Crock pot creation of the week! I had a boneless pork lion roast in the freezer so decided to make carnitas in the crock. As I knew that my husband would be parked in front of the TV glued to the NFL draft (apparently this year's draft is "shocking")I thought that a low-maintenance eat-while-sitting-on-the-couch type dinner would be in order. Crock carnitas are a long-time favorite meal of mine from when I was a kid. Of course, because they're made in the C-P, they are super easy!
Here's what you'll need for the meat:
1 pork loin roast
1 small can of chicken broth
about a teaspoon minced garlic
about a tablespoon whole peppercorns
about a teaspoon red pepper flakes
a dash o' salt
I went ahead and thawed the pork in the fridge for a day and over night and the popped it in the C-P with some chicken broth. I actually made chicken broth with some bouillon as it's all I had on hand. While whisking in the bouillon, I added some minced garlic for some extra flay-vah. Pour the broth over the pork and add the peppercorns and pepper flakes. Aaaaaand, that's it. Seriously. Put on low for 10 hours and you're done.
Go to work, run your errands, yadda yadda etc. etc.... get home 10 hours later and smell the amazingness in your house! Bust open the lid and get to shreddin'. I leave the meat in the broth just in case the meat is a little dry, let it soak up those juices. I like mine to eventually look like this:
As for the fixins... you can do anything. Tonight I chose to throw together some grilled onions, simple guacamole, crumbled queso fresco, salsa and some sour cream.
For the guac, I mash up one avocado with some S&P and juice from half a lime... easy and awesome. For the grilled onions, I decided to bite the bullet and slice them thinly pre-sauteeing. It was painful. I cried. Post-onion-chopping-cry-fest, I got them grilled and ready to go. I heated up some soft taco sized flour tortillas on the stove and kept them warm in one of those handy tortilla warmers you see in Mexican restaurants when they bring you tortillas for your fajitas. If you don't own one, you might want to consider adding one to your next grocery shopping list. Mine was a total impulse buy (which I am notorious for any time I go grocery shopping really, but especially at Whole Foods after a visit to their wine bar, that's another story...) and I felt so funny putting it in my cart but seriously, swallow your pride and spend the $5. You'll thank me later when your tortillas stay warm for longer than 90 seconds.
Construct your carnitas soft taco to your liking. I finish mine off with a splash of my hot sauce of choice- Red Rooster. Mine looked like this and it was fabulous:
Pair with a cold Tecate and you're totally set to contently sit on the couch in front of the TV while watching something boring with someone who thinks it's really interesting :)
