Carnitas

Taqueria Carnitas

Last September, Lann and I did an epic West Coast road trip that took us through
Portland, Oregon all the way down the coast to San Francisco. In San Francisco we
had a few goals, one was riding across the Golden Gate Bridge, another was to eat at the infamous Chez Panisse. One thing we did not expect was to eat the best taco of
our lives!

Here is my attempt to replicate that world’s greatest taco. In my personal opinion,
what makes this taco far outweigh all other tacos is the cheese that you melt in the
tortilla before you stuff it with carnita meat, guacamole, pico de gallo and sour
cream.

P.S. I love that this recipes uses my beloved Instant Pot! I can’t say enough about this
appliance I never knew I needed until I had one!

4-5 lb boneless pork shoulder, butt or other cut
Carnitas marinade (below)
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 oz Mexican quesadilla cheese
8-10 floor or corn tortillas
Guacamole
Pico de gallo
Sour cream

Cut the meat into 2-3 inch chunks, this will allow for faster cooking time in the
Instant Pot and you will get more caramelizing when you sear the meat. Drop the
meat chunks into the marinade and let sit for at least one hour, ideally 2-3 hours.
Try to have as much of the meat covered as possible.

Once the meat has marinated, turn your Instant Pot to sauté. Add the olive oil. While
the olive oil is heated remove the meat from the marinade, DO NOT discard the
marinade. Liberally, salt and pepper all sides of the meat. Brown each chunk of meat
on all sides so there is some color. Set the meat aside once browned. You will need
to do this in three or four batches.

Once all the meat has browned add it back into the Instant Pot with the marinade.
Set the Instant Pot to manual high pressure for 30 minutes. The meat is down when
it can easily be shredded with a fork.

Shred all of the meat and lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Pour some of the
liquid from the Instant Pot over the pork. Taste to see if additional salt or pepper is
needed. Cook the meat under the broiler until there are many crispy edges, about 5
minutes. Watch this closely; it will go from not cooked at all to over cooked very
quickly.

While your meat is in the broiler you can begin prepping your tortillas. Warm your
tortillas in a cast iron skillet, fry pan or grill, sprinkle cheese on top and toast until
the tortilla is slightly toasted and the cheese has melted.

To build your taco, layer the carnitas meat, guacamole, pico de gallo and sour cream
in the tortilla.

Carnitas Marinade
1 cup beer
½ cup orange juice
½ cup lime juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper

Combine all marinade ingredients in large bowl.

Alternative method: If you’re mouth is watering over this dish but you don’t have an Instant Pot do not panic!

Here’s what you do:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the meat in 2-3 inch chunks as described
above. Marinade the meat for at least 1 hour, if not longer.

Heat your dutch oven on the stovetop, add in your olive oil and brown the meat
chunks as described above. Once you have browned all of the meat, add the meat
and the marinade to your dutch oven.

Cook in the oven, covered, for 3-4 hours or until the meat shreds easily with a fork.
The biggest difference between cooking in the Instant Pot versus the dutch oven is
that in the dutch oven you will experience evaporation of the liquid. In order to
braise the pork you need the liquid to come at least half up on the meat. In order to
accomplish this for the entire cooking time you are going to need to monitor the
liquid level and add beer, orange juice, lime juice or water throughout the cooking
process.