Best Beer Braised Pork Carnitas Tacos Recipes

BEER-BRAISED CARNITAS TACOS

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium heat (I use a 5 qt le creuset) and add the lard to the pot. Season the pork chunks liberally with salt and pepper.
• Place pieces of pork in the pan and brown on all sides. Add sliced onion, oranges, and garlic cloves to the pot and arrange around the pieces of pork. Then, add cumin, bay leaf, and dried chilies. Add beer and sprinkle the salt all over. If there is not enough liquid to come 3/4 of the way up the pork (we don't want to cover it), add a little water. Bring to a simmer and then remove from the heat and cover.
• Place in the oven and cook for 3 hours, until almost fork tender. Remove lid and cook for 1 hour more, or until tender enough to be pulled apart with a fork. Remove pot from oven and let the pork cool to room temperature. Re-cover, place in the fridge and allow to chill overnight.
• Before serving, pull the pork from the liquid and roughly shred it into pieces, discarding large pieces of fat. Heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high heat and add the pork to the pan until crispy on one side and golden brown. Season with extra salt as needed and serve on tortillas with pickled onions, salsa verde, and cilantro with some lime wedges on the side.
• To make the salsa verde: preheat an oven to 400 degrees F. Toss the tomatillo wedges, onion, serrano, and garlic with neutral oil and lightly season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, or until the tomatillos are starting to burst. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. Transfer the contents of the sheet pan to a blender with any juices. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

BEER BRAISED PORK CARNITAS TACOS

Steps:

• 1. Get your meat ready rub with salt, cumin and chili powder all over. Mince your garlic and add to a plastic bag gallon size add bay leaf to bag as well. Zest and squeeze oranges in to bag add pork and make sure to massage juice and garlic all over. Let sit in fridge over night or 24 hours.
• 2. Take pork out after 24 hours and pat dry so it can brown. Save marinade juice and set aside. Slice onions and take seeds out of peppers. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees to have it ready. In a pot that can go in oven or you can do this with a roasting pan too. Add some oil about 2 tbs. and brown your meat all over. All you want to do is sear the meat. Take out meat after browning and add peppers and onions saute until soft and you can smell the peppers about 5 minutes or so. Deglaze the pot with beer and add meat back in the pot. Add remaining marinade and bay leaf to pot and put in 350 pre heated oven for about 4 hours. Turning meat every half hour or hour.
• 3. Af ter meat is cooked take out and start shredding and set aside. Add peppers and onions to a blender and half the cooking liquid and blend until smooth and pour over shredded pork. The liquid will keep your carnitas moist and add some extra flavor. Toss and taste for seasoning. At this point you can either put meat in fridge for when you need it or. In a skillet add some oil about 1 tbs and start browning your carnitas until golden brown and crispy. Blister your corn tortillas over fire or on a skillet and add some carnitas and your favorite toppings and enjoy. You can also serve with flour tortillas but they are traditionally served with corn tortillas. Don't forget to squeeze some lime over them. Another thing this can be made in a crock pot as well.