The carnitas consist of cuts or pieces of pork slowly fried in the lard of the animal and in huge copper saucepans. This dish can be prepared with different parts of the pork, but the most select is the solid one. At street food stalls, it is prepared in an assortment with other parts of the animal.
This Michoacán style carnitas recipe is typical of the Mexican Kitchen, and it is tasted throughout the length and breadth of its national territory. Many consider Michoacán their place of origin, and it is famously where the best carnitas are prepared. This dish has an exquisite flavor, a very tender texture and a very appetizing golden color. For this reason, they can be eaten alone or as a filling for tacos, chilies, cakes, quesadillas, sopes, tlacoyos, flautas (golden tacos), and many others.
If you want to taste a dish with a lot of history and irresistible flavor, at UNCOMO we invite you to try how to make Michoacan style carnitas, the authentic ones with only three ingredients. In addition, we will also give you other options to prepare them. With these steps you can do the original recipe of carnitas Michoacán style for business or to enjoy at home.
10 diners
More than 2 hours
Low difficulty
Ingredients:
Steps to follow:
1
Choose the pieces of your preference. You can use: rib, tender rib (aldilla), pork crop, cuerito, head, loin and leg.
2
Wash the meat very well and dry it carefully. Put the meat in a bowl and run the tap water over it while you wash it. Then dry each piece with absorbent paper.
3
Dip the cueritos in water and reserve. Thus, they will be soft.
4
Heat the casserole. Traditionally, it is made in a copper saucepan, but it is not essential, so you can use any pot as long as it is thick, since we need the heat to be distributed evenly. If you have a copper saucepan, cure it, clean it and dry it very well before using it.
5
Pour in the lard. Wait until it dissolves, stirring a little every now and then to help the process. Once ready, let it warm up a bit.
6
Deposit the chubby ones. This piece of pork helps add color to our Michoacán-style carnitas. You will see how, as the gorditos are cooked, the oil turns a dark brown color.
7
Place the meat in the casserole to seal it. By this time, the oil should already be very hot. Incorporate the pieces with a kitchen tongs or fork; do it very carefully to avoid burning yourself. Put all the meat, except the cuerito.
8
Add a whole onion and a few peeled garlic cloves (optional). Although this time we do not put these ingredients, because we want to make Michoacán-style carnitas in the most traditional way possible, many recipes use them.
9
Flip the meat whenever you can. Pay close attention to this so that the pieces do not stick to the bottom of the pan and cook evenly.
10
Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour. At the end of this time, you will see how the meat already changes color, although it still lacks cooking. As it cooks, they will acquire that golden color characteristic of Michoacan carnitas.
eleven
Drain the cueritos very well and add them to the oil so that they are well impregnated.
12
Dissolve the salt in 1 cup of water. In this way, these juicy Michoacán-style carnitas will acquire their taste evenly.
13
Add the salt water evenly. Pour it slowly throughout the pan, taking care not to splash the oil on you.
14
Add optional ingredients. If you feel like it, you can add some of the following ingredients to your pork carnitas: bouquet of aromatic herbs (thyme, marjoram and bay leaves), sweet orange peel, and sour orange juice (if not, prepare a juice with sweet orange and lemon).
fifteen
Cook for 45 minutes or 1 hour more. After the suggested time has passed, remove the meat when it appears golden brown, and some of the preparation liquid has been consumed.
16
If you don’t add the chubby ones at the beginning, You can make the Michoacán-style carnitas with Coca Cola. Add black cola so you can brown the carnitas too. Do it after the first 20 minutes of this second batch of cooking.
17
Line a colander with absorbent paper and place it in a bowl. Later, deposit the pork carnitas inside.
18
Serve these hot Michoacan style carnitas. You can eat them in a thousand ways, such as with tacos accompanied by green sauce or taco sauce, onion, cilantro and lemon. In addition, you can give the pork carnitas a hearty touch and add pork rinds. In other cases, you can add jalapeño.
If you want to know other traditional and delicious Mexican recipes, do not hesitate to visit:
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Another interesting alternative is the baked Michoacán-style carnitas. In this recipe, you only need special oven bags (the same ones used to cook turkey) or aluminum foil. The steps to follow are very simple and we will indicate them below. Keep in mind that although the ingredients are the same, the measurements change.
- Preheat the oven to (180 ° C).Have it ready at least 10 minutes before putting the preparation.
- Put the following ingredients in the special bag: the meat, ¼ cup of butter and 1 cup of water with 1 tablespoon of diluted salt.
- Close the bag and place it on a baking dish or deep tray. If you don’t have a bag, put the ingredients in the baking dish and cover it with aluminum foil.
- Bake for 1-2 hours depending on the power of your oven. It would be great if you control the temperature with an oven thermometer or, better yet, one for grilling meats. There are inexpensive plastic ones that are used to bake turkey that can be used for this recipe.
- Take the refractory out of the oven and remove the bag or aluminum foil. Do this very carefully, as the steam can burn you. Remove the juices that the meat released and bake again.
- Cook for 30 minutes or 1 hour. If you used aluminum foil, do the same.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to make Michoacan-style carnitas, we recommend that you enter our Recipes category.
Advice
- There are many ways to prepare Michoacán-style carnitas, but they all agree on one thing: fewer ingredients, better.
- If you use copper casserole, you should cure and clean it each time you use it.
- To cure the copper casserole, use 1 tablespoon of ground salt and 3 lemons.
- If you add water in the preparation, use only enough to cover the meat.
- There are those who throw in the oranges cut into slices or cut in half (and squeeze some).