Carnitas in a Crock Pot?

I am a sucker for carnitas whenever we go out to eat at a Mexican place.  The flavors and how juicy and tender the meat comes out with the way it's cooked... YUM!  I was excited when I found out a recipe for it on Pinterest and a crock pot one at that!  With this huge belly and the discomfort level high since I'm near the end, I'm all about set it and forget it meals at the moment!  I showed my husband and of course he was sold. 

The recipe comes from 52 Kitchen Adventures by a blogger named Stephanie, as part of her Slow Cooker Mondays series.  Here are the ingredients and directions from her blog as adapted from Bon Appetit:

Slow Cooker Carnitas
Adapted from Bon Appetit
Serves 4-6

• 2 pounds boneless pork shoulder (A.K.A. Boston butt)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• A few dashes of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 large onion, cut into 4 pieces

For serving:

• Tortillas
• Cilantro
• Avocado
• Sour cream

Spray a large slow cooker with non-stick spray (I used a 6 quart). Combine salt, pepper, oregano, cumin and cayenne in a small bowl. Rub the spices over all sides of the meat and place in slow cooker. Top with onion and cook on low for 8 hours.
Remove meat with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl. Discard onions. Using 2 forks, shred the meat. (Optional – to crisp the meat, place under the broiler for a few minutes.)
Serve with tortillas, chopped cilantro, avocado, sour cream, or anything else you like.


I leave the meat buying to the husband being that he's 1. Texan and 2. he knows how to find good deals in the meat department.  I mentioned pork shoulder and he told me he'd already had one in our deep freezer when he picked one up back in September last year (you can keep portions like that longer in a deep freezer compared to a normal freezer).  I didn't pay attention to him when he pulled it out of the freezer to defrost it until the next evening when we were ready to make it...

Yes, that is 8 pound pork shoulder.  I looked at him and told him the recipe only called for a 2 lb one and he laughed at me and told me it doesn't exist.  Can't blame him though, look at the steal he got it for!! .99 a pound!

Moving on, since we had a bigger piece of meat to work with, obviously we needed to up all of the measurements of the spices.  Note: we didn't use a specific Mexican Oregano.

Spices mixed and ready to go

When it came to rubbing down the pork shoulder with the spices, the mister also did that as well, and he did it all in the sink to minimize the mess and since it was the only "bowl" big enough!

As you can see on the left, that side still has the fat on it.  The husband doesn't recommend cutting the fat off as it will provide a lot of the flavor while it cooks.  He did cut slits into the fat side to insert the spice mix inside.  When it was ready to go into the crock pot, he put fat side up so that "the juices will trickle down the meat while it cooks."

I used 2 whole large onions to spread all across the top of the pork shoulder as well as putting some along any gaps along the sides.

Now, if you thought like me, you were probably thinking that the cooking time would need to increase as well since we were doing 6 more pounds than what the original recipe called for, right?  Nope.  My husband told me that it would just simple dry it out if you increased the cooking time.  He set it to cook while we slept, the original 8 hours on low that the recipe instructs.  In the morning when he woke up, he flipped the pork shoulder over and set it to cook for an additional hour on low.

The house smelled AMAZING when we woke up in the morning!  I was so anxious to shred it up and taste it already!  Since it finished before lunchtime, I turned off the crock pot completely to wait for my husband to get home.  Didn't feel right shredding it up without him since he did most of the tough work!  When he got home and it was time, he would place the shredded pieces of the shoulder in a tupperware container (one less step to do later when we were done eating).  He cut off all the fat and took out the two bones that were inside and treated our dog.  :) 

The finished pork shoulder, partly shredded

The last picture is how we decided to eat it; traditional street taco style.  Small corn tortillas with chopped up cilantro, onions, and some hot sauce (not pictured).

DE-LISH!!  Now to us, any time we've had carnitas, the flavor is never consistent from restaurant to restaurant (or taco truck).  The spices did provide a little kick, but not over powering to were someone sensitive to heat would shy away.  It was unbelievably moist!  We skipped the broiler step only because we were so anxious to give it a try once it finished!!  The husband says if you want that crispy texture (since carnitas are traditionally fried) to definitely put it under a broiler after you've already shredded the meat.

A great and easy way to get carnitas at home!  Hope your family enjoys this recipe like ours did!
Cheers!

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, sometimes it has the recipe right in the caption

Enchiladas.  I personally have never attempted to cook any Mexican dishes in my life and this pin was a bit intimidating when I saw it just for that fact alone.  A few years ago I was on a fajita kick and would use those marinade packets where you'd mix it with oil and put it with your meat of choice in a plastic bag, grill up the meat and then have different ingredients to build your own fajita-- I hardly call that an attempt at a Mexican dish.

I've been seeing this particular chicken enchilada pin and like all pins that interest us, decided to pin it for later.  Of course when I went through my food board, I noticed that I had pinned it awhile ago (don't you hate when that happens?).  I decided to make it for dinner tonight, and what a great opportunity than to document the attempt for this brand new blog, right?  Unfortunately it isn't the first Pinterest recipe I've tried out for this new year (I'll definitely be making that recipe again and blogging about it since it was a hit) as I didn't think about creating this blog until today.

I think there are a couple different recipes linked to "Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas", but this is on the one that we're using tonight, courtesy of CouponCousins.net.  We made a couple substitutions, which you can read about after the original recipe.

Here's the recipe straight from their website:

TO-DIE-FOR CREAM CHEESE CHICKEN ENCHILADAS
2-3 chicken breasts, shredded {OR rotisserie chicken}
1 {8 oz.} pkg. cream cheese
1 28 oz. can green enchilada sauce {I used Las Palmas}
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
2 cups cooked rice {I used boil in a bag because I can’t cook rice to save my life!!!}
Tortillas {I used Mission flour tortillas, but homemade would be muy delicioso!}
1-2 cups shredded monterrey & colby cheese
Cook chicken and shred; boil rice. Mix the shredded chicken, cream cheese, and 2 cups of the enchilada sauce together. This mix makes A TON!!!!
Pour half a cup of the enchilada sauce into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.
Layer the rice & black beans to your taste and top with the chicken mixture in each tortilla.
Roll up each of the tortillas and place them in the baking dish seam side down.
Top with 1 cup of the enchilada sauce and 1-2 cups of shredded cheese.
Cover the baking dish with foil and bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.
Uncover the enchiladas, turn on the broiler, and broil for about 3-5 minutes uncovered…just long enough to brown the cheese.

As we shopped for the ingredients, I decided to go for refried beans instead of black beans because I like them better over black beans.  My husband tells me it's more authentic to use them as well, so you could say we opted refried for that reason too. ;)  We also went with Spanish rice since the recipe doesn't say what specific type to use. Make sure that you're using tortillas that are at least 9" in diameter (if the measurement is listed on the package).

The ingredients we used (missing chicken and cream cheese)

I started out with using frozen chicken thighs because we have a bag of it sitting in our freezer.  I had to boil 4 pieces to have enough chicken for the mixture.  If you use chicken breasts, about 3 pieces would be enough.  While you're cooking the chicken (if you didn't go the ready-made rotisserie route), make sure to pull the cream cheese out of the fridge so it can soften up to make it easier to mix. 

After the chicken is done, make sure to let it cool down a bit so you don't hurt yourself shredding it ;) (yep, I did that).  I mixed the block of cream cheese, 2 cups of enchilada sauce and the shredded chicken in a small mixing bowl.  This is what it looked like after mixing together:

I turned on the oven to 375° before I started the rice to give it a chance to warm up.  I cooked the Spanish rice as the listed on the package (omitted the oil), and after it was done, I added the can of refried beans and mixed them together; if you prefer to keep them separated, you can (refried or black beans).  Next was pouring 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce at the bottom of the 9x13 dish.  If you tilt the dish around, you'll easily coat the bottom of the dish (and you don't have to dirty another utensil!).  Then I spread the rice and refried beans mixture on top.  If you chose to keep them separated, it doesn't matter what order you layer them!

Remember when I mentioned earlier that I've never attempted Mexican food before?  Yea, I'm glad I consulted my husband for the next few steps!  Make sure to put a good amount of the mixture down the middle of the tortilla.  I'd say about 5 scoops of the mixture is enough.  When you roll it up, my husband told me not to be afraid to roll it up tight (but not TOO tight; imagine rolling up your soft taco so the toppings don't fall out) because it will expand a little when it's in the oven.  We were able to fill up 7 tortillas with the mixture and fit them in the 9x13 dish nicely. Don't forget to place them seam side down in the dish!

 

The recipe says to pour 1 cup of enchilada sauce on top of the enchiladas--just pour the remainder of the can on top.  The rest of the contents is the perfect amount!  As for the cheese, we didn't bother to measure it out.  I eyeballed it and I probably used about 1 1/2 cups of cheese on top, making sure I covered the top.

Bake as directed, covered in foil at 375° for about 25 minutes. Once the timer goes off, take off the foil and turn on the broiler for another 5 minutes. If you have a good amount of cheese on top like we did, don't wait for it to brown! You'll run the risk of burning the bottom-the rice and beans!

 Voila!  Finished Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas!

What you see plated is one enchilada and then any rice and beans that were left from that "section" of the dish.


The verdict?  DELICIOUS!  Very tasty and flavorful, a hit for our family!  Definitely keeping this pin and adding the recipe (along with the changes we made) to our family recipe book!  Hope y'all have success with cream cheese enchiladas as well!




*The screen shot at the beginning is from my own personal board of recipes I want to try out. Feel free to follow my board!