Carnitas de Yucatán

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   Carnitas de Yucatán

This outstanding and wonderful-tasting preparation for pork was inspired by a friend of mine from college. As some of you may recall, I got a huge load of country-style ribs at a great price earlier this year, and was looking for ideas on what to do with them. here was Mike's suggestion:

 cut them into 2 inch hunks, and brown them in a dutch oven. Deglaze the pan with 2 cups of orange juice. Add your chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne, and pepper (you know your own heat tolerances, keep it reasonable). 

Throw the meat in, put a piece of foil over the top and put the lid on. Throw it in a 250 degree oven until all the liquid is gone, all the fat has rendered, and the pork has started to fry itself in it's own fat. Crank the heat to 400 for about 10 minutes to get a good fry in. 

This sounded so good that I had to try it, and made it a goal to do so. The ideas seemed familiar and after doing some reading, i found out what I was making ~ Mike's method outlined above seemed very close to traditional Mexican carnitas as described by Wikipedia:

 Carnitas, literally "little meats," is a type of braised or roasted (often after first being simmered) pork in Mexican cuisine.

Pork carnitas is traditionally made using the heavily marbled, rich 'boston butt' or 'picnic ham' cuts of pork....usually cut down to a workable...size and seasoned heavily before slow braising or slow roasting....At this stage the collagen in the meat has broken down sufficiently to allow it to be pulled apart by hand or fork or chopped with a cleaver.

Prior to serving, the pork, along with some of the rendered liquid, is placed in fairly shallow pans (to maximize surface area) and roasted at high...heat for a few minutes to produce the desired alternating texture of succulent softness and caramelized crispness.

[They can be] served accompanied with chopped coriander leaves (cilantro) and diced onion, salsa, guacamole, tortillas, refried beans (frijoles refritos), lime and radishes....It can be a dish by itself, or as an ingredient in tamales, tacos, tortas, and burritos.

The thing that really caught my attention in Mike's preparation was the use of orange juice, which seemed to give it a Yucatán flair, which relies on a combination of sweet, sour and spicy flavours in a fusion of traditional Mexican, Caribbean and even Mayan influences. I had seen similar flavour profiles in cuisine from the Yucatán Peninsula and was eager to finally try something that had the same concepts.

So, with an idea in place, I got going. 

Using a little over 6 lbs of CSRs, I cut them into chunks and browned the meat with salt and pepper in the trusty Dutch oven in batches (similar to doing beef for carbonade flamande):

When the pork had seared well, and the liquid that was released had gone, I poured off all the rendered fat, leaving those wonderful brownish bits of crusty goodness in the bottom of the Dutch oven, and added three cups of orange juice to de-glaze:

The orange juice really works well, giving a tangy, piquant burst of bright flavour to the final dish. 

Once the bits were lifted up and the orange juice had reduced a little, I added my spices; I was completely guessing where this was concerned, and I do believe I got very close to the mark the first time: 