The pork carnitas I made a couple weeks ago were so popular here at my house, that I just had to make some more. But this time I used beef instead. Between my husband and the dog there was major competition on the pork carnitas.
I made the beef carnitas a bit different though, mostly a bit spicier. Now just as with the pork you need to use a meat that is a bit fattier, here I used beef blade. I still used the orange because I did want a bit of citrus flavor in the carnitas. I followed the same process of making the beef carnitas as I did the pork ones, except I kept the beef a bit longer in the oven.
I do have to tell you though, as the beef is cooking, the house will smell so good, it will be hard to resist. It will drive you crazy.
The great thing about carnitas is that this meat is so versatile, as you can see here I made some beef carnitas tacos which is basically corn tortillas, beef carnitas, salsa and avocado. These tacos are out of this world. But you could make so many things with carnitas, carnitas pizza, enchiladas, tacos, burritos, the possibilities are endless. You make it once and you have many many meals out of it.
Ingredients
Beef Carnitas
- 4 to 5 lb beef blade boneless
- 1 green pepper chopped
- 1 red pepper chopped
- 1 onion cut in half
- 1 orange juice and all
- 2 tbsp cajun spice
- 1 7 oz 200ml can of green pickled jalapenos with juice
- 4 cups water
Beef Carnitas Tacos
- corn tortillas
- salsa
- avocado sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 F degrees.
- Cut up the meat into bigger pieces that are about 2 inches. Place the meat in a cast iron pot, add all the spices, onion, juice from the orange, the remaining orange halves, chopped pepper. Pour the water over meat and cook on medium high until the water starts to boil.
- Cover the pot and place it in the oven for about 3 hours at 300 F degrees until the meat falls apart when prodded with a fork. If you cook this over stove top, it will take a bit longer, about 4 hours.
- After the 3 hours, remove the meat from the pot with a slotted spoon and place it on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Remove everything else from the pot, except the liquid. Cook the liquid over medium high heat for about 20 minutes until it reduces to about a cup of liquid.
- In the mean time, take 2 forks and start shredding the meat into smaller pieces. After the liquid has reduced cover the meat with it.
- Place the meat under the broiler, for about 5 to 10 minutes, you should watch it though, each oven is different and you don't want to burn it. Take the meat out, flip it over the other side using a spatula and then place it under the broiler again for another 5 minutes or so. You want to make sure that it's nicely browned.
- Serve on tacos with salsa and avocado slices.
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Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 3 hours 30 minutes Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
Servings: 12
