Adobo Carnitas

I have a chicken-wing hangover today, so these photographs are not actually as unbearably tempting as they typically would be.

Meat that has been cooked into submission and is collapsing into succulent shreds might really be my favorite thing to eat in the world. So, if you want me to say something I like about February, besides the spring light of morning, it’s that. Long-cooked meat. It might not sound like much, but it’s good.

Although they are still pretty tempting, actually.

Although, and now this is February speaking through me more sighingly, I am having a little trouble feeding my kids lately, my kids who are bifurcating into a blood-smeared teenaged carnivore—like something out of a vampire movie—and a doe-eyed, leaf-chewing herbivore. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? That Ben’s actually going to end up eating Birdy? I know. Thank goodness everybody likes beans is all I can say.

This recipe is so easy and so good. You can cook it in a crock pot and stop at the point where the meat is falling apart, and it’s delicious. I cook chicken legs this way, and also pork chops. Yum. Or, and here’s where things get crazy, you can cook it in a Dutch oven, and then finish it on the stove top, watching closely as the liquid evaporates and the pork starts to brown in its own fat. We call this adobo carnitas, and it is pretty much as good as you can imagine: the vinegar boils away into a profound and tangy sweetness, and the meat goes all crisp-edged, and all that fat you would have skimmed off if you were serving it at the stew stage—well, it all mysteriously “evaporates”! Just like that. It’s gone, so don’t give it another thought.

We eat this in tacos or burritos mostly or, as shown above, in a pile of shreds on a plate.

Edited to add: This is similar, but not identical, to the "Pork So Good It Could Make You Cry," thank you for wondering! The flavor is different (bay/pepper/onion/garlic/vinegar here versus scallion/ginger/sugar/sherry there) even though the sweet/salty succulence is the same.

This is the meat in the crock pot, stopped at the stew point. It is juicy and delicious like this.

Pork Adobo

If you stop at the stew stage, serve this over rice. If you take it all the way to carnitas, eat it in tacos or by itself, since it won’t be saucy any more. As noted above, feel free to swap in chicken legs or thighs (cook these for 2 hours or so) or bone-in pork chops (ditto) and stop at the stew stage.

1 onion, halved and sliced

4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

2 bay leaves

¼ teaspoon black peppercorns

4 pounds pork (country ribs, a Boston butt, or a boneless picnic shoulder)

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup white vinegar

1 cup water

Put the onions, garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorns in the bottom of a crock pot or Dutch oven. Add the pork, then pour the liquids over it, cover it, and cook it: in the crock pot, this means high heat for 6 hours or some lower heat for more hours; in the Dutch oven, this means tightly covered in a 325 oven for 4 or so hours, but you’ll need to check it every hour or so make sure there’s still liquid in there. Add water if there’s not.

The pork should be inclined to fall all to pieces—to shred up if you even so much as press it with a wooden spoon. At this point, remove any bones and any obvious solid clumps of fat, skim the surface, and serve over rice.

Or: cook it in on the stove top, in the Dutch oven, over low heat, until all the liquid boils off and the meat starts to fry in its own fat. Watch closely at the end so that it doesn’t burn. Die happy.

You probably already have everything but the pork. 

If your pork comes with those weird stretchy undies that keep the maxipad in place after you have a baby in the hospital--just remove them! 

Shouldn't you brown the pork and onions? No! Easy, right? 

Everybody gets really well acquainted in here. There won't be enough liquid to cover, but it doesn't matter.

A different meal, cooking it to the carnitas phase in the Dutch oven.