Sous Vide Carnitas

August 20, 2013

Sous Vide Carnitas

Carnitas are Michoacán’s answer to slow-cooked pork, the dish that turns up at family gatherings and weekend lunches across Mexico: shoulder meat simmered for hours, traditionally right in a pot of lard, until it’s tender enough to fall apart and crisp at the edges once it hits a hot pan. The sous vide version replaces that stovetop vigil with a long, unattended water bath, then finishes the meat the same way the original always has - in a hot pan or under the broiler, until the edges char and crisp.

The pork shoulder goes into the bag with onion, garlic, orange, bay, and a cinnamon stick, then cooks low and slow until it shreds at the touch of a fork. No lard is needed in the bag; the pork renders enough of its own fat over that many hours to stay moist without it. That’s the one real departure from tradition - old-school carnitas cook in lard from start to finish, but the sous vide method gets the same tender result by controlling temperature instead of relying on fat as insulation.

What comes out of the bag is soft and pale, nothing like carnitas yet. The last step is what makes it carnitas: shredded pork goes into a hot pan with a splash of the reserved cooking liquid, a little orange juice, cumin, and dried Mexican oregano, and cooks until the liquid disappears and the meat picks up browned, crisp edges - rich and savory, with a bright citrus edge from the orange and a warm hit of cumin and oregano underneath. Skipping this step leaves you with good pulled pork - not carnitas.

Serve it the way it lands on tables all over Mexico: piled into warm corn tortillas with chopped white onion, cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and whatever salsa is on hand.

Ingredients

Serves 6

The pork

1.1 kg boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), cut into 5 cm-thick slabs
2 tsp kosher salt (10 g)
1 small onion (about 90 g), roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 small orange (about 90 g), quartered, juice included
2 dried bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick (canela, if available)

The pan finish

1 tbsp neutral oil (or lard), for searing
1/2 orange, juice of
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano

To serve

corn tortillas, warmed
white onion, chopped
cilantro, fresh, chopped
lime wedges
salsa

Directions

The pork

Season the pork slabs generously on all sides with the kosher salt and let them sit for a few minutes while you prep the rest. Put the pork into a vacuum bag or a zip-top bag along with the onion, garlic, orange quarters and their juice, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick. Seal it - vacuum seal if you have the equipment, or use the water displacement method to push the air out of a zip-top bag.

Set the sous vide circulator to 165°F (74°C) and lower the bag into the bath. Cook for 18-24 hours. Cover the water with plastic wrap and check the level occasionally over a cook this long, topping it up so the bag stays fully submerged.

Lift the bag out of the bath and take out the pork, setting the bag liquid aside. Discard the softened onion, garlic, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick - they’ve given up their flavor to the meat and liquid by now. Shred the warm pork into bite-sized pieces with two forks; at this temperature and time it should pull apart with almost no resistance.

The pan finish

Heat the oil or lard in a large skillet or cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Add the shredded pork along with a few spoonfuls of the reserved bag liquid, the orange juice, cumin, and oregano. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has cooked off and the pork has picked up browned, crisp edges at the corners - 8-10 minutes. A sheet pan under the broiler works too: spread the pork out in an even layer and flip it halfway through.

To serve

Pile the crisped pork into warm corn tortillas and let everyone add their own chopped onion, cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and salsa.

Notes

165°F (74°C) for 18-24 hours gives pork that shreds naturally by hand - this is the version above, and the one to reach for by default.
For a shorter cook with the same shred-by-hand texture, 185°F (85°C) for 8 hours is a validated alternative.
For a softer, confit-style result, 149°F (65°C) for 24-36 hours works too, but the meat won’t shred on its own at that temperature - chill the bag in an ice bath for an hour, cut the pork into 1½-inch cubes, and hard-sear the cubes instead of shredding.
Don’t skip the pan-crisping step - it’s non-negotiable. The water bath replaces the braise, not the final sear that makes carnitas taste like carnitas.
Save the gelled cooking liquid left in the bag. A few spoonfuls stirred into the pan during the crisping step keep the meat from drying out and carry a lot of flavor back into the finished dish.