Better Living Through Introspection

One of my dietary downfalls used to be Chipotle’s soft chicken tacos. Without fail, any time I’d stop by a Chipotle, chicken would be my default choice. Then one day they were out of chicken, and the next batch wouldn’t be ready for a few minutes. Not wanting to wait, I randomly picked another meat choice — carnitas, a.k.a braised pork — and discovered an all new high on the scale of good-tasting fast food. (Not surprisingly, I later discovered that Chipotle’s carnitas have almost the highest fat content of any of their meaty offering — fat, after all, enhances flavor — second only to the barbacoa.)

So the pork tacos became my new default. Then it became something just shy of obsession. Sparked perhaps by a recent uptake in reading magazines and books of the culinary genre, I was inspired one day to figure out how to make this wonderful pork dish on my own. In a weird testament to my trust in all things Google, I turned immediately to my favorite search engine and began a quick descent into Interweb frustration. No one, it seemed, knew how to prepare carnitas. At least, not the Chipotle variety.

It turns out that carnitas is a traditional Mexican method of preparing a cheap cut of pork.

From Epicurious:

Mexican for “little meats,” this dish is simply small bits or shreds of well browned pork. It’s made from an inexpensive cut of pork that’s simmered in a small amount of water until tender, then finished by cooking the pieces in pork fat until nicely browned all over.

Carnitas are usually eaten with salsa and are sometimes used as the filling in tacos and burritos.

According to another definition, carnitas are a specialty of Michoacán.

Despite knowing its origin and the foundation of the recipe, my web searches were frustrating because no single recipe was the same – even among people answering the question that, it turns out, was burning on other people’s minds as well: how do you prepare Chipotle-style carnitas? So, I figured I’d have to start from scratch and just use the absolute basics that the majority of my findings had in common: pork and stock. Hmmm. Then, I realized in my over-reliance on Google, there was one site I hadn’t checked: the Chipotle website itself. (Smack forehead here.)

Folks, let me save you some trouble. The Chipotle web site was apparently developed by a PR monkey with the latest copy of Flash and a direct OC3 connection to the net. It’s a slow loader, it’s poorly designed with absolutely no regard for visitors trying to find useful information, and it’s slow. Also, I’d like to find the person who suggested the tortilla-chip navigation scheme and personally beat them about the head and shoulders with a barbacoa burrito. With extra beans. But I digress. I did, after many painful page loads, find two useful things. The first: a description of the carnitas. Not quite a recipe, but a list of ingredients, including one very intriguing spice, juniper berries!

Naturally raised pork; seasoned with thyme, bay leaves, juniper berries and freshly cracked black pepper –then braised for hours.

The second useful item: a nutritional chart (PDF) confirming my worst fears: carnitas = fat. Though, after glancing at the chart I was glad that the barbacoa was not my favorite style.

Finally, I felt I had enough information to begin my own carnitas experiment. I decided to start with a pork chop, figuring the flavor would approximate that of the shoulder, and knowing I wouldn’t be stuck with a week’s worth of leftover pork. Then I hit another snag…thyme and bay leaves: easy to find. Pork: easy to find. Ditto pepper. But juniper berries? To paraphrase Snatch protagonist Turkish, what do I know about juniper berries? Isn’t that where gin comes from? Answer: yeah, kinda.

Unable to find any juniper berries at my local Whole Paycheck, I decided to continue with the experiment so that I at least would know how close to the target I was. I started by seasoning the chop with salt and pepper, then searing both sides to a nice caramel brown over high heat. Then, I added some stock and the a bay leaf and a few twigs of fresh thyme, turned down the heat to a low simmer and picked up ye olde wireless Xbox controller to while away the time blasting away the Locust Horde. At the last minute, I threw in a shot of Bombay Sapphire to approximate the juniper flavor.

Braising, it turns out, requires a good pan with a tight-fitting lid. I had a decent pan with a loose-fitting lid, so I had to continuously restock (ha!) the stock. You might be surprised out how much of it escapes as evaporation — and how fast — without a proper seal. I wasn’t really sure how long to braise the pork for, but somewhere around the two hour mark, the meat was close to disintegration (this was, after all, just a chop). The flavor was excellent, and it was a pleasure to eat…but it wasn’t quite the same. I was on the right track, but I would have to try again…with the juniper berries, with the right cut of meat, and after another trip to Chipotle to recalibrate my taste buds. It turns out I wasn’t as close as I thought I was; though I had come up with a remarkably flavorful method of preparing a pork chop, I hadn’t come close to approximately that unique Chipotle carnitas flavor.

There were three things I had to fix immediately. First, find juniper berries — which I discovered quite by accident on a wine-buying escapade at World Market. Second, use the right cut of meat — which I found at the Logan Circle Whole Foods. Not wanting to change the remaining variables, I stuck with the same basic ingredients: the stock and the spices. Finally, use the right pan. Luckily, a certain someone had a nice Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot that just barely fit the pork shoulder. (I wanted to do all the braising on the stovetop instead of the oven to make monitoring the whole process a little easier. The experts out there can tell you whether stovetop or oven braising is best…my guess is for huge cuts of meat, the oven would be default.) What a difference that lid makes – not once did I have to top off the stock!

While I wouldn’t call the final product a complete success, I will say it is one of the best meat dishes I’ve prepared. The rendered fat probably has something to do with it, so I wouldn’t recommend this dish as a regular meal. Use it for an occasion, and eat it sparingly to avoid a case of the meat sweats. Here’s the recipe as of my latest experiment. Try it and let me know what you think – it’s still not quite the Chipotle flavor, but it’s pretty darn close. I’ve scaled the recipe down to feed two, with some leftovers.

Chipotle-style Carnitas

• 1 lb. pork shoulder (a.k.a Boston butt)
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Crushed black pepper
• 12 juniper berries, crushed

Season the pork with pepper. Sear in braising pan over high heat. Add stock. Add remaining spices. Simmer over low heat. Pork is ready when it falls apart just by you looking at it. This takes approximately three hours for one pound, give or take.

Enjoy!