Carnita Dreams

Yummy Carnitas

My husband and I love Mexican food. And, by love, I mean LOVE!  Luckily, our small town has a fabulous Mexican restaurant, Cancun. The food there is so good! I can only think of one think I wouldn't order there again. Everything else is so delicious! Our (DH and my) favorite thing on the menu is their carnitas. They are beyond yummy! The flavor of the pork makes me feel as if I am in heaven, even for the briefest of moments.

Ever since eating the carnitas there for the first time, I have been desperate to find a good carnita recipe so I can make them at home. I keep searching and searching with no luck. I've come very close to begging the owner of the restaurant to allow me in the back to watch how they are made. (I have asked her how they are made, but she claimed ignorance.) Until I get the nerve up to do just that, I will keep trying out carnita recipes until I find "The One."

This week, I did try a slow cooker carnita recipe that I found on Pinterest.  The recipe seemed fairly easy and quite promising. While it didn't leave me in heaven, like Cancun does, it did turn out quite gratifying.  It is a recipe I will likely make again in the future, once we finish the leftovers that are in the freezer now.

The recipe calls for 3 pounds of pork shoulder/butt. I ended up getting over 6 pounds because there was no smaller size available to me at the grocery store. I bought the presliced pork butt, thinking it would be easier to cut it down in size that way. It was, but I didn't realize that each slice had a bone. So, I had a bit of prep to do ahead of time.

After all the prep was done with removing the bones, I seasoned each piece of meat with taco seasoning, rubbing it all over the meat. I did use a bit of olive oil on the meat to help spread the rub onto the meat. It made it so much easier doing it that way. Next, I seared each piece of meat in skillet before adding it to the crock pot. As the meat seared, I sliced up the onion and put it in the bottom of the crock pot. I figured this would add much more flavor to the meat than just adding it at the end. I put the meat on top of the onion.

Searing the meat

When I had all the meat in the pot, I decided I should use the enchilada sauce to deglaze the pan, making sure to get up all the brown bits. You have to do this quickly because you don't want to lose too much of the sauce. From there, I poured the sauce over the meat then added the green chiles. I added them early into cooking for the same reason I added the onion. More flavor.

Once everything was in the pot, I placed the lid on top, made sure it was plugged in, and cooked the meat on high for the next 5 hours.

In the crock pot ready to cook.

Unfortunately, we did not eat the carnitas that night.  It was stormy outside, requiring my husband to put in some over time at work (he's a meteorologist).  So, the carnitas went into the fridge until the next night. DH and I were anxious to try them. We weren't disappointed. They were yummy! Were they as good as our local place? Nope, but we liked them all the same. I guess that is all that matters in the end.