Campfire Carnitas | Succulent Pork | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with campfire carnitas. That's right. Whether it's next to a bonfire on the beach or a campfire in the forest or you're just barbecuing in the backyard, if you're near some hot coals, I'm going to show you how to make one of the most delicious, most succulent pork preparations ever. And I know that's not a taco, but we'll get to serving suggestions later. For now, let's go ahead and prep our pork. And what I have here is a nice piece of boneless pork shoulder. And what we'll do first is cut this into some fairly large chunks. Okay, I'm going to recommend something about 2 in in size. But for this, a little bit smaller or a little bit bigger will still work. And no, we don't need to trim off any fat. All right, we paid for that fat, so let's use all of it, which is not going to be the same thing as eating all of it. But at this stage, we do need it for this cooking method to work properly. And that's it. Once our meat's cut, we will double up a couple of these foil pans. And we will transfer our pork in. And of course, we could use like a Dutch oven or a similar size pot for this, but these disposable pans are very camp friendly. And I don't know about you, but I did not go out into the middle of the forest to do dishes. But regardless, once that's transferred in, we'll go ahead and season it up with a generous amount of kosher salt. We'll also toss in some freshly ground black pepper, plus a nice big spoon of Mexican oregano. And then we'll take our hands and get in there. And we'll get in there deep. And we will mix and toss and massage that meat until every piece is evenly coated. And once that's happened and our meat's been distributed evenly in the pan, we'll go ahead and top that with some sliced onion. a half seedated chili because I had one. And then last but not least, some whole garlic cloves still in the skin. And then what we'll do is take a piece of heavy duty foil and we'll cover that very tightly. And then once we have the top covered as shown, we'll take some larger pieces and slide them underneath and then wrap them up and over. And I'm actually going to use three pieces to do that. Although, if you're using heavy duty foil like I am, two might be enough. But when in doubt, I always go for the extra piece. And it probably doesn't matter, but I'll usually turn the pan before I wrap the next one. And by the way, with these three pieces, we're going to finish with the folds facing up. Okay, if the openings are facing down, there is a chance some oil could leak out and possibly cause some problems. So, to play it safe, we'll wrap from the bottom up. Oh, and by the way, if you have one of those fancy wireless probe thermometers that connects to the app on your phone, you could actually place that in the meat and that would be a very nice way to monitor the dness, but it is not necessary and I've never done that. And while this does come out a little different every time, it's always come out amazingly well. And that semi surprise of what you're going to end up with to me adds to the fun and excitement of doing a dish like this. But anyway, once our meat is panned and encased in foil, we will head out to our campfire, or in my case, a pile of lump charcoal in my grill, which I'm going to fire up using one of these shredded wood starters, which I think is definitely the easiest way to start a charcoal fire. And please note, I went through the bag and picked out the biggest pieces of charcoal I could find since that's going to be the longest burning. And we won't have to worry about replenishing the coals later, which by the way is only going to be an issue if you're simulating a campfire on a grill like this. Okay, with a real campfire going, you will have access to all the hot coals you need. But if we are on our grill, when our coals are looking like this, we will take some long tongs and we'll start moving those around, repositioning those to the outside of the grill since we're going to need to make space to fit our pan in. Oh, and unlike when we're actually going to grill on top of the coals, we do not want those all ashy white. Okay, we mostly just want to make sure the edges are white, which hopefully means our coals are going to continue to burn for a long time. And that's it. Once we've made enough space, we'll go ahead and figure out how to fit that pan down in the center. And then I like to place a pan on top that's also been wrapped in foil. And once that's been placed on, we'll transfer a few coals over the top. So we basically have heat coming from all directions. And then what we'll do once we're finally happy with how our coals are arranged is we will cover this up and we'll close up our vents almost all the way to maintain a cooking temperature near the pan of about 275°. Right. For me, anything between 250 and 300 is like the sweet spot. And at that temp in about 4 to 5 hours, you're going to have some of the most beautiful cooked pork you've ever seen. And no, next to a campfire, you're not going to be using the lid, but rather simply moving your pan away from the fire or closer to the fire, depending on what your thermometer is telling you. And what I found, if the temp of the top of my lid is about 240, the heat around the pan and going into the meat is right at that target temp. And like I said, I like to maintain that temp for between four and five hours. And every once in a while, I like to pull off the lid to let a little more oxygen in and also to reposition the coals. Oh, and as far as safety goes, I think this is very safe. As long as the temperature around the pan stays between 250 and 300. All right. Obviously, if you throw this in the center of your campfire where it's like a thousand degrees, this eventually will overheat and probably explode, injuring many people. So, it's kind of key this is near the fire and not in the fire. And that's it. After going low and slow for about five hours, I'm going to go ahead and remove those coals from the top. And once that pan's removed, I'm going to grab my heat proof gloves and very carefully bring this into the kitchen or to the nearest picnic table where we can let this rest for up to an hour or we can cut right in and eat as soon as possible. Right? That's going to be up to you. I mean, you guys are after all the daff punks of what will be some very unxious pork chunks. Oh, and if you do go in right away, be careful you don't get any steam burns, so proceed with caution. And now that that's been revealed, let me grab some tongs so I can show you this has fallen apart tender. And we produced a level of succulents that you can only achieve when you very slowly cook a meat in its own fat and juices. And of course, we could just start making a bunch of tacos. But in a more camp-friendly scenario, we could just grab some tortilla chips and just eat some pork nachos one at a time, maybe with a piece of onion and a few drops of green hot sauce. And that, my friends, despite the simple seasoning and the very primitive cooking method, will be one of the most delicious things you've ever put in your mouth, especially around a campfire or the afterparty at a beach bonfire. And if those settings don't work out and you don't have a grill or a smoker, you can simply do this in your oven. And while not as fun and exciting, it should come out every bit as good. But anyway, I love the nacho approach. But another very camp-friendly delivery system would be to pile this on a hot dog bun with a nice big spoon of pico de gallo. And I think that would also be a very magnificent way to enjoy this. except there's no place mats at the campground, so you won't have to worry about this unsightly scene where those pieces of veggies are falling on the table in a very distracting display. But anyway, the point is that's an insanely perfect way to eat this. And while I was annoyed at the falling salsa, as usual, the universe had my back and a piece of pork fell perfectly into one of those sweet potato chips. And I realized all this had happened for a reason, which was so I could suggest another serving method of piling this pork on a pile of chips and doing sort of a version of campfire carnita's poutine with maybe some pepper jack cheese sprinkled over the top. But no matter how you serve this or whether you cook it near a real campfire or on your grill or in the oven, this is one of the most delicious ways to cook pork. And I really do hope you give it a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.