Instant Carnitas

This recipe features our pre-cooked 48 hour smoked and pulled pork or beef. However, you could use a smoker at home or even an insta pot to get the shredded meat from a pork or beef roast.

I just really like having a 'instant' good meal where I can pull something out of the freezer and a few minutes later have dinner on the table.

Ingredients

1 package of TC Farm 48-hour smoked pork or beef (or about 1 pound of your own shredded meat)
3T butter
2-4 cloves garlic
3 C water
1 1/2 T of taco seasoning (see below for our recipe)
Whatever taco fixings you enjoy (fresh cilantro, greens, sour cream, cheese, rice, beans, lime, etc)

Instructions

Clean up the meat while it is cold to remove gristle (just easier to remove any unwanted bits while cold)
Melt butter in a large stainless or non-stick pan or medium stockpot - medium high heat
Add meat and sprinkle garlic on top (so it doesn't burn), then sear without stirring until at least the edges are crispy
Stir around and try to crisp up other sides a bit until the garlic is cooked - just brown and not burnt. You may want to add more butter.
Add water and taco mixture, stir and then simmer until water is mostly evaporated over medium heat.
Serve and enjoy

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Spice Mix

You can use a pre-packaged spice mix if you'd like - any favorite taco mix works well. Here are the spices I settled on to make a pre-mix that is ready to have on hand.

Here are some advantages of making your own:

Control the level of spice and types of seasoning
Toasted and freshly ground cumin makes ALL the difference
Less expensive if you buy your seasoning in bulk

Ingredients

6T paprika
3T cocoa powder
1T cumin
1T oregano
1T chipotle (or none.. or more if you want a spicer mix)
2t onion powder
1 1/2t salt
1t black pepper
1/2t all spice
1/2t cinnamon

Other Considerations

Adding a tablespoon or so of tomato powder is worth considering
If you want to save time and don't feel like chopping your own garlic, feel free to add 2t of garlic powder as well.

Fresh Cumin

Seriously, if you only listen to one of my cooking tips, this is a top contender: The secret to fantastic tacos, beans, lentils and even guacamole is fresh cumin.

Order a bulk bag of whole organic cumin like this
It will store forever and not go bad since it is still whole
In a dry pan, toast about 3 T worth (or however much fills the container you'll use) Over medium heat, just toss or stir the cumin every few minutes to prevent burning and remove from heat once it is brown and toasted (but NOT burnt)
Store in your container until use
Then when needed use a pestle and mortar to grind it up -- AMAZING.

You'll never go back to pre-ground cumin again!

Order in Bulk

We buy our cocoa and other commonly use dried spices in bulk. I buy WAY too much cocoa at once here but you can get a more reasonable amount on amazon here. Here is the oregano and paprika we use too (both smoked and non-smoked are good to have around)

It is WAY less expensive to buy these in bulk - you can reseal them and keep in the freezer if you aren't using them frequently. But things like cocoa powder are going to last a long time in ball jars in your basement. We use a lot of cocoa powder and that's why I buy 12kg at a time (which is totally excessive)