I have been sitting on this fancy carnitas recipe for what seems like five years now. Chef Wes Avila, author of Guerilla Tacos shared his recipe from for carnitas that forgoes the traditional gently fry in lard for . . . a Thomas Keller style confit. Yeah, that Thomas Keller who is considered one of the greatest chefs of all time.
Does that mean a classically trained, French influenced chef can make the G.O.A.T. of Carnitas recipes? Well he’s more an inspiration for the method that’s in consideration here. And this is Chef Wes Avila’s recipe . . . but why talk about it when I can show you?
I went the easy route and used dried herbs. Either way, fresh or dried, blend it all up in a food processor which will become Thomas Keller’s green salt which you will season the pork shoulder roast with.
I rubbed the green salt over the pork and put it in the fridge overnight. I mistakenly covered the pork with plastic wrap but not sure if it made negative impact. The next day(12 hours is the max time for salting) I rinsed it off and patted it dry.
This is where the recipe gets interesting. After the rinse and pat dry, you wrap the pork in plastic wrap then heavy duty foil and cook in the oven for like 7 hours at 325 degrees.
Now I have cooked in plastic wrap before, a smoked Lebanese lamb shoulder which happens to be one of my most viewed posts. But still, the idea of cooking in plastic wrap weirds me out.
I reached out to Chef Wes Avila who confirmed I could pivot with an oven bag. Plastic oven bags are certified OK to go in the oven by the manufacturer. On to the rest.
Place the wrapped pork roast in a roasting rack lined pan. I suppose the idea is to let the juices drip down. But I wouldn’t have that problem.
As you can see from the graphic, the oven bag inflated to a degree I feared would explode all over the place and my face. Oven bags recommend making slits in the bag but that ran counter to the method in the recipe.
Now I tied the bag in a knot which created a seal that perhaps went beyond anything needed for this recipe. Regardless, the steam/air escaped rather quickly. And I could get to the important work at hand: getting into da meats!
Which I did. The meat was super fall apart, beyond tender and my place smelled like carnitas. But I felt like it needed a little more color so I turned to the broiler.
This might not have been necessary and isn’t in the book. While the carnitas held in the 200 degree oven, color started to develop. I hit it in the broiler for five minutes as is my usual move for my Instant Pot Carnitas recipe. Old habits die hard. Looking back I’d do this for like 3 minutes max.
While I still have not made traditional carnitas, if Chef Wes Avila, one of the most celebrated taqueros of Los Angeles, signs off on this fancy carnitas recipe, I feel like I’m in the ballpark for calling a good carnitas recipe when I see one.
Now I still stand behind my Instant Pot version, but there is something about the aroma this one generates that makes me feel like I am at a carnitas specialist joint . . . IYKYK.
The one reason why this fancy carnitas recipe might edge out my Instant Pot is that it is no mess. My Instant Pot calls for a heavy sear which is messy, cumbersome and time consuming. Sure it doesn’t take 7 hours like this does, but even with the shortened cooking time of the IP, the 7 hours in this Fancy Carnitas recipe is inactive time. You will need to prep the night before but that takes like 10 minutes tops.
Totally making this for a dinner party(which I did) and do yourself a favor and cook up a batch of pinto beans and make refried beans with the leftover lard. You are welcome. Finally a shoutout to Chef Wes Avila and Guerilla Tacos – it’s a great cookbook you can buy here.
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