Pork Carnitas

Ingredients

• 4 pound boneless pork butt, fat trimmed and cut into 2 inch cubes
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 Tb fresh lime juice
• 2 C water
• 1 medium orange, juiced and keep the spent halves

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat to 300 degrees. Combine all the ingredients in a large Dutch oven, (this is my favorite one!) including the spent orange halves and juice. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat, uncovered. Once it simmers, cover pot and transfer it to the oven. Cook until the meat falls apart when prodded with a fork, about 2 hours.
2. Remove the pot from the oven and turn on the broiler. Use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the pan and place it on a large foil-lined jelly roll pan. Remove and discard everything from the pot except for the cooking liquid. Place pot over high heat on the stove and boil until it thickens and syrupy, about 20 - 30 minutes. You should have about 1 C of liquid remaining when it is finished.
3. While the liquid is reducing, use two forks to pull each cube of pork into three equal sized pieces. Once the liquid has reduced, gently fold in the pieces of pork into the pot. Try not to break up the pork any further. Taste and add additional salt and pepper.
4. Spread the pork back onto the foil lined pan and evenly spread the meat around so there is a single layer of meat. Place the jelly roll pan on the lower middle rack of the oven and broil until the top of the meat is well browned and edges are slightly crisp, about 5 to 8 minutes. Using a wide metal spatula, flip the pieces of meat and broil the other side until well browned and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately in a tortilla with all your favorite toppings.

Fall Off The Bone BBQ Ribs

It has been a crazy couple months in our household!  With all this craziness going on, my poor family had been eating out or having cereal way too often:)  I finally got around to making a new recipe, and it was delicious. This was definitely a crowd pleaser! 

Ingredients:
1 (2-3 lb) rack of ribs (I used pork loin ribs)
3 1/2 cups pineapple juice (reserving 1/4 cup for later)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 (16 oz) bottle BBQ sauce (I used Famous Dave’s Rich and Sassy sauce)

Directions:
Spray the slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray (or use a slow cooker liner to make clean up a breeze!).

Take your slab of ribs (make sure that they are defrosted) and cut into individual slabs (about 2-3 ribs each). Throw the ribs into the slow cooker.
Mix the pineapple juice and brown sugar together and pour over the ribs. Put the lid back on the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 7-8 hours or LOW for 10-12 hours.

After they are done in the slow cooker, use tongs to gently pull them out (they will literally fall apart when you touch them). Turn the grill on medium heat. While the grill is warming up, mix together the bottle of BBQ sauce and the 1/4 cup of pineapple juice you saved from earlier.

Place the ribs gently on the grill and and brush with BBQ sauce. Turn the ribs twice, slathering with more sauce each time. they will take about 10-15 minutes to glaze over (as soon as that sauce starts to turn sticky, you know they are done!).

Serve immediately and enjoy!

I served with homemade french fries!