup) queso fresco
  • Can be DIYed, or ricotta or paneer can be good substitutes

Method

Prepare the onions

1. Finely dice one onion and combine with the chopped coriander.
2. Refrigerate until needed.

Cook the meat

1. Split onion into quarters and halve the 4 garlic cloves and set aside.
2. Cut the pork into ~5cm cubes.
3. Season the pork with 1tbsp salt.
4. Place the salt in a glass/ceramic baking dish with just enough space for the meat plus other bits.
5. Split the orange into quarters, squeeze its juice over the pork and nestle the squeezed orange pieces into the dish.
6. Add 2 onion quarters, 4 halved cloves of garlic, bay leaves and the cinnamon stick (broken into 3-4 pieces) to the dish.
7. Nestled everything into an even layer.
8. Pour vegetable oil over the surface.
9. Cover the dish tightly with aluminium foil and place it in the oven.
10. Cook until pork is fork tender, about 3.5 hours.
11. Set a fine sieve over a 1L measuring cup or bowl.
12. Using tongs, remove and discard the orange peel, onion, garlic, cinnamon stick and bay leaves.
13. Transfer the pork, rendered fat and cooking liquid into the strainer.
14. Allow to drain for 10 minutes.
15. Transfer pork back to the baking dish.
16. Using a flat spoon or fat separator, skim the fat from the surface and add it back to the pork.
17. Shred the pork into large chunks with fingers or two forks.
18. Season to taste with salt.
19. Refrigerate until ready to serve - this can be overnight, or in the freezer for weeks.
20. Save the remaining cooking liquid for the salsa.

Make the salsa verde

1. Put the remaining liquid from the pork into a medium saucepan.
2. Remove the husks from the tomatillos and halve them.
3. Remove the stems of the jalapeños and halve them lengthwise.
4. Halve the 2 garlic cloves
5. Add tomatillos, 2 remaining onion quarters, garlic cloves to the saucepan.
6. Add water until it is 2.5cm below the top of the vegetables.
7. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to a simmer.
8. Cook until all vegetables are completely tender, about 10 minutes.
9. Blend salsa with an immersion blender until smooth.
10. Season to taste with salt.
11. Allow to cool and refrigerate until ready to use.

Crisp up the meat

1. Preheat grill to high with oven rack 10cm below heating element.
2. Grill the pork on a baking sheet until brown and crisp on the surface, about 6 minutes.
3. Remove tray, stir with a spoon to expose new bits to heat, and grill again until crisp, 6 more minutes.
4. Tent with foil to keep warm.

Heat tortillas

1. Meanwhile, heat the tortillas. preheat a (not non-stick) pan over medium-high heat until hot.
2. Working one tortilla at a time, dip tortilla in a bowl filled with water.
3. Transfer tortilla to hot skillet.
4. Cook until water evaporates from the first side and tortilla is browned in spots, about 30 seconds.
5. Flip and cook until dry, about 15 seconds more.
6. Transfer tortilla to a tortilla warmer, or wrap in a clean dish towel or foil.
7. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Assemble

1. To eat, stack 2 tortillas on top of each other.
2. Add 2-3 tablespoons carnitas mixture to centre.
3. Top with salsa verde, chopped onions and coriander, and queso fresco.
4. Serve with lime wedges.

Source

• Serious Eats - No-waste tacos de carnitas with salsa verde

Verdict

• The meat smells amazing and tastes great when fresh out the oven, but always seems a little underwhelming when reheated.
• Tomatillos are hard to get and expensive here so I’ve only ever bought tomatillo salsa - meaning I’m missing out on the good sauce!