Rich G
TVWBB Honor Circle
Happy FD, all! Some really nice cooks going on for this "holiday" Sunday!! My wife asked me what I wanted to do for FD, my reply was I wanted to cook..... I had been looking at smoked carnitas recipes, and decided to try THIS ONE. I grabbed a two-pack of butts from Costco, but only used one for this cook. I trussed it up to keep it looking shapely, then seasoned it with Lawry's Taco Seasoning (pretty much has similar ingredients to the rub in the recipe above.) This bad boy went on the pellet grill at 225F:
Life got in the way a little, so the pork spent 5 hours in the smoke before moving onto the braising phase. Chunked up the pork, added the rest of the braising ingredients (I used a mix of guajillo and pasilla peppers, and went ahead and included the orange rinds after juicing.....) All that went into a dutch oven, and back on the grill at 350F:
While that was doing it's thing, I mixed up the dough for some flour tortillas. These have been a bit of a nemesis for me, but I have finally found my recipe! I followed THIS RECIPE pretty closely with the following two adjustments: I used 50/50 all purpose/caputo 00 pizzeria flours, and I used beef tallow (rendered from my last brisket trimmings) instead of lard. After the dough rested for about four hours, I griddled them up on my 22" Blackstone:
The pork had already come off the grill, I drained it (reserving the juices) and held it until we were just about ready for dinner. At that point, I fired up the Blackstone again for crispification (the key to great carnitas!!!) I moistened the pork with some of the cooking liquid, and once that cooked off, I spooned on some of the separated fat from the braise to get things frying. I ended up with great, juicy carnitas with lots of crispy bits mixed throughout:
I probably should have gotten a bigger plate......
I've got my "ranch" beans on there, some rice under the tortillas, and some fruit salad that my mother-in-law made. We had a really great meal, celebrated some dads, and enjoyed each other's company.
Hope you all had a great weekend!!
Rich
Life got in the way a little, so the pork spent 5 hours in the smoke before moving onto the braising phase. Chunked up the pork, added the rest of the braising ingredients (I used a mix of guajillo and pasilla peppers, and went ahead and included the orange rinds after juicing.....) All that went into a dutch oven, and back on the grill at 350F:
While that was doing it's thing, I mixed up the dough for some flour tortillas. These have been a bit of a nemesis for me, but I have finally found my recipe! I followed THIS RECIPE pretty closely with the following two adjustments: I used 50/50 all purpose/caputo 00 pizzeria flours, and I used beef tallow (rendered from my last brisket trimmings) instead of lard. After the dough rested for about four hours, I griddled them up on my 22" Blackstone:
The pork had already come off the grill, I drained it (reserving the juices) and held it until we were just about ready for dinner. At that point, I fired up the Blackstone again for crispification (the key to great carnitas!!!) I moistened the pork with some of the cooking liquid, and once that cooked off, I spooned on some of the separated fat from the braise to get things frying. I ended up with great, juicy carnitas with lots of crispy bits mixed throughout:
I probably should have gotten a bigger plate......
I've got my "ranch" beans on there, some rice under the tortillas, and some fruit salad that my mother-in-law made. We had a really great meal, celebrated some dads, and enjoyed each other's company.
Hope you all had a great weekend!!
Rich
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