Caramelised Pork Carnitas Hard Shell Tacos

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If you’re looking for something truly authentic and Mexican that time can be spent on, look no further! Caramelised Pork Carnitas Hard Shell Tacos is a slow and low cooked dish, that can take up to 6 hours. It’s therefore a great dish to make on a weekend, when it can be left to work it’s magic whilst you go about your day.

Our NEW Hard Shell Tacos couldn’t be better paired than with the incredibly tender and juicy pork carnitas! They have a really moreish crunch that has you coming back for more and more after each one. Just load them up and make Taco Night every week!

For this recipe we have marinaded pork shoulder with our Chipotle Paste for that truly smoky depth of flavour. It is then added to a baking tray along with orange juice and garlic, covered in foil and then slow cooked for hours, letting all of those juices steam the meat inside.

When you are ready to eat and you have stuffed your Hard Shell Tacos with meat, dollop some Tomatillo Salsa, crumble some feta cheese, sprinkle some coriander and finally squeeze fresh lime on top. Perfection!

Looking for side dishes for tacos? Check out our blog on What To Serve With Tacos. We have it covered!

If you try these Caramelised Pork Carnitas Hard Shell Tacos, do comment under the recipe to let us know what you think.

Prep time

30 mins
Cook time

6 hours
Total time

6hrs 30mins
Ideal for

Dinner
Make it

Mexican
Serves

4-6

How to make it

Preheat the oven to 250°C (480°F) and insert a large roasting dish with the vegetable oil inside.
Remove the skin from the pork shoulder, if it has it. Leave a good layer of fat on top.
Dry the pork with paper towel, then season generously with salt & pepper. When the oil is very hot, carefully add the pork to the roasting dish, moving it around to cover with oil and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Carefully turn the meat over and return for another 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, leave to cool down. By this point it should have some colour and crispy texture. Reduce oven temperature to 125°C (260°F).
Meanwhile, mix the Gran Luchito Smoked Chipotle Paste with the brown sugar and oregano.
When the pork is cool enough to touch, cover the outside surface with the paste, rubbing it in. Pour the orange juice into the bottom of the tray and add the roughly chopped garlic, then cover with foil so that there is space for steam to build up but so steam cannot escape. This is important and will stop the pork from drying out.
Return to the oven and cook for 5 hours (remove and spoon juices over meat every hour or so). You’ll know when it’s ready as it’ll be falling apart at the slightest touch. If you pull the outside and the inside is still holding together, you can return the inner meat to cook for another hour or so (wrap it up again to avoid drying out).
Once it’s cooked, you can go ahead and pull the pork, discarding any bones & keeping the liquid.
For extra texture, you can fire up the grill, lay the pulled meat out on a baking tray and crisp up the top surface.
Use a spoon to remove most of the oil from the top of the juices then add the pulled pork back into the juices and leave to soak it up for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Serve with Gran Luchito Hard Shell Tacos, Gran Luchito Tomatillo Salsa, coriander leaves, crumbly cheese and fresh lime wedges.