Charlie and I like carnitas from the Mexican restaurant, so I decided to try it at home in our Instant Pot. 

The recipe in the Instant Pot app called for well-marbled pork shoulder or butt, but the grocery didn’t have any. NONE! The last time I went in, just a few days ago, they had some. But, as I told the lady at the checkout, their butts were as big as mine, and I didn’t need that much.

ANYWAY, this time, they had diced pork, which I suspect was the pork butt chopped up and with most of the fat removed (alas). So I got some of that, since the first thing you do is cut the roast into pieces.

Here’s the recipe from the app:

I got too much meat, and had to cook it in two batches (I have a small Instant Pot Duo), then put it all back in together, since it cooked down to a manageable quantity, and slow-cooked it for a couple of hours. The result was this:

It wasn’t quite what I wanted, but it was delicious, anyway. I used the pot juices to cook rice to go along with it, and that was delicious, too. I’m thinking maybe a little less citrus next time, and a little less cinnamon.

I’m posting at Fatal Foodies today about what I did with the pulp strained out of the citrus juice.

A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: A character has too much of something.

MA