Sunday, July 23, 2017

Pork Carnitas (Instant Pot)

*Notes: I used some super cheap pork chops that I got on sale and they were awesome. You could make this in a slow cooker and then just crisp them up at the end the same way.


Pork Carnitas

Ingredients: 
3 ¼ pounds pork shoulder meat, cut into 2–3 inch cubes
1 cup chicken broth

Marinade
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon soy sauce
juice from 1 fresh orange or 3 Tbs orange Juice Concentrate
salt and black pepper


8 – 12 corn tortillas
Salsa (pico de gallo)
1 lime

Directions:
Peel and crush garlic, chop onion, cut pork into cubes. Combine marinade ingredients. Place pork, onions and garlic into the Instant Pot's inner pot and cover with marinade. Let sit for 20 minutes.

Add chicken broth to the inner pot. Close lid and pressure cook:
Pressure Cooking Method: High Pressure for 30 minutes
Pressure Release Method: 15 minutes Natural Release

Release the remaining pressure after 15 minutes and open the lid carefully.

Crisp Pork Shoulder Cubes by transfering the pork shoulder cubes onto a baking tray. Drizzle some of the cooking liquid on to each piece. (The cooking liquid should be mostly fat. If not, mix ¼ cup cooking liquid with 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and drizzle over each piece of pork. The fat & oil will protect the meat from drying out and the surface will crisp faster.)

Place pork shoulder cubes under a broiler or the top rack of a preheated 450°F toaster oven until the surface is crisped. Roughly 8 – 10 minutes.

Flip the pork shoulder cubes, drizzle each piece with more cooking liquid and place in the oven again until the surface is crisped.

If you are serving the Carnitas with corned tortillas, you can heat up the corn tortillas when the pork is browning in the oven.

You can shred the meat with forks or leave them as chunks. Serve hot, on top of tortillas and topped with salsa and lime!