As a new food blogger, I am starting to understand the importance of the food picture. It’s equally important for the food to both look good and taste great for people to be interested. When I saw the pictures of the braised carnitas at The Culinary Chronicles, I wanted to try making this right away. Her pictures are so delicious, aren’t they?
I followed her recipe exactly but the only changes I made are the amount of meat (3 lbs instead of 5), the brand of beer (the Sierra Nevada instead of Fat Tire), and cooking time (1 hr shorter than her recipe). It takes several hours to prepare, but most of the cooking time is baking in the oven. What a great weekend menu, right?
FYI, this is the recipe that I told you I wanted to share with you may be about 2 weeks ago. My focus on this blog is still Japanese food but please allow me to share non-Japanese food once in a while, especially the ones that my family and I really enjoyed. Also in Japan, the Japanese eats a lot more Westernized meals at home or restaurant than you probably guessed.
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Braised Carnitas
Ingredients
- 3 lbs boneless country pork ribs
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt (for the meat)
- freshly ground black pepper (for the meat)
- neutral oil (for cooking the meat)
- ½ onion (diced)
- 3-4 clove garlic (minced)
- 2 bottles beer (24 fl oz, 710 ml)
For Seasoning
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ¼ tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- ¼ tsp ground cumin
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC).
- Cut the meat into 5-inch (13 cm) chunks and generously season with salt and pepper.
- In a large Dutch oven, heat oil on medium-high heat. Place the pork in a single layer without overlapping each other. If your pot is small, cook in batches to avoid steaming the meat.
- Cook the meat till brown without flipping too often. When all sides of the meat are nicely seared, transfer to a plate and set aside.
- Lower the heat to medium and add the onions to the pot.
- Sauté onions until tender and then add garlic to cook for 2 more minutes.
- Add the beer.
- Scrape off all the delicious brown bits on the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.
- Add the pork back to the pot.
- Add all the seasonings.
- Mix all together.
- Braise in the preheated oven, uncovered, for about 2 ½ hours, turning the pork every half an hour during cooking.
- When much of the liquid is evaporated and the pork is falling apart, remove the pot from the oven. Take the pork pieces out to the plate so they will cool down.
- When the meat is cooled down, shred them into bite sizes with your hand. Serve with corn or flour tortillas and your choice of salsas and toppings.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for a month.
Looks good, but are you sure it takes 40-45 minutes to brown the meat
Hi Lee! It’s most likely true considering that I take recipe notes carefully. But now that I see the step by step pictures, I would DEFINITELY brown the meat in batches (to avoid steaming), instead of adding all in the pot. It’s faster that way too. And I brown all sides of the meat.
Thank you for the reply! I made this recipe tonight in the instant pot. The meat took 15 minutes to brown and cooked for 60 minutes. I used only one bottle of beer. It turned out great! Thank you for this site, I’ve made many of your dishes.
Hi Lee! Wonderful! So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks so much for trying out many of my recipes! 🙂
[…] Braised Carnitas […]
Namiko-san,
Your instructions on your website are wonderful. I love the pictures. I also live in the Bay Area, but in Livermore and I am happy to read a recipe blogger from our local area because we can shop at similar places! I think I might have seen you in Mitsuwa when I was trying to select dashi ingredients and I asked you for help.
I am going to try this carinatas recipe since I found pork shoulder on sale at Safeway for 99 cents a pound today!
Thank you!
Judy
Hi Judy! Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m happy to hear you enjoy my recipes and pictures. 🙂
Yes! I live in Peninsula, but we have some friends in East Bay so we sometimes visit them.
Really? I haven’t gone to Mitsuwa for a long time though. Could be 2 years or more… Was it that long? Mitsuwa is a bit far from me, so I usually go to Nijiya or Suruki in San Mateo.
Hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
This is one of our favorite foods. We pressure cook the pork so it is really tender. Then, it can be shredded and placed on a cookie sheet and put under the broiler for a couple of minutes to make it crispy. It can also be fried in a pan on top of the stove for an even crispier carnitas. We serve ours with pico de gallo and corn tortillas. A lime wedge is often served with these tacos. Our pico de gallo consists of chopped tomatoes, green onions (green part only) and cilantro. Don’t add salt because this will draw out all the moisture in the tomatoes and make the pico de gallo soupy and mushy. Better to salt the pork instead. Seed the tomatoes for the pico de gallo and store in a sealed container and this will last for several days and not get soupy.
I hope to buy a pressure cooker one day. Cooking time is a lot shorter and very convenient. Thanks for sharing!