+1 (858) 945-1324 [email protected]
We Love Our Food, You Will Too. |

Blue Moon Orange Chipotle Carnitas Tostada

In the last edition of Blue Moon recipe development of 2011, I was given the direction to create a Mexican style dish using orange and cilantro as major flavoring ingredients. After a small amount of research, I came across an idea using chipotle chiles, and orange juice. I took this idea and spun off of it with a marinade for pork carnitas. The marinade would consist of the spicy chipotle chiles, fresh squeezed orange juice and zest, chopped cilantro, and salt. The chipotles came in a can with adobo sauce which I used as the main spice for the pork. This mixture sat overnight. Instead of the traditional deep fry method for carnitas, I decided to do a quick braise using the marinade as the braising liquid. Then, once the pork was cooked, I quickly pan fried it in hot oil, giving it that fried texture.

The pork came out wonderfully spicy with lots of orange flavor. It was served as a tostada with black beans, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and monterey jack cheese. It was so good, I had 4. Thanks Blue Moon! Can’t wait to make many more dishes in 2012.

Method


Combine chipotle chilies in adobo sauce with the juice from 2 oranges, zest, cilantro and salt. Mix well, and pour over pork pieces. Marinate for up to 24 hours.

In a large skillet over medium heat, pour in entire contents of marinade and pork mixture. Add in the juice of the last orange, and 1 cup of chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally for 30 minutes.

CHEFS NOTE: At this point in the cooking process, you can be ready to serve. However, Carnitas are usually fried. So, from this point I heated a skillet with about 4 tbsp of vegetable oil. Once the oil was hot, I added the just the pork from the mixture to the hot oil and stirred constantly until the outside of the pork was beginning to crisp up (about 5 minutes). From here I then served the pork with toppings listed.

Assembly:


First place a spoonful of black beans on top of the tostada shell. Then on top of the beans a good portion of Carnitas, followed by the diced tomatoes, cheese, then shredded lettuce.

X