Holy wow these are delicious. I ended up making them three times in quick succession and managed to optimize the recipe somewhat. The main considerations seem to be to get a mix between the fat and meat otherwise you either end up with something too fatty, which isn't tasty, or dry and stringy which isn't tasty at all. The collagen and bones in the ribs definitely add to the texture of the carnitas. The flavour is meaty, savory and almost sweet and is a huge hit with the kids.
We eat these with boat tacos, guacamole and a pico made with onion, tomato, cilantro, lime juice and cucumber. It makes everything bright and the textures come together beautifully.
Ingredients
- 1.5kg pork ribs
- 1.5kg pork shoulder or similar cut
- Two oranges, washed
- Garlic cloves from a full head of garlic
- 2-3 large onions cut roughly
- 1 bottle full sugar coke (preferably mexican coke if you can get it)
- Oregano
- Cumin
- Bay leaves
- Paprika
Method
- Cut the pork into 2" pieces and the ribs into pairs or singles (depending on the size)
- Fry off the pork in batches in the instapot and get a bit of browning for flavour.
- Remove the pork and then briefly fry off the garlic and onions and then add in the pork, spices, coke and oranges. For the oranges, slice in half, squeeze out the juice and then toss in the peels as well.
- Pressure cook on high for 1 hour then let the pressure release naturally
- Leaving the liquid behind in the pork, move the meat into a baking tray. Remove the bones and, bay leaves and orange peels. Leave the orange fruit pulp in, its delicious in the end.
- Turn the oven on at 230 C and bake the meat for about 20-30 minutes. You will need to keep an eye on the meat. Mix the meat around at least once during this time and add liquid as needed
- Boil down the liquid, removing fat from the top if there is too much and then add some if not all the liquid to the meat. The objective is to have a nice moist texture with some crisp parts but not too much liquid.
- Serve in tacos with limes and cilantro on top at least and we add in guacamole, pico and other things if we have time to make them.
