Turning Deals Into Meals - Carnitas Tacos

Tonight's, dinner, carnitas tacos, featured a pork roast I picked up on super special the other day at Harris Teeter. We did have a Mexican-ish dinner last night (Chicken Enchilada Soup), but having two dinners of the same cuisine, back to back, gave me a chance to use up ingredients, like cilantro and the rest of an avocado, before they went bad. For those interested in making this meal, tomatoes and onions are both on sale this week at Aldi.

After the picture, you'll find an extremely easy recipe for cooking carnitas, "little meats," in the crock pot. The meat can be used for taco filling, like in my meal, or in a number of other ways - sandwich filling, main dish, etc. I served our tacos with a side of baked sweet potato.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 boneless pork shoulder roast - 1 1/2 - 2 lbs will feed at least 4
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cups chicken broth (2 cups if using a 4 pound roast)
• corn tortillas
• optional toppings: cilantro, chopped onion, tomato, lime, salsa, *guacamole 

* Mix avocado, pressed/minced garlic, salt, and lime to taste

Directions:

• In a small bowl, mix together spices. Coat pork with the spice mixture. Place the bay leaves in the bottom of the slow cooker and place the pork on top. Pour the chicken broth around the sides of the roast. Do not to rinse off the spice mixture.

• Cover and cook on LOW until the pork shreds easily with a fork, about 10 hours (less for smaller roasts to prevent meat becoming dry). Turn the meat halfway through cooking. When the pork is tender, remove from crock pot and shred. Use cooking liquid as needed to moisten the meat.
• Add pork to warmed corn tortillas. Top as desired. 

To taste the full flavor of the meat, I think the more simple, the better. My tacos were topped with the ingredients pictured above.