If you’ve ever had Mexican carnitas you already know they’re delicious. The name “carnitas” means “little meats”. Traditionally, carnitas are made by slowly braising a pork shoulder in lard or a highly seasoned broth, then shredding the meat, and frying it in its own fat with plenty of seasoning, including citrus, and often spices such as cinnamon and smoked paprika. Traditional carnitas are flavorful, versatile, and take hours to make. I’ve got an excellent substitute that’s flavorful, versatile, and won’t take you anywhere near so long.
Weeknight Chicken Carnitas are made with cooked and shredded chicken. I typically make them when I have chicken thighs, but you can make them with shredded chicken breast, or a mixture of both. If you don’t have 4 cups of shredded cooked chicken on hand, the shredded meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken works beautifully.
Carnitas are all about the flavor and the texture. The recipe below achieves both. I know it sounds like a lot, but trust the herbs, spices, and citrus, and don’t skimp. Use a heavy-bottom skillet over medium heat to get that traditional crisp and tender texture.
Carnitas get a bad rap because they’re pork cooked in plenty of lard. Weeknight chicken Carnitas do call for fat, but not nearly so much as the original version. You can use vegetable oil, corn oil, avocado oil, or my favorite–coconut oil.
Carnitas are usually served over rice. I like to also use carnitas as a taco filling, quesadilla filling, or for carnitas nachos. Once I served them over pepper jack cheese grits. The whole batch got gobbled up and nobody missed tortillas. And just FYI, you can also roll carnitas into enchiladas to fine effect. Put the rolled enchiladas in a casserole dish, spoon some green enchilada sauce down the middle, and bake until the enchiladas are hot and the tortilla edges are crispy. Sprinkle with diced onion and cotija cheese before serving.
The recipe below is simple and straightforward, and you’ll have a better-than-takeout dinner on the table in comfortably less than an hour.
Yum.
Weeknight Chicken Carnitas
Ingredients
- 1 lb. cooked chicken, shredded
- 1 t. onion powder
- 1 t. oregano
- 1 t. smoked paprika
- 1 t. chili powder
- ½ t. cinnamon
- pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 t. salt and ½ t. pepper
- 2 T. oil
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 2 oranges, zest and juice
- 1 lime, zest and juice
- Serve with hot sauce, diced red onion, cilantro, cotija cheese, and lime wedges
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, toss the chicken with the onion powder, oregano, smoked paprika, chili powder, cinnamon, pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
- Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the seasoned chicken and spread out in a single layer. Cook without disturbing until the chicken is getting brown and crisp on the bottom. Turn the chicken over to brown the other side the same way
- Stir in the garlic, lime and orange zest, lime and orange juice and cook for a minute or two. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve over rice or with tortillas.
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