>>The Pippin apple is slightly astringent and really tart Together with pork carnitas, this cider is perfect.

So I hope you're gonna enjoy this recipe today.

The first thing we're gonna do is make a little rub.

I have a teaspoon of dry oregano, a tablespoon of salt, a teaspoon of black pepper, and about a teaspoon and a half of cumin.

Now, you can add more cumin if you like.

Of course, you can always adjust your seasons, but I like just that amount of cumin in this because I think, with the cider, it works so perfectly.

So I just want to mix these up.

There we go.

Nice.

So that's all mixed.

Now, want to get everything ready for my pan.

I have in my cup three squeezed oranges, and then I'm going to take another orange, and I just want to wedge that.

So pork carnitas are really great with apple ciders.

They're great with beers and with wines, but you gotta have the right wine.

Now, you know that apple cider is actually part of the wine family.

It's the apple's wine.

It's the wine of apples.

So here we're gonna just squeeze these into the pan.

So I'm kinda making a little bed here, and now I wanna take one medium white onion, and I'm just gonna wedge that in about six.

(onion peel crinkles) (knife thuds) Now, let's cut those ends off, and cut each of those halves in three pieces.

So we have six nice wedges, and I'll put those kind of in the center.

(knife thuds) (knife thuds) We're making a little bed here, but we will stir in all of the juices as we're baking this beautiful pork.

Now, I wanna take one jalapeno pepper, and I'm just going to strip that from the seed pod.

(knife thuds) Now, if you like it spicier, put in your seeds.

If you like it a little less spicy, leave those seeds out, and just drop those in your pan.

Now, let's get back to that pork.

We're gonna pour about two tablespoons of olive oil over the pork, and just kind of give it a little rub.

Now, you wanna make sure that your fat cap is up.

This happens to be one of those picnic shoulders that's already been done for me from the grocery store, and I appreciated that so much.

All of the fat had pretty much been trimmed off, but it has just enough fat to still maintain the moisture and keep the flavor.

So I want to start with the side I'm going to put down.

So that's gonna be the side with the least amount of fat, and we just wanna give a good rub to that.

And then let's take our pork and lay it right on our vegetables.

Now, let's put on the rest of that seasoning, and I'm just gonna kind of pour it on, but then rub it all over.

Some of it will fall down into the pan, that's fine, because it's all going to go together for this amazing flavor profile.

At this point, let's put in that orange juice.

So, again, the juice of three oranges, and then I have one orange already wedged in the bottom of my pan, and I wanna add about a cup and a half, two cups of water.

If your pork starts to get dry, you can always put in a little more water in the bottom of the pan.

Now, what I'm gonna do is roast this at 325 degrees for two hours.

Then, I wanna just flip that roast over, and kind of bury it down in the liquid.

Then, I'm going to put the lid on and I'm going to bake it for another hour and a half to two hours until the internal temperature of the meat is right around 195 to 200 degrees.

Then, it'll be ready to shred.

So look at this pork.

It has roasted, and wow, it's just falling apart as I pull it out of the pan.

Just amazing.

That last hour and a half to two hours really makes it nice and moist on the inside because we're putting the meat back down in the juices, and we're putting the lid on, which means it steams just a bit.

So what we're gonna do is take off any major excess fat, and we'll just drop that away.

And if you find any kind of gristle at all, make sure you pull that out, but what we're gonna do here is just shred with two forks just back and forth, just like this.

Back and forth until you really shred that meat.

Oh, just gorgeous.

This is gorgeous pork.

It smells so good too.

I just love what that orange does to the smell of this pork and to the flavor.

Okay.

Oh, beautiful.

Now, I'm gonna take some of that juice from in the pan.

Remember that has the orange, the onion, the jalapeno, all of that rub that's gone down into the juices, and we just want to take some of it and put it right on our meat.

I'll shred the rest of this in just a minute.

Just like this.

Nice carnitas juice.

And if you want, you can also take out those peppers and onions, and just put them right in here, and shred them along with the meat.

Mm, so good!

So let's just make sure we mix all that up.

And now, I'll be back in just a minute with these plated up with our Pippin apple cider.

Now, let's get those tortillas filled.

So what I want to do is take some of our pork and just throw it in there, a little bit of our slaw, and I'm just gonna use my fingers.

Some cilantro, and fresh cilantro on this is a must, and a little bit of sour cream, just a dollop right in the center.

Just put that right there.

There we go.

And let's just load up this cute little taco form.

Now, let's give 'em a taste.

First thing we wanna do is just squeeze a little of that lime.

Fresh lime juice on carnitas is just amazing.

Okay.

Mm!

(bright music) Wow, so good.

Now, let's try it with a little bit of this Pippin cider.

Mm!

(bright music) It's really good.

It's tart.

It has just a hint of sweetness because it's cider.

But with these carnitas, it's perfect.

Such a delicious pairing, and I hope you'll enjoy it.

(bright music)