Diana Kennedy's Carnitas

This is an all timer, up their with the genius guacamole (where I learned to hold the garlic and embrace the juices of white onions)

Don't let the simplicity of this recipe fool you. It's fabulous!

I doubt anyone will see this so long after it was published, but I made it tonight (loved) but am wondering if I can save the rendered fat, and if so, what I can use it in. I always save bacon fat, but I’d rather not strain this but instead use it with the crispy bits. Cornbread maybe? It’s also quite dark, as I cooked it to the far end of crispy...

This is my favorite way to prepare carnitas. My family can dress these puppies up to their tastes. It is a go to meal at the camp house for the day of arrival. I can get it cooking while I do other stuff. Once I get the meat to a boil, I put them on the grill to slow cook. My nieces have the job of stirring for the crispy part.

Since my nieces want to take home tons of my beans, they have no issues when it comes time to babysit the carnitas. The grilling does give a Smokey flavor that isn’t traditional, but I don’t care. If there are leftovers, they are saved for the last night at the camp house chili. Because someone, aka me has to close up the camp house

Finding a fatty Boston butt/pork shoulder has become almost impossible in TX, good news I normally can find fat back at a Hispanic grocery. If you cannot find fat back, lard will get it done. It will not be as good, but acceptable.

This incredibly simple recipe is simply fantastic. There is no more delicious, direct way to do pork.

Two years ago I wondered where this recipe came from since I couldn't find it in the 1989 cookbook. This is what I consider carnitas coloradas. My all time favorite Mexican restaurant in San Diego use to make it this way, cubed and very crispy. Every restaurant now serves pulled pork. As I do 90% of the time. I've fed 60+ people that way but this method is my favorite.
When Hatch chiles are in season and I've got roasted chile salsa I do this recipe over mesquite charcoal on my old New Braunfels offset smoker. A full untrimmed pork loin has enough fat to go the whole way without any added lard. When it's down to more fat than water you have to scrape the bottom and flip pieces.
I'd add a photo but I don't see how to do it.
Great recipe.

oh wow....this was SO good. The best thing ever that you could make with only 3 ingredients! I cooked it all in one shallow Dutch oven and then it seemed like they were too close together to brown so I divided them into 2 pans. Tender, fatty, with crispy bits....the best.

I love the flavors you get in carnitas slow cooking! I also like to crisp them up in the oven on a baking tray just before serving to get those crispy edges. I make mine in a slow cooker: https://ethnicspoon.com/authentic-mexican-pork-carnitas/

Making this now! When you simmer the meat, is it supposed to be covered or uncovered?

Making this now, and I moved onto the frying stage, but it's not really tender. I'm wondering if I can / should add water or if it's too late. Any advice?

Made this recipe for the first time tonight and it was awesome! Another Genius Recipe win! Made it in the Dutch oven. Though the cook time is long, poem turned out perfect! Long/slow cook time made it easy to get it right!

Interesting. Checking out Diana Kennedy's original recipe on page 262 of the 1989 edition she uses absolutely no water. She starts with 4 tbls of lard and cooks ready to serve in just an hour.
How is this recipe supposed to be "Diana Kennedy's Carnitas Caseras"?

"Strips about 2-3/4 inches"??? Am I the only one who was confounded about this? To my thinking, "strips" are something like flank steak. So I did strips about 2-3/4 inches long. I was skeptical, with good reason. They turned out really great on the brown and crispy scale, but they aren't succulent *at all.* Not one little bit. Still delicious with corn tortillas, onions, cilantro -- but definitely need a healthy squeeze of lime and some hot sauce. Next time I would make it in chunks. But with all 37 comments, nobody else seemed to have a problem with this. Maybe there's an assumption that carnitas are always in larger chunks, and the "strips" part is to be taken . . . to mean chunks? Surely not. Well, anyway, I'd make it again. I love a three-ingredient recipe, especially when two of them are water and salt. But ignore the "strips" part. It's confusing and didn't really work very well.

Well, I hate to pee in the punch bowl here, that I was not very happy with this recipe.

Problemos: very time-consuming, hard to properly render the fat, and too brown and crunchy.

Time-consuming
This recipe in total took me about 3 hours.
The last hour or so required pretty regular stirring to mix the meat up, and that's just too much fiddling around for me.

Hard to render the fat
I think this recipe requires a 12 inch skillet or large flat pan, which I did not have.
With a smaller skillet, after all that liquid cooks off, you have large pieces of meat that are not in contact with a hot pan, and thus are not losing any other fat.
This then requires regular stirring, which is a bother.

Too crunchy
I found this recipe resulted in chunks of meat that were overly crispy and brown, combined with large pieces of unrendered fat.
The texture was really not very pleasant.

On a more constructive note, the technique I use repeatedly which gives fantastic results is to put it into a pressure cooker, or crockpot if you lack a pressure cooker.
The pressure cooker gets it done in about 30 minutes, and flavors to meet with whatever sort of yummy Ness you want to add in terms of liquid, such as orange juice, oregano, etc.
Then, you can shred the meat with a couple of forks, put it on a foil covered sheet pan under the broiler for about eight minutes, and get a lovely browning.
Advantages: much faster, perfectly rendered fat, more flavor options to add, and more consistent texture.

I've made this for Mexican friends several times, and I always get the thumbs up, for what that's worth.

Well in this area I'm lucky to live in California. In the greater Bay Area there is a chain of Mexican groceries named Mi Pueblo. There you can buy prepared carnitas for $7-8 a pound. One big difference between theirs and these here is the cut up size of the raw pork. They cut the pork shoulder into very large very large(grapefruit sized) pieces and then cook as described in a large cauldron. You end up buying very large chunks which are very browned on the out side and pink and tender on the inside. When I get home I cut a chunk into 1"-1-1/2" cubes which I re-brown in their own rendered lard until crispy on the outside. My main advantage is being able to skip the main preparation entirely but cooking in large chunks for later browning I'm sure retains more of the pork juices rather than loosing them during boiling. Can also buy Queso fresco(mexican cheese) many fresh salsas, mexican specific produce and the very most excellent fresh made tortilla chips(a little greasy as opposed to those baked things you find in regular stores) at Mi pueblo.

Making this today with https://food52.com/recipes/8746-jalapeno-apple-slaw-with-honey-lime-vinaigrette

Made this last night, Yum! We raised our own heritage breed pigs, and this is a perfect way to use shoulder roast. Thanks you!

I've now made this twice in a week! I love it and so refreshingly simple!

This is IT! Sometimes perfection is so simple. Thank you, Diana

I pressure cook my pork and spread it out on a baking sheet, and stick it under the broiler to brown. Fast and easy. Or dry roast it in a dry frying pan. The fat in and on the meat browns well this way. (Ours is a Mexican family too) : )