Carnitas with Sauteed Sweet Peppers

You’re going to want to hold on to this baby!

Carnitas, literally “little meats”, is braised or roasted pork in Mexican cuisine.  It is essentially pork pot roast – a chunk of inexpensive heavily marbled shoulder meat braised until it falls apart. It is absolutely fantastico…tender, flavorful, and super simple.  I’m confident that nobody could screw this up!

“Carnitas Night” is one of my family’s all-time favorite home cooked gatherings.  My oldest daughter, Hatti, has even begged to stay home from school on days that I’m making this, saying that she wants to smell it cooking all afternoon.  :-)

We hosted our latest Carnitas Night last evening, inviting some friends over for an early Cinco de Mayo celebration.  There were plenty of warm tortillas to fill with carnitas and other goodies – sauteed sweet peppers, pickled jalapenos, guacamole, cilantro, and a variety of salsas.  Fresh lime wedges were abundant, too, as a squeeze of that bright and lively acidity makes the whole combination burst in your mouth.

Taste buds were groovin’.

(Side Note: Margaritas are entirely optional with this meal, but highly recommended.)

This is what your sweet peppers should look like before you turn on the heat…

Sauteed sweet peppers add texture and flavor to the carnitas.  This is what you are trying to achieve – softened peppers with a lovely char.

Carnitas with Sauteed Sweet Peppers
(print recipe)

One 4 to 5 pound bone-in pork shoulder (Boston butt)
Kosher salt
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 white or yellow onion, peeled & quartered
1 T. dried oregano leaves
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. paprika
4 sweet bell peppers – I like 1 each of green, red, orange and yellow
1 T. butter
1 T. olive oil

Remove the meat from the refrigerator an hour before starting to cook.  Rinse and pat dry with a paper towel.  Sprinkle lightly all over with salt.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place pork in a 5 to 7 quart Dutch oven and add broth, onion, oregano, cumin, and paprika.  Add a generous pinch of salt.  Place over high heat and cover.  Bring to a boil and then spoon some of the hot liquid over the top of the meat.  Cover again and transfer to the heated oven.  Cook until meat is literally falling apart, about 4 hours, spooning liquid over meat once or twice during cooking.

About half an hour before the meat will be done, prepare the sweet peppers.  Cut into long slices, about 1/4″ wide or so.  Heat a wide skillet over medium heat.  Add butter and olive oil.  When the butter has melted, add the peppers, stirring to coat.  Cook for about 10 minutes, letting them soften up.  Then turn up the heat to medium-high.  Let the peppers start to darken and char, stirring every couple minutes.  When peppers reach your desired doneness, remove pan from heat.  Transfer peppers to serving dish.

When the pork has finished cooking, remove pot from the oven and place on stove top.  Transfer meat to a platter.  With a large spoon, push meat off the bone in chunks; discard bone and any large pieces of fat.  Put meat back in pot and turn on heat to medium-high; cook, stirring to break it up with a spoon, until liquid in pot has almost entirely evaporated and meat begins to sizzle and caramelize, 5 to 10 minutes (the meat should pull into shreds very easily as you work).  Serve with small (taco or fajita size) warm tortillas, the sauteed peppers, and your choice of condiments.  A great alternative is to skip the tortillas and serve everything over white rice.

Servings:  8 to 10

Source:  adapted from Braises and Stews by Tori Ritchie  (a really great cookbook, by the way – it’s my winter kitchen “bible”)