Pork Carnitas

I really like this recipe and it was so easy to make.  I found pork on sale for 99 cents/lb and deboned it, though, I do not have the butcher skills that my dad has, who was a professional butcher.  This recipe comes from No Fuss Foods blog.  I didn't really change too much here.

We used the carnitas to make copycat Chipotle Pork Carnita Bowls, but they would be good in tacos or enchiladas, too.  Very yummy.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 lbs of boneless pork (trim fat off of pork)
• 10 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tspn ground cumin
• 1 Tbspn sea salt
• 1/2 Tbspn ground pepper
• 1/2 tspn cayenne pepper
• 5 bay leaves

Directions:

• Cut pork into chunks.  This makes shredding easier, but if you don't want to, you really don't have to. I did, though.

• Place pork in slow cooker (crockpot).
• Add all the rest of the ingredients, minus the bay leaves.  Mix.

• Pour the juice marinade over the pork.  

• Add the bay leaves.
• Cover and cook for 8-10 hrs on low or 4-5 hrs on high.
• After it's cooked, remove bay leaves.

• Remove pork from juice with a slotted spoon into a bowl that will hold all the pork.

• If you want a fattier taste, you can fry the pork in bacon grease (lard) for a bit to get it crispier, which is what the original recipe calls for.  I did this with half the pork and it was good either way.  Both ways taste good.
• Also, you may want to reserve some of the juice to go with the pork just to keep it moist when you aren't using it.