Zesty Carnitas Tacos Recipes

Steps:

• Carnitas: Trim fat from pork. Cut pork into 2- to 3-inch pieces; transfer to a 4-quart slow cooker. Stir in onion, orange juice, cumin, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, oregano, and cayenne.
• Cover and cook on Low 8 to 10 hours, or on High 4 to 5 hours. Transfer pork to a large bowl; shred using 2 forks. Add enough cooking liquid from slow cooker to moisten.
• Lime Crema: Add 2 tablespoons lime juice to a small bowl. Stir in yogurt and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Dust with chili powder.
• Tacos: Serve pork in tortillas with cabbage, red onion, and pico de gallo (if using). Garnish with crema and lime zest.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Remove pork roast from package. Season with 2 teaspoons Mexican taco seasoning. Place on a preheated oiled grill pan and sear all sides, about 2 minutes per side.
• While pork is searing in a 9 by 13-inch baking dish, combine enchilada sauce, onions, cilantro, and remaining Mexican taco seasoning. Add pork roast cover with foil, place in oven and roast for 25 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 155 to 160 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.
• In a small bowl combined the sour cream, mayonnaise, chipotle sauce, chili lime seasoning, and lime juice. Mix well until blended.
• In a large bowl add the coleslaw and pour the sour cream mayonnaise mixture over top and toss well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
• Place tortillas on a microwave-safe plate, cover with moist paper towel and heat in microwave on HIGH for 45 seconds.
• Slice pork and divide between heated tortillas, top with some of the sauce from the baking dish, the spicy slaw and garnish with lime wedge.

Steps:

• Tie the thyme sprigs together with kitchen twine; combine the pork, garlic, bay leaves and thyme bundle in a large Dutch oven. Add the vegetable oil, lime juice, orange juice, 1 cup water and 2 teaspoons salt and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low; cover and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.
• Uncover the pot and continue simmering, stirring once or twice, until the pork is tender, about another 1 hour, 15 minutes. Increase the heat to medium; cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is mostly evaporated, about 35 more minutes. Discard the thyme bundle and bay leaves, then increase the heat to medium high so the pork starts to fry. Cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally, until the pork is golden brown and crisp in spots, about 10 more minutes. Serve in tortillas with assorted toppings.
• Combine 1 thinly sliced red onion, 1 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon each coriander seeds, mustard seeds and cumin seeds, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt in a small saucepan. Boil 2 minutes; let cool.

Steps:

• Mix the kosher salt, garlic powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, dried oregano and black pepper together in a small bowl. Coat the pork shoulder roast with the dry rub.
• Place the sliced onion and bay leaves in the bottom of your slow cooker, lay pork shoulder roast on top. Carefully pour water or chicken broth around the roast, making sure you don't disturb the dry rub.
• Cover and cook on Low until the pork shreds easily with a fork, about 6 hours. Turn the meat after it has cooked for 3 hours.
• When the pork is tender, remove from slow cooker, remove and discard excess fat and shred with two forks. Reserve cooking liquid.
• Place shredded pork into a large skillet with 1 cup of reserved cooking liquid over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. Once liquid has cooked down completely, add canola or vegetable oil. Stir occasionally for 15-20 minutes or until the meat has reached desired crispiness.
• Serve in warm flour or corn tortillas with your favorite taco toppings. We serve ours cilantro, pickled red onions, salsa or pico de gallo, guacamole, sliced cabbage and lime wedges,.

Steps:

• In a large pot place in the pork, onion, garlic, salt, chili powder, cumin and fill with water and place onto the stove and bring to a boil for 5 minutes and reduce heat to a low simmer for 2 1/2 hours or until the pork in tender. Remove the pork and set aside to cool to room temperature and pour the stock into a colander and trash the onion and garlic.
• In a mixing bowl hand shredded Carnitas meat and the rest of the ingredients and combine and set aside for 15 minutes.
• Slice the onion into 1/8" strip and place into a nonstick skillet with oil and sauté over a medium heat until light brown and tender. Combine the Carnitas mixture and onion and sauté until light and crispy.
• In a medium size skillet lightly oil over a medium high heat, place a corn tortillas, slice of pepper jack and top with corn tortillas and when the pepper jack cheese slice start to go soft turn the corn tortillas over and when both side in a lightly brown and take some of the Carnitas filling and one half and fold in half and pan fry until light and crispy on both side. Repeat this step until done. Sprinkle both side of the taco with Parmesan cheese and serve warm.