Mmmm, carnitas.

We had taco truck carnitas tacos while on vacation. The idea of making our own has been lingering (or shouting, whichever) in the back of our minds since that beautiful day in July.

We found a simple recipe and decided to go for it this weekend.

We started by slamming pork shoulder, the juice and sections of an orange, a cinnamon stick, bay leaves and some garlic into a casserole dish:

The meat cooked for 3 1/2 hours. I found myself going outside just so I could come back in to smell that porky goodness:

Don’t worry all that liquid is removed from the meat and separated into juice and fat. Some of the liquid went into a pot to make salsa verde. Some of the fat was added back to the shredded meat:

Then the meat spent some time under the broiler while we finished making the corn tortillas (yes, from scratch). Tortillas are pretty easy to make because it is basically water, salt and masa. Hard to mess up and a brilliant payoff of corny goodness.

Look at that crisp, yet still tender pork:

And, the final product with salsa verde, onions and cilantro, cheese and avocado: