Carnitas Under Pressure
Get a head start with your pressure cooker and enjoy carnitas tonight!
Servings 6 Servings
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds pork butt/shoulder sliced into 2 inch pieces
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chile ancho powder
- Grapeseed or canola oil
You Will Also Need
- 1 small white onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 serrano or jalapeño sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds optional
- 3 inch piece of cinnamon stick
- 2 chile de arbol
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups chicken broth or orange juice
- Juice of 1 lime
Instructions
- Directions1. Season the pork, to taste, with salt, pepper, cumin and chile ancho powder. Drizzle with oil. In the pressure cooker pot, preheat a couple of tablespoons of grapeseed or canola oil to medium heat for a few minutes. Sear the pork pieces in batches and transfer onto a plate.
- To the pressure cooker pot, add the onions, garlic and chile pepper. Saute for a few minutes. Add all of the remaining ingredients listed and bring to a simmer. Taste for salt. Add pork pieces back into pot. Secure lid and lock. Raise heat to pressurize. Once the safety valve locks and begins to release steam rapidly, lower the heat to medium/low, set your timer for 40 minutes.
- Once timer goes off, carefully move pot off the burner and let sit until safety valve releases. Remove lid. Using a slotted spoon or tongs remove the carnitas into a heavy pot. Heat to medium/high. Strain the sauce from pot, discarding the solids. Reserve the sauce from carnitas. Once the liquid in the pan with carnitas evaporates, add 1-2 tablespoon of oil or manteca(pork lard). Raise heat to to crisp the outer surface of the carnitas for a few minutes.
- Transfer to serving dish and use fork or tongs to shred finely. Add about 1/2-3/4 cup of reserved sauce back into carnitas. Taste the sauce first. Sometimes it becomes more salty when the flavors are concentrated like that. Squeeze on some fresh key lime juice before serving. Toss to combine. Serve with warm tortillas, chopped cilantro, onion and your favorite salsa.
Notes
Tip! If you wanted to skip the browning of the pork in the beginning, it would be perfectly fine. I have skipped it before and the carnitas are still delicious. Try adding 1 1/2 tablespoons of molasses to the broth before adding carnitas. It will give them a nice color with just a hint of sweetness.
For Oven Method: After you sear the pork, transfer to an oven safe dutch oven. Add all of the remaining ingredients. Cover tightly and roast in a preheated 350 degree oven for 3 hours, checking for the liquid level every hour or so. Then you will follow the directions as written to finish the carnitas.