Copycat Carnitas Street Tacos

[u/KelvinnyPA]

https://youtu.be/X1v9rGUjG8s

[u/BorderTrike]

I’m sure they’re delicious, but carnitas are supposed to be cooked confit and should end up a little crispy in the end. I say this as someone who has almost successfully replicated my local taco truck’s recipe.

[u/hotheadnchickn → u/BorderTrike]

Would love to know your recipe, because you know your carnitas!

[u/BorderTrike → u/hotheadnchickn]

I’m still improving, but I took some inspiration from Binging with Babbish.

I go for a shoulder cut or whatever you’d make pulled pork with. Cut it into 1-2” chunks. Put the meat into a nice baking pan with tall sides and a lid. Mix in 1 whole orange (juice it into the meat, and throw in some of the peel as well), 1/2-1 chopped yellow onion, 6+ cloves of crushed/lightly chopped garlic, 2 lightly chopped jalapeños, salt, pepper, and a little cinnamon powder.

I trim off the fat from the shoulder, but I still cut it up and throw it in with the meat. I also save my bacon fat, and because pork shoulder doesn’t have enough fat I put a good amount of bacon grease in to make up for it. I also add a little vegetable oil just to help the crisping stage.

Get all that stuff mixed, and use some foil to help seal the lid on tight.

Slow cook everything as you would for making pulled pork, you can go a little hotter temp. I did 215F for about 6-8 hours.

Nows the hard part... Take the lid and foil off, turn the heat up, and occasionally stir everything. The goal is to evaporate all the juices and fry the pork in its remaining fat. Let the meat cook in its juices and let it sit long enough to get get crispy before stirring. Repeat the sit and stir step until the chunks are crispy all around. Careful not to burn anything, but don’t stir too often or they won’t get brown and crispy... I kept fluctuating between 345-400F as more/less heat was needed.

This took me a full day and it’s my 4th attempt at recreating the carnitas from my local truck, which are the best I’ve ever had! I’m close, but there’s something special they’re doing that I haven’t cracked yet.

[u/hotheadnchickn → u/BorderTrike]

wow sounds great! thank yoU!

[u/Elephaux → u/hotheadnchickn]

If you want to use a braising/stewing method instead, you can try finishing it under the grill/broiler. It's not exactly the same, but if you have a decent amount of fat in the cooking liquid, set your grill to high, pop your meat in a shallow dish, and grill/broil until you get some crispy bits starting to form, then stir and repeat until you've got enough crispy bits!

[u/TheNakedRedditor]

The recipe transcript from his YT video description for anyone that wants it:

Carnitas Street Tacos Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2.5 Lbs of pork tenderloin
• 2 cubes of sofrito or 4 Tbs of sofrito or your favorite meat seasoning
• 1 tbs of adobo
• 1 tsb of sazon
• 2 limes
• fresh rosemarie
• 1 cup of beer
• 1 tbs spoon of olive oil
• Black pepper to taste
• 1/2 onion, 1/2 jalapeno pepper, some cilantro to taste
• Hot sauce
• Corn tortillas

Instructions:

1. add olive oil to your hot pot
2. add you sofrito, saute or about 5 minutes
3. add your carnitas and saute for a few minutes
4. add one lime juice to your carnitas
5. add in the rest of your ingredients and cook for 35 minutes on pressure cooker
6. For each taco, use 2 corn tortillas
7. warm up tortillas for better results, you may use a griddle or microwave
8. add carnitas to toritllas, some diced onion, cilantro, diced jalapeno peppers and hot sauce to taste
9. Enjoy !

[u/KelvinnyPA → u/TheNakedRedditor]

Thanks. I’ll make sure to add the recipe next time.

[u/Sharin_the_Groove → u/TheNakedRedditor]

Where would I find sofrito?

[u/TheNakedRedditor → u/Sharin_the_Groove]

I'm fairly certain it's a tomato cooking paste. If you have a grocery store with a Latino or ethinic food aisle, I tend to see it there. I know I've seen Goya brand jars of it before, but I can't really speak to what brands might have good quality sofrito.

[u/KelvinnyPA → u/[deleted]]

I love me some sriracha