Carnitas (only 3 ingredients!)

Carnitas Tacos

Carnitas are perhaps the most well know food item from Mexican cuisine found in the United States. Seemingly every taco truck, taqueria, and Mexican restaurant in the country serves carnitas in some form, as do a surprisingly large number of non-Mexican cuisine focused establishments. These delicious morsels of pork are tender, succulent, perfectly fried, and absolutely delicious whether stuffed into tacos, burritos, tamales, tostadas, gorditas, and more. Carnitas are also exceedingly easy to make at home!

While the recipe provided here does not use the large copper pots and pork lard used by the true carnitas experts, it does produce outrageously delicious carnitas that pay homage to the history of the dish and Mexican cuisine. This particular recipe comes courtesy of Diana Kennedy, a very well known cookbook author with an extensive background in Mexican cuisine. You can find it over on the Food52 website, here and here, or in Kennedy's "The Essential Cuisines of Mexico" cookbook.

For the home cook, all you need are the three ingredients, a heavy-sided pot like a Dutch oven, and a little bit of time (most of it hands-off time). Cut up the pork, add some salt, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer until the water has boiled away, the pork fat has rendered, and the pork is lightly fried. Then, use in whatever your favorite dish is. In this post, we enjoy them in straightforward street tacos using corn tortillas and topped with fresh minced onion and cilantro. A little hot sauce is a great addition if you enjoy some spice on your tacos.

Time: 2½ to 3 hours

Serves: 4-6 people, 2-3 tacos each

Ingredients

• ~3 pounds boneless pork shoulder or butt, skin removed (and deboned if not boneless)
• 2 tsp salt (use a bit more if kosher salt)
• cold water to cover

Directions

1. Cut pork into pieces a bit larger than a 1" cube. They don't need to be all the same size or shape.
   
   

   

   Pork and salt

   
   

   

   Covered with water

   
   
2. Add pork and salt to the Dutch oven and barely cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, uncovered.
   
   

   

   Carnitas at a simmer

   
   

   

   After simmering for about an hour

   
   
3. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until water has evaporated, about 1½ hours. Meat should be cooked but not falling apart.
   
   

   

   Simmering pork in rendered fat

   
   
4. Lower heat a bit more (low simmer) and continue to cook pork in its rendered fat until meat is lightly browned all over, about another hour.
   
   

   

   Pan-frying carnitas

   
   
5. [optional] Heat a small nonstick pan over medium to medium-high heat. When warm, add some of the carnitas (enough for however many tacos you want) and pan fry until the pork is nicely crisped in places.
6. Serve hot and enjoy!

Extra pictures!

Minced cilantro and onion

Carnitas Tacos with onion, cilantro, lime, and jalapeno hot sauce

Notes

• Use pork with a fair amount of fat. I have never had issues when using a good chunk of pork shoulder.
• For a straightforward carnitas taco, mince some fresh cilantro and white onion, then fill a corn tortilla with some carnitas and top with onion and cilantro. Squeeze a little fresh lime juice over the taco from a lime wedge. Optionally top with your favorite hot sauce.