Carnitas

So I love tacos with any kind of pork, but especially love carnitas or roasted pork shoulder.  It really doesn't take much work and you'll have enough pork for days.  It's also a great dish for having people over - set up a taco bar with all kinds of fixings and everyone can serve themselves!

• 1 x 5 lb.-ish whole pork shoulder
• 2 cups chicken broth or water, more as needed
• 1 small head of garlic, cloves peeled, lightly smashed
• 2 onions, cut into large 8 wedges
• 5 or so dried chiles of your choice - I used dried Thai chiles that I had dried from fresh, but you could use guajillo or ancho chiles, or if you don't have whole chiles, go ahead and use a pinch of crushed red pepper
• 4 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp. Mexican hot sauce
• 2 Tbsp. dried onion flakes
• 2 Tbsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. dried Mexican oregano
• 2 packets of Sazon cilantro and annatto, or cilantro con achiote

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

With a sharp knife, score the skin and then make deep vertical cuts into the pork shoulder all over, and shove bits of garlic into the slits.  In a small bowl, mix the salt, cumin, oregano, and contents of the Sazon packets (this will give a little red coloring to the meat from the annatto seeds) together and then rub all over the pork shoulder, rubbing the salt mixture into the slits wherever you can.

In a large dutch oven, pour 2 cups of chicken broth or water in, add the pork shoulder, skin side down, and then scatter the dried chiles, dried onion flakes, any remaining garlic and onion wedges into the broth around the pork shoulder.  Pop the lid on and put the dutch oven into the oven.  Roast for 1 hour.  Take it out and carefully flip the pork shoulder over, put the lid back on and roast another 1-1/2 hours.  If the liquid is low, add a little more broth or water.

After the the 1 -1 1/2 hours is up, check it again and if most of the broth is gone, add just a little bit more broth or water to the bottom of the pot, remove the lid and then roast for another 30-45 minutes until the skin has browned, a lot of the fat has rendered, and the meat is tender and pulls off easily. If it's not quite there yet, let it go another 30 minutes and check and keep it going in the oven until the meat is pretty tender and pulls off easily.

Once your pork shoulder is roasted, let it cool a bit and then remove the skin and excess fat (if you're feeling inspired, make some chicharrones by cranking up the heat on the oven to about 450 degrees F, removing a lot of the layer of fat underneath the skin and then roasting the skin longer in the oven in a cast iron pan, flipping every once in a while, until crispy, and sprinkle a little salt over before serving), and pull apart the pork from the bone into bite-sized pieces or about 2" pieces, discarding any big chunks of fat or gristle or unappealing bits.

From here, you can either serve as is, which is still delicious, or, turn the oven up to 400 degrees F,  mix all the pork and whatever liquid still remains and spread out in your dutch oven or on a large rimmed baking sheet if you like and put back in the oven and roast until most of the liquid has evaporated and the pork has gotten a bit crispy.  Don't let the meat go too dry so watch it carefully, turning the pieces occasionally. You want a good mix of bits of crispy and not crispy pork. 

Serve with corn tortillas (click here to try making your own corn tortillas) and a bit of chunky guacamole, pickled red onions (click here to make these), chopped cilantro, lime wedges, Mexican hot sauce and salsa verde.

PS - I make my guacamole with a lot of the same flavors - a little cumin, garlic, some chopped up pickled red onions, cilantro, lime juice, and a little Mexican hot sauce.