Carnitas de Yucatán - crock pot style

After much deliberation on what to make for my Cinco de Mayo potluck at work, I finally decided on Carnitas de Yucatán, but done in the crock pot so I could reheat it at work before serving.


I started out with about 6 pounds of country style ribs, which I deboned, cut into roughly 1 inch cubes and cut out most of the larger pieces of fat and gristle. While I was at the store buying the meat I just happened to spot a bottle of bitter orange juice, so I grabbed it and used it for a marinade on the pork.

Roughly a cup and a half went into the bowl with the cubed up meat, and it marinated in the fridge for about 20 hours. Surprisingly (at least to me), the acid in the orange juice had started to cook the meat, ceviche style.

Here it is after almost a full day in the marinade


I had feared that being in the marinade for so long would turn them to mush, but it didn't, they were nice and firm and ready to fry up. So I took out the trusty old cast iron skillet and set about to sear them good and well. I had expected a fair amount of fat to render out, but apparently I cut out so much of it that there was hardly any grease build up at all.

Here's the first batch getting browned.


The good part about doing it in batches was that each new batch had enough liquid in it to deglaze the skillet and baste the pork in a nice flavorful coating.

A batch all nice and seared, ready to be transferred to the crock pot.


Pork starting to pile up in the crock pot


After all the pork was good and seared, I deglazed the pan with the rest of the bottle of bitter orange juice, then added spices:
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp cumin


I let the mixture come to a boil and reduce just slightly, then poured it over the meat in the crock pot. I turned it up to high and let it simmer away for about 2.5 hours.

Here's how it looked at that point


Then I ladled out most of the juices, trying to get all of the oil/fat that was floating on top. I used a potato masher to break up most of the bigger chunks of meat, then two forks to shred what I couldn't get with the masher. After that, I sliced up a white onion and mixed it in with the meat and added a little bit of frozen orange juice concentrate and turned the crock pot on low and went to bed for the night. Oh and I sprinkled on a little cayenne pepper too.

In the morning this is what we had


Everyone at work loved it, and I really should have made more because it was gone in no time. While it didn't have the nice crispy texture of true carnitas, it had great flavor. A very noticeable citrus tang, with a great spicy finish and overall "south of the border" flavor.

My plate, carnitas in the tortilla at upper left.


Definitely something I would make again!

+1 on Dave's comment.

say, mike - you really hit the ball out of the park - wow!