Carnitas!

How to make carnitas...

Start with some boneless country pork strips or other hunks of porky flesh. (That sounded rather odd - but I think I'll leave it.) How much? How many people are you having over? Might as well have some leftovers. Get enough meat. I used maybe 2 1/2 lbs or so. Cut up your pork into roughly 2" chunks.

Put this in a large pot with a heavy bottom and add water to cover plus a few inches. Put this on the stove on high and start adding your seasonings:

Add two jalepenos - I just throw them in whole. Toss in two oranges cut into quarters - skins and all. One medium brown onion cut in half goes in as well along with some thyme. Let's be honest here - I'm not much of a measurer - but it was roughly a heaping tablespoon. Since I didn't use stock I also added some chicken boullion. I was out of garlic or I would have thrown in some of that too. Sometimes I use cumin as well but this time I didn't. Use what sounds/smells good in your spice cupboard and has a sort of mexican flair to it.

Now bring it up to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, put on a lid and cook it for a few hours until it's really tender. Stir it up every hour or so and check on it.

When ready, seperate the broth, meat and cooked veggies. Throw away the veggies.

You have two options now - oven or stove top.

For oven, get out an oven safe skillet, put in the meat and about 1/2 cupish + milk. Yep. Milk. Mix it in and put it in the oven at 425. The milk will help it to brown. Reduce the broth on the stove. After 15 minutes, check meat. If well browned, begin adding reduced stock, scraping up browned bits and return to oven. Repeat this until stock is gone and meat is irresistable.

For stove top, brown meat in a little oil on stove and add some stock to pan to scrape up browned bits. Add salt and pepper to taste - since you're not using all the stock you may need to add some. This method is best for when you forget to start cooking the carnitas early enough in the day and now it's getting late - so come on and cook them and let's eat! ;)

Good served on flour tortillas with pepper jack, salsa or tapatio, sour cream, lettuce and lime juice. Or just straight from the pan.