Chipotle is perhaps my favorite fast-food restaurant. Their food is light, not greasy, fast, and it’s relatively healthy compared to other fast food restaurants.
It also has a special place in my heart. Back in my skating days, me and my skating buddies would always stop by Chipotle afterwards to grab a bite to eat before going home. In the winter, we would go to the one a few blocks away from the Metrodome; in the summer, we’d stop by the one right by Lake Calhoun, sit outside, and enjoy the warm summer sun.
I may be a small petite, 96-pound lady, but when it comes to eating Chipotle burritos, my stomach always seem to expand to twice its size. Instead of explaining further, let me just include a picture of my burrito compared to the hubs from a while back (mine is the one on the right):
All I put on mine are rice, carnitas, pico de gallo, extra corn, and lettuce. No beans, no sour cream, and no cheese. It doesn’t seem like a whole lot, but somehow when you pile everything up on a flour tortilla, they always have problems wrapping it together…
Since the hubs and I are still on the “healthy, no eating out” diet, I decided to make Chipotle at home, and made some carnitas in the crockpot. This recipe is super easy (just like most crockpot recipes), and the carnitas turned out to be super tender and flavorful as well.
Ingredients:
- 3-4 pound pork shoulder, with most of the fat trimmed off
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Juice of 2 limes
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/2 salsa – I used a non-chunky kind
Directions:
- In a small bowl, combine the salt, cumin, chili powder, black pepper, oregano, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper.
- In a separate bowl, combine the lime juice, orange juice, and salsa.
- Rub garlic onto the pork shoulder, and place into slow cooker. Then rub all the spices evenly onto the meat. Add the juice/salsa mixture. Cover and cook for 7-8 hours.
- Preheat the broiler. Meanwhile, take the meat out of the crockpot and place onto a oven-safe dish (I used a casserole dish). Shred meat with two forks. Ladle in about 2-3 cups of the cooking liquid into the casserole dish and broil for 5-10 minutes until the edges are brown on the pork.
- Serve on rice or tortillas with any toppings of your choice (hot sauce, sour cream, cheese, etc).
I made some cilantro lime rice (from a post a few weeks back), pico de gallo, corn salsa, and some shredded lettuce to go with our Mexican dinner. Instead of regular flour tortillas, we brought some jalapeno cheddar wraps to spice it up a bit.
Enjoy and have a great week, folks!
Recipe adapted from Pinch of Yum
