We had carnitas again last night. I’ve made a couple of changes to the recipe, and I have to say I could eat a LOT of these. We had them with Trader Joe’s homemade corn tortillas – a mistake, actually. I usually buy flour tortillas for carnitas, but we had corn on hand from tacos that we didn’t make. They were really delicious with the slightly warmed corn tortillas. We serve them with chopped cilantro, guacamole and sour cream.

Instead of using the traditional lard to make these carnitas, the meat braises in the oven until it falls apart, then it’s crisped up under the broiler.

Carnitas
Serves 4

1 (3 – 3.5 lb.) boneless pork butt, fat cap trimmed to 1.8 thick, cut into 2-inch chunks
Salt
Black Pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp. lime juice
2 cups water
1 medium orange

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine pork, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, cumin, onion, bay leaves, oregano, lime juice and water in a large Dutch oven (liquid should just barely cover meat). Juice orange, removing seeds. Add 1/3 cup orange juice. Cut spent orange halves in half and add to pot. Bring mixture to simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until meat is soft and falls apart when prodded with fork, about 2 hours.

Remove pot from oven and turn oven to broil. Using slotted spoon, transfer pork to bowl; remove oranges, onion and bay leaves from cooking liquid. Place pot over high heat and simmer liquid, stirring frequently, until thick and syrupy (a heatproof spatula should leave a wide trail when dragged through glaze), 8 to 12 minutes. Defat the liquid – there should be about 1 cup reduced, defatted liquid.

Using two forks, pull each piece of pork in half. Season with salt and pepper to taste; fold in reduced liquid. Spread pork in even layer on wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet, or on a broiler pan (meat should cover almost entire surface of rack or broiler pan). Place baking sheet on lower-middle rack and broil until well-browned (but not charred) and edges of meat are slightly crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately with warm corn tortillas and garnishes.

• Carnitas (Test Recipe)
• Black Beans