Carnitas
Photo: Tomascastelazo · CC BY-SA 4.0

Carnitas are pork cuts braised and then fried in their own lard until tender inside and crisp outside, chopped to order for tacos and tortas with salsa and pickled chiles; in Mexico we have verified places to eat it in Cancún and Mexico City.

Carnitas · Cancún

Carnitas are pork cuts braised and then fried in their own lard until tender inside and crisp outside, chopped to order for tacos and tortas with salsa and pickled chiles.

Carnitas, literally little meats, is a Mexican dish from Michoacán made by braising, simmering and frying pork in lard, its own fat or oil, a process that takes three to four hours and leaves the meat tender with browned edges. The name was historically the Mexican colloquial name for the French rillons de Tours. In Cancún, Carnitas Don Enrique on Avenida Tikal has served it since 1974, by the cut: shoulder, rind, ribs, shank and hog maw, or the mixed surtida. El Polilla on Avenida Nader makes carnitas tacos its house classic.

Where to eat in Cancún:

Where to eat Carnitas in Cancún: the editor picks

Carnitas · Mexico City

Pork shoulder, belly, ribs and offal slow-confit in lard with orange peel and bay until tender, then crisped in the same fat. Hand-chopped on a wooden board into tacos.

Carnitas are a Michoacán dish dating to the colonial era, when Spanish pork-husbandry met Purepecha confit techniques. The home of carnitas is Quiroga, but Mexico City elevated the format through its Michoacano migrant taquerias from the 1950s onward. El Rincon Tarasco in Escandon (run by the Zapien family since 1978) and El Bajio (chef Carmen Titita, 1972) hold the city canon. The proper cut order from the chopping block: maciza (lean shoulder), costilla (rib), surtido (mixed), with offal options of buche, oreja, and cuero.

Where to eat in Mexico City:

Where to eat Carnitas in Mexico City: the editor picks

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