¿Where's The Beef?

For dinner last night we had the salsa (see yesterday), guacamole (made with the salsa) and carnitas (my effort to reduce carriers of the so-called "swine flu"). Everyone seemed to like the combo, so I'll let you in on the secret to a great carnitas. What is it? Time. Four hours or more, to be exact. The recipe is pretty simple.

Take (purchase, really) a three pound or so boneless pork shoulder or "butt" or whatever they call those things. You know what I mean. Place it in a dutch oven (I use our old, 40 years plus, pot we got as a wedding present). Quarter a large onion or two and put them in, also, 2 cans of "Ortega" green chiles, four cloves of garlic, smashed, four bay leaves, a generous amount of fresh ground black pepper and a can of chicken broth. If you like it spicy, you can put a fresh jalapeño pepper, cut in half lengthwise. Place the pot, uncovered in the oven set at 350 degrees. The broth may or may not cover the pork, it doesn't matter. Let it cook for an hour and flip the meat over. Another hour and it might start to come apart a bit. Try to pull it apart, as the desired outcome is a sort of "pulled pork". Work with it for the next couple of hours, pulling the meat apart and stirring in the brown parts. The whole thing will start to dry out a little. You may want to add a cup of water or so in case it's not getting tender and pulling apart. Ideally, when it's cooked you'll have a pot of meat all shredded, the onions and chiles will have disappeared and there will be crispy bits throughout. It's good. Typically you don't need to add salt because of the sodium in the chicken broth.

We serve it as a filling for soft tacos with beans and a bit of shredded cabbage with guacamole, salsa and cheese. I always put some of the meat in the beans to help season them.

Enjoy!