Mamacita's Pork Carnitas

By kishthecook

Mama's slow roasted, juicy, moist, crunchy carnitas! Packed with sabor! Que bueno!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs pork roast- boneless cut into 2" chunks
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 onion, peeled and cut into 1/4s
• 2 TBS fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1 orange, cut in half
• 1 TBS mexican seasoning (good red chili powder, Mex. oregano, cumin, dash of cinnemon and dash of cloves)
• 4 cloves garlic, no need to peel
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp blk pepper
• PICO DE GALLO: mix together
• 2 large tomatoes chopped
• 1/2 diced onion
• 3-4 cloves garlic- chopped
• 1 serrano chili- chopped
• chopped cilantro
• squeeze o lime
• dash of salt and sugar to taste

Preparation

Step 1

adjust oven rack to low/mid oven. Heat to 300
in a Dutch oven pot on stovetop, combine pork, broth, Mex. seasoning, Bay leaves, onion, garlic, lime juice, salt, sugar and pepper. Juice the orange into the pot and throw the 2 spent orange halves in with the rest. Liquid should just barely cover the pork. Bring mixture to simmer on stove top, then cover and transfer to oven. Cook about 2 hours. Remove pot from oven and turn oven to broil. With a slotted spoon, remove pork chunks to a shallow pan. Place a large strainer or seive over a bowl. Remove the orange halves and bay leaves and discard. With your slotted spoon, scoop the remaining chunky solids from the cooking juice and place them in the seive. Squish the solids to smash out all the liquidy flavors into the bowl. Discard the smashed solids. Add the bowl of squished juices back into to the pot with the cooking liquid and bring to a boil on stove top. Cook down the liquid until reduced to about 1 cup and is thick and syrupy, 20 minutes or so. Season to taste if needed. Meanwhile, back at the pork pan, shred the pork with 2 forks into 1 inch(ish) chunks ("carnitas" meaning little meats) Mix the pork "carnitas" and about 1/2 the PICO DE GALLO back into the thickened cooking liquid. Mix well. Spread the pork mixture onto a deep baking sheet and place in oven/broiler. Broil until the tops of the meats are brown and crisp. DONT LET IT BURN! Keep an eye on it! Stir carnitas mixture in pan and continue to brown.. be careful, you want it well roasted but not burned. Remove pan from broiler and scrape the roasted carnitas into a dish, stir in the remaining PICO DE GALLO and serve with warm corn tortillas and queso fresco!