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

Source: Pressure Cook Recipes

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!

Middleton Tacos

Our friends the Middletons make the most amazing tacos. We begged for their recipe so we could add it to our repertoire. Toasted corn tortillas, melted cheese, tender marinated meat, and a avocado pico for the top. Mmmmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. When the Middletons invited us over for dinner, they didn't know that their name would forever live on in our dinner rotation - because we call this dish "Middleton Tacos." (Chicken tacos doesn't seem to do the dish justice.) 

Middleton Tacos

Source: Mike and Ali Middleton

Ingredients: 

Chicken

Marinade - equal parts, garlic powder, cumin, season salt, pepper, paprika, coriander, chili powder, and Caldo de Tomate, and lime juice + enough vegetable oil to coat/cover the chicken. 

Corn tortillas

Cheese

Lettuce

Avocado Pico - equal parts diced tomatoes, onion, avocado, and cilantro

(For three chicken breasts, I used about one teaspoon of each spice for the marinade and about 1 1/2 -2 cups of oil. I also used 2 tomatoes, 2 avocados, and one onion.) 

Directions: 

The night before, slice chicken breasts into tenders (allowing more of the meat to come into contact with the marinade). Combine marinade spices and oil.  Pour marinade over chicken in a tupperware container and thoroughly coat chicken. Let sit overnight. 

Grill chicken until cooked through. Slice into thin strips (or you could shred). 

Place corn tortillas on a griddle, toast on one side (abt. 1 minute) then flip and cover with cheese. When cheese is melted, add chicken, pico mixture, and lettuce - and serve! 

*When making this for a group of people, you can start crisping up the tortillas and melting the cheese right before serving, then place the tortillas on a cookie sheet. You can cover them with parchment paper and then add a second layer of tortillas for people to grab as they start making their tacos. But don't use wax paper or the cheese will stick. It's also good to have someone manning the griddle to keep the warm tortillas coming.