Aldi Carnitas!

[MickinMD ★]

This tasted great as my nephew and sister promised it would:

Aldi discount supermarket has Carnitas: Boneless Pork Shoulder marinated in a fairly mild, Mexican marinade in 1.5 to 3.5 lb packages for just $2.49 lb - maybe 4 oz of marinade, a few ounces of fat (floating at the lower end of the pot below), the rest pork shoulder - that's about 1 1/2 lbs of pork left after I cut off about 8 oz. for my meal..  I got a 2 1/2 lb package and pressure cooked for an hour in this 8" x 3" pot sitting in an Instant Pot red silicone strap for easy removal, the strap raising the pot above a cup of water used for the steam in my Instant Pot. It can also be cooked on the stovetop, oven, crock pot, and some recipes online say pressure cook for 25 min, but my sister said to cook it for an hour so it's very tender.  The texture was still great!

It's usually shredded and served on a soft tortilla with the typical Mexican taco, etc. items - my nephew Ryan loves it that way and I'm going to try the last 8 oz. that way, but I decided to cut it in bite-sized chunks and mix it in with 1/2 a cooked package of Knorr Spanish Rice with a strained 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes added.  The pork retained enough of the marinade's flavor that every bite was a treat:

 

[Longjohn ★]

I’ll be going past an Aldi on my way to the eye doctor on Friday. Planning on stopping. They have large avocados for sixty nine cents this week.

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

19 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I’ll be going past an Aldi on my way to the eye doctor on Friday. Planning on stopping. They have large avocados for sixty nine cents this week.

I’ve heard that avocados go well with carnitas. I don’t know, it might just a rumor; old wives tails. 

[ChrisL]

27 minutes ago, Old No. 7 said:

I’ve heard that avocados go well with carnitas. I don’t know, it might just a rumor; old wives tails. 

I love it with cilantro, diced raw onion & a squeeze of lime.  A dash of quac or a slice of avocado works well too. A Little salsa verde & boom!  I love carnitas but it tends to be a little too rich/fatty for my liking.  My go to is carne asada.

Man we haven’t hit up our taqueria in ages... pre pandemic was the last time.

[Mr. Silly]

That looks wonderful.

[UglyBob]

I love carnitas! I make them quite often. I have my own spice mix I've developed over the years. The trick to really good carnitas is cooking low and slow, then put the meat in a shallow pan, brush the meat with it's own fat, and then put it under the broiler until it gets that perfect crust. So yummy!

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

1 hour ago, UglyBob said:

I love carnitas! I make them quite often. I have my own spice mix I've developed over the years. The trick to really good carnitas is cooking low and slow, then put the meat in a shallow pan, brush the meat with it's own fat, and then put it under the broiler until it gets that perfect crust. So yummy!

More better!