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\f0\fs24 \cf0 >> HILAH: Hey dudes, I'm Hilah, and today on Hilah Cooking I'm gonna show
y'all how to make some carnitas tacos, which is a specialty from the state of Michoacan
in Mexico.
It's basically just pork cooked for a really long time in its own fat, so it gets really
tender and juicy with lotsa little crispy bits.
This is how I make crispy bits.
So, let's get started!
\ \
[Music]\ \
[How To Make Carnitas]\ \
HILAH: So I start here.
I've got about a four pound, bone-in, Boston, pork butt?
Ha, half-butt.
You could use boneless or bone-in, whatever they have.
We're just gonna cut this up into about two-inch chunks, just cut around the bone.
\ Pull the meat away from the bone as you slide
your knife down.\ \
[cutting]\ \
HILAH: Don't cut yourself.
We're going to go ahead and hold on to this.
We'll put it in the pot and shred the rest of the meat off of it once it's cooked.
For our spices, I've got some cumin seed and some coriander seed that I ground up together,
and I'm going to dump that in.
I don't know, I don't think the coriander is traditional, but I really like the citrus
flavor that it adds to the pork.
And then, I'm going to zest an orange into this pot as well.
\ And again, not traditional, but it tastes
real, real good you guys!\ \
But you can totally leave it out.
If you just wanted to make this a simple as anything you could just do garlic and salt,
and that would still turn out really, really good.
\ \
Okay, so, about a half of a teaspoon of that, and then, I want the juice in there too, and
this adds a little bit of sweetness.\ \
[Hilah makes a dramatic crushing sound]\ \
>>HILAH: Okay, and then, some lemon, which, I don't want the seeds in there.\
So, I'll do it this way.
C'mon muscles!
Do your thing!\ A whole bunch of garlic, just rough chop it,
by the time this is cooked you're not going to be able to distinguish any garlic chunks.
Okay, and then, our pork.
I'm going to turn the heat on.
If you have a bone, just put it on the bottom.
And also, just kind of face the fattier pieces towards the bottom of the pan.
Traditionally, this is actually pork that's been boiled for a long time in lard.
So, I've kind of got a little short cut?
Not short cut but, "lard-cut" method here, where we're just gonna use the fat that's
on the pork.
But mostly, we're actually going to cook the pork in water, so, I'm actually going to add
just enough water to cook the pork.
It could be four to six cups, depending on how much pork you're using, and the size of
your pot.\ But, that's just about perfect, and I'm going
to add some salt just as soon as I wash my porky hands.
And we're just gonna let this come to a boil and then we'll turn it down to a simmer.
\ \
Okay, it take about ten minutes for it to come to a low boil, like this, on high heat.
I'm going to turn it down to kind of like a medium low.
I'm just going to let it simmer, uncovered, for three hours or until the water has pretty
much evaporated and the pork is very, very tender.
So, synchronize watches!
\ \
Okay, so just as three hours later, because I am a real wiz when it comes to clocks!
Our meat is totally cooked, and tender.
I'm taking that bone out.
Most of that meat is probably already kind of falling apart by now.
You can shred it up a little bit more but, uhm, the water has cooked off and I'm going
to turn the heat up a little bit now and just kind of let that continue to cook to get the
bottom a little bit crispy.
Sometimes you'll get carnitas that are cut up into tiny cubes, but I like it shredded,
so, I don't know, you see it both ways.
I don't really know which way is "official".\ So, a little corn tortilla there- look how
tender and it's just like, beautifully, just falling apart there.\
Just some onion and cilantro.\ \
[pause]\ \
>> HILAH: Look, it's like one of those street tacos at Taco Cabana!
That was a joke.
And a little bit of lime.
Lime is really great with these, to kind of cut through the heaviness of the pork.
And I've got some super-hot salsa I made with some chiles de arbol and water, and garlic
\ \
[pleasurable eating sounds]\ \
>>HILAH: Just like meat gravy in a taco, it's so moist and tender.
Man, that is awesome.
This is a delicious taco.
Like I was saying, you could just put this on a salad, make a little carnitas salad or
something.
But, anyway, it's amazing.
It's so easy.
You saw how easy it was, you just have to wait around for a little bit.
\ \
But, I hope you try this recipe.
If you have any questions about anything just leave them in the comments and I'll get to
them as soon as I can.
Again, thanks so much for watching and have a great day.
Happy cooking!
Bye!\ \
[MUSIC]\ }