Pork Carnitas Tacos

Ingredients:

Boneless Pork Shoulder (or Butt)

1 large orange

2 limes

1 cinnamon stick

2 cloves of garlic

1 to 2 C. Coca-Cola

1/4 C. orange juice

Salt

Pepper

Red Onion

Rice Vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

Cut the pork into 2 inch pieces and salt thoroughly. Brown the pieces in a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot with a tight fitting lid in about a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Don’t crowd the pan, and remove when they’re browned on all sides. ( you want all that yummy brown stuff in the bottom of the pan. That’s FLAVOR!)

Pour the orange juice into the pan and scrape up all that yummy. Then cut the orange into quarters, and squeeze the juice into the pan and drop the oranges in. Do the same with the limes. Drop in your cinnamon stick and smashed garlic cloves and add back in the pork. Nestle it all in there and then pour in the Coca Cola until almost covered but not quite. Cover the pot with the lid and place into your pre heated 350 degree oven.

Now walk away and do something else. Watch a movie, clean the bathrooms, I’m sure you can figure it out!

After three hours, check on it. It’s ready for the next step when the pieces of pork are falling apart when you poke them with a fork. If so, then next step. Take out the pork, separate out the fat that’s remaining and shred the meat. Remove the fruit peels and the cinnamon stick. Put the pork back in the pot and back in the oven, this time WITHOUT the lid. Cook until the pork is caramelized and most of the liquid is burned off. Rich and yummy! I serve these in small corn tortillas, but feel free to do what you will. They make great nachos! Top with the pickled onions and diced avocado.

Pickled Onions:

1 large or 2 small red onions, sliced. Not diced.

Put your sliced onions in a container with a lid. Cover with Rice Vinegar and stir in the two tablespoons of sugar. Refrigerate until needed, at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.