the versatility of carnitas (sous vide carnitas)

A long, slow cook time makes this shredded pork tender, while a trip under the broiler adds crispy, flavorful edges.

Carnitas are tender, crispy shredded pork cooked low and slow for a long period of time. They’re a classic taco filling from the Michoacán region of Mexico. I’m Jewish and, despite never having kept kosher, pork has really only become a regular fixture in my diet in the past decade (thanks, Jimmy!). And, oh wow did I miss out not knowing about carnitas sooner.

So gather ’round and let me tell you why I love carnitas, and why I love cooking them with a sous vide.

When we first got our sous vide a couple years ago, one of the first recipes Jimmy made with it was Serious Eats‘ carnitas. I was like, “What are carnitas? Don’t you like my chicken tacos?” and Jimmy was like, “Of course I do, but just trust me.” So I did.

And, as with everything else I’ve trusted him with — I did not regret it in the least. The recipe starts with 4 pounds of pork and makes so much carnitas that every other month or so we declare it Taco Week and basically just eat tacos for 5 days straight. It is THE BEST.

Unlike other taco fillings (shoutout to my old favorite: Cooking Light‘s ancho chicken tacos), carnitas make versatile leftovers because they aren’t covered in sauce or heavily seasoned. The ingredients list is short and generates minimal waste, which is always a win in my book.

Carnitas freeze well and can be easily reheated in the microwave or in a cast iron skillet without losing their texture.

While carnitas are a natural fit for tacos (and pair well with homemade hot sauce, corn tortillas, and guacamole), they’re also an excellent canvas for a lot of other flavors.

When we’re in a pinch for a quick and easy dinner, we grab any leftover carnitas we have in the freezer and use them in grilled cheese, toss them with scallions and hoisin sauce and serve them in lettuce cups, scramble them into eggs, use them in pupusa filling, and have even added them to carbonara.

why use a sous vide to make carnitas?

You can make carnitas in the oven, but we prefer to use a sous vide. Sous vide is a method of cooking that involves vacuum sealing your ingredients and cooking them in a water bath at set temperature for a set number of hours. It’s how restaurants are able to prepare steaks at specific levels of doneness ready to go before customers even arrive.

The sous vide circulates water at a precisely regulated temperature, which means your food is at much lower risk of overcooking or drying out.

Traditionally, carnitas are braised or simmered in fat (usually lard) for 3-4 hours, but using the sous vide means they’re basically cooking in their own fat, which helps keep all the flavor in the meat instead of letting it escape into the rendered fat.

The carnitas get some subtle flavor from onions, garlic, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and a whole orange (yes, an orange), but the pork’s rich flavor is truly the star of the show.

Though the sous vide method takes longer, we prefer it because we can start cooking it the night before and know it will be done in time for dinner the next day. It also means the carnitas can cook basically unsupervised, which is a huge win for our time.

sous vide carnitas need to be broiled

When you cook any kind of meat in a sous vide, what you gain in precise interior cooking you lose in exterior crispiness, browning, or charring.

In the case of carnitas, once the meat has cooked, you’ll want shred it and stick it under the broiler in the oven for 10 minutes to get brown and gorgeously crispy.

Since the Serious Eats recipe does lose some moisture in the oven, we take the extra step of reducing the remaining juice and aromatics from the bag in a pot on the stove; once the carnitas have finished crisping up, the juice gets strained back into the pan with the carnitas.

a few quick cooking notes

• You’ll want to pick up pork butt (aka “Boston butt”) or pork shoulder (aka “Picnic roast”) for your carnitas. Both are tough, fatty cuts which means they benefit from long, slow cooking times. Pork shoulder tends to be sold with the skin on, while pork butt is better for shredding. The original Serious Eats recipe calls for pork shoulder, but we tend to use butt (lol) because it’s easier to find.

• If you can’t find either pork butt or pork shoulder in the meat section of your grocery store, hit up the meat counter. They often have larger cuts in the back and can trim them to the size you need. If you can’t find a boneless cut, that’s okay too — either ask the meat counter to remove the bone, or remove it yourself at home, just make sure to account for any weight lost when you remove the bone. So if your grocery store only has bone-in cuts, go for a 4.5-5 pound cut instead of 4 pounds.

• If you can’t find a 4 pound cut, you can always buy an 8 or 12 pound cut, divide it in halves or thirds, and freeze the remaining amount for later.

• Make sure you press as much air out of the cooking bag as possible. This is easy if you have a vacuum sealer. If you don’t, you can use a gallon ziplock bag. Seal the zipper almost all the way shut, press out as much air as possible, then finish sealing it. If any air is trapped your bag is likely to float and the water isn’t able to get as close to the meat, which means it won’t cook as nicely.

• Some of the water will evaporate as the sous vide runs, so you’ll either want to add more water or start out with more than enough water. You can also loosely tent aluminum foil over the top to redirect any evaporating water back into the pot.

• If your bag floats, you can attach it to the side with a clip and use sous vide weights or a wet kitchen towel to keep it submerged.

• When the pork is done cooking, it’s gonna be super ugly and pale pink in color. That’s normal. It’s fully cooked, it just hasn’t had a chance to brown yet. That’s why it takes a trip under the broiler.

• You don’t need fancy Wolverine-style shredding claws to shred the carnitas. Two forks will do just fine.

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sous vide supplies and equipment

• Sous vide — I like Anova’s because it can be operated manually and doesn’t require an app (though it does have one).
• Gallon cooking pouch — I usually use a gallon freezer bag, but you can buy specialty sous vide bags with air suction pumps, silicone sous vide bags, or a vacuum sealer if you have one.
• Large sheet pan — I like one with high sides to contain everything while you shred the pork.
• Sous vide weights — Optional, but you can add these to the bag to keep it from floating.
• Wire mesh strainer — Honestly I don’t know how I ever survived in my kitchen without one of these. You’ll need it to strain the juices back into the sheet pan when the carnitas are done getting crispy.