Carnitas aka Shredded Pork Soft Tacos aka YUM

My adventures in pressure cooking continue with a new animal finding its way into my pot of doom.

The animal last night was ‘pig’. The part of animal was ‘pig shoulder’ aka ‘Boston butt’ aka ‘butt’ aka ‘oink’. This is considered a ‘tough’ piece of meat and requires either a long time in a slow cooker…or a SHORT period of time in a pressure cooker!!

It reminds me of that Simpson's episode where Lisa tells Homer that ham, bacon and pork come from the same animal. 'Right Lisa, some wonderful, magical animal!

It reminds me of that Simpson’s episode where Lisa tells Homer that ham, bacon and pork come from the same animal. ‘Right Lisa, some wonderful, magical animal!

Ingredients for pressure cooker(feeds 6 adults, 2 tacos per person):

  • ~3 lbs of ‘Boston Butt’
  • ~2 cups Beef stock
  • Large onion
  • 1 tsp Cumin powder
  • Optional: Bay leaf

Fixin’s ingredients:

  • Low carb tortillas
  • Napa cabbage (as an alternate to using a tortilla – this worked great – about 1 carb per leaf)
  • Tomatos
  • Shredded cheese
  • Onions
  • Salsas

Directions:
1. Cube up your pork into 1 – 2 ” cubes. I had the butcher shop cut it up into cubes and debone it, but when I got home, their cubes were massive, so I cut them up into smaller sizes. But yeah, have your butcher shop do most of the work!

2. Put pressure cooker pot on stove top, set to medium heat and add oil. Sautee pork cubes so they are browned. You might need to do this in batches.

3. Cut up onion into chunky chunks and sautee in pressure cooker pot.

4. Dump all pork, onions, cumin, any other spices you want to add, and beef stock into pot. Attach lid and ‘activate’ according to manufacturer’s instructions. Again, with my ghetto-pot, that means I wait until the stupid knob starts wobbling.

5. Once wobbling (or ‘pressure reached’) commences, allow to cook for 45 minutes. Do ‘quick release’ according to your pot’s instructions (for mine, that means running it under the sink).

6. Remove delicious flesh from pot with slotted spoon. It should be SUPER tender and falling apart when you poke at it. Put in container, use two forks, shred apart. Sample copiously, as once it is served, you probably won’t have leftovers. 🙁 I didn’t. I’m pretty bummed. Everyone at ALL of it!

We had a spread of various fixings, and everyone ate MY LOW CARB TORTILLAS. WTF??? There was a HUGE pile of white corn tortillas, but noooo. Everyone wanted in on the low carb ones, which honestly were MUCH tastier!! Soft, tender, mmmm. Normally I am not OK with “low carb” products (they tend to NOT be as advertised and are full of not-good ingredients), but once in awhile I figured it’s OK to treat myself to one of these Carb Balance bad boys.

I was the only low carb/high fat eater at the table, but it was a meal that everyone enjoyed.

FOUR NET CARBS PER SERVING (WHICH INCLUDES TWO TACOS):

Note that it serves six people, but each of those people gets at LEAST 2 tacos worth of meat

Note that it serves six people, but each of those people gets at LEAST 2 tacos worth of meat

One thought on “Carnitas aka Shredded Pork Soft Tacos aka YUM

  1. Pingback: Recipe: Lamb Stew aka Animal Sacrifice #3

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