Authentic Crispy Carnitas Recipe
These yummy authentic carnitas are perfectly tender and juicy on the inside with a nice crisp on the outside!
Servings: 6 Servings
Ingredients
- 1 6-pound pork butt, cut into 2- to -4 inch pieces
- 2 pounds lard
- 4 sprigs fresh oregano
- ½ cup about 2.6 ounces piloncillo, chopped or grated
- 1 tablespoon salt
For Serving (Optional):
- Corn tortillas toasted
- ½ onion finely chopped
- ½ cup cilantro finely chopped
- Lime wedges
- Flaky sea salt
Instructions
- To a large pot over medium heat, add the pork, followed by the lard.
- Place the lid on the pot, and let the pork boil in the lard for 45 minutes.
- Once the 45 minutes is up, add the sugar, oregano, and salt to the pot, stir, and continue to boil for another 45 minutes (or until all of the carnitas pieces have a light golden brown color) uncovered.
- Remove the carnitas from the pot, break the pieces apart with a fork, and serve in toasted corn tortillas topped with the onion and cilantro pico, a fresh squeeze of lime, and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt.
Notes
Recipe Tips and Tricks:
- Trust the process - even though you might be tempted to cook the carnitas longer or until they develop a darker color, that can actually make the meat more tough than tender. Once you see the tops of the carnitas pieces turning a light golden brown, they’re done. (The entire piece of pork does not have to be dark brown.)
- Reuse the lard - if you plan to make this recipe (or another that calls for lard) often, save and reuse the lard. To do this, skim off the solids, let the lard cool slightly to handling temperature, and then pour it into a large mason jar or another similar glass vessel. Refrigerate and use within 2 weeks!
- Toss the bone in the pot too - if you do have a bone-in pork shoulder/butt and you can’t get all of the meat off of it, add the bone to the pot with the other pieces -- the meat will fall off of it during the cooking process!
- Use brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup - if you can’t find piloncillo, use either an equal amount of brown sugar or a ¼ cup of honey or maple syrup instead.
- Use dried oregano instead of fresh - feel free to use 2 teaspoons of dried oregano if you don’t have (or can’t find) fresh oregano.
Nutrition
Calories: 1656kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.1g | Protein: 59.2g | Fat: 155.4g | Saturated Fat: 59.2g | Cholesterol: 318.5mg | Sodium: 1079.5mg | Fiber: 0.1g