Carnitas Con Cerveza

Its Week #9 of our sheltering in place. I don’t know about you, but meal planning has become pretty non-existant over here. I can only get so far, but then my grocery store is ultimately dictating what I’m able to make. I’m leaning heavily on pantry staples, frozen foods, and my air fryer. Everything tastes good if its nice and crispy and seasoned well! I’ve been taking a lot of my past recipes and recreating them by using whatever I have. I mean, if I’m missing an ingredient, what am I going to do? Run to the store? Nope. I’m going to have to make it work.

That’s what happened with this new recipe. I bought a pork loin to make my Smokey Citrus Carnitas, but then only had 1 lime and some dried chiles. I didn’t let that stop me though! Into the pressure cooker when the pork loin stuffed with garlic (If you add enough garlic, anything will taste good, right?!? ), the lime, a few dried chiles, and a beer. Boom. Carnitas con Cerveza. I almost named this recipe Carnitas de Corona, but that seemed a little too on the nose. Plus I had Tecate, not Corona so it wasn’t totally accurate.

My new #usewhatyougot method really worked out for me with this one! They were juicy, garlicy, and had a little kick from the chiles. But not too spicy for the kiddos. They were great in tacos, or on salad, or on my favorite, cauliflower nachos! And if you don’t have some of the ingredients, USE WHAT YOU GOT. No pork? Use chicken. No beer? Use broth. No chiles? Use hot sauce or salsa. I think the only must haves here are garlic and salt. Besides that, go nuts!

Carnitas con Cerveza

Easy, budget friendly, recipe for carnitas in the pressure cooker or Instant Pot!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course, Meat+Fish

Cuisine Tacos

Servings 4

Equipment

• Pressure cooker

Ingredients

  

• 3-4 lb pork loin
• 6 cloves garlic whole
• salt generous sprinkle
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 limes juice and zest
• 1 12 oz can Mexican Lager Corona, Tecate, or similar
• 1-2 dried chipotle chiles (optional)

Instructions

 

• Remove the pork from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking so that it comes up to room temp. Generously sprinkly with salt and let it sit on the counter.
• Using a sharp pairing knife, make 6 slits big enough for a whole clove of garlic. Stuff each slit with garlic.
• Preheat pressure cooker on saute mode. Add oil and brown the pork on all sides.
• Add lime zest, juice, beer, and dried chilies if using.
• Cook on high pressure for 45-60 minutes until the meat is tender and can be shredded easily with a fork. If it isn't quite done, just turn the pressure cooker back to high for another 5-10 minutes.
• Remove pork from the cooker and shred! It is delicious as is, but you could also stick it under the broiler for crispy carnitas! Enjoy!!

Keyword carnitas, instant pot, pork, pressure cooker, recipe, slow cooker, tacos