In this house, we do Taco Tuesday. Every Tuesday on my meal plan in either Taco’s or another Mexican cuisine inspired menu.

Do I claim to be authentic? No. But my recipes generally do the job to satisfy my family when that traditional Tuesday rolls around each week.

Here are my notes

THE MEAT

Carnita meat is pork, and it is traditionally a shoulder roast. A mama with a budget, I look for a different cut : Pork Loin Roast. I have two reasons:
1. A pork shoulder is going to create so much more meat than we need for one meal. And because I have a pre-planned 12 week meal plan, I’m probably not going to find a way to work in the leftovers for the rest of the week. A single pork loin roast is plenty of meat for us.
2.The pork loin roast at my grocery store comes in a two pack for about the same price as the shoulder roast. So I’ll use one for this meal and vacuum pack the second one for the freezer because in 12 short weeks, I’ll be making this recipe again and won’t have to buy another roast.

THE TORTILLAS

I honestly and not sure what kind of tortilla you are supposed to use for these traditionally. Maybe if someone out there knows you can leave a comment and tell me. Flour? Corn? I do know that they are a smaller tortilla, what we call ‘street taco’. In the photo: carb friendly tortillas from the grocery store (I have yet to master the art of making my own)

THE CITRUS

Over the years I have seen a lot of different recipe takes, usually orange, but sometimes lime. Most every recipe I’ve seen only calls for the juice. My preference: I use an orange. I’ll zest the entire peel and then peel the orange and separate the segments. I put both the zest and the segments into the pot. (compost the remaining part of the peel! It’s a great nitrogen source)

THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

This dish could potentially be made in a crock pot, but to be perfectly honest with you I don’t use my crock pot much anymore. Maybe it just feels too 90s? I don’t know. I have been known to use the slow cook option on my Instant Pot a time or two, but, once I found the wonderful world of enamel coated dutch ovens….I’m hooked. My go to pot for almost every meal is either a 6 quart traditional dutch oven or my braiser. For this recipe, I actually use both. The dutch oven to slow cook the roast and the braised to braise that shredded meat into crispy perfection. A sheet pan will work nicely for the braising part if you prefer.

Meat Thermometer - I ALWAYS use a meat thermometer when I cook pork or chicken. This is a practice that is very important to do every time. Meat thermometers don't have to be fancy. We do have a fancy one that has smart features and all that, but I also sometimes just grab the cheap one out of the drawer and it does the same job.