CrockPot Creations Part 3: Pork Carnitas with Green Apple Slaw

My first week back to work was a hectic one and left me with very little time at home for cooking.  I managed to throw together a few meals, but one night The Hub and I decided to turn to our trusty friend, The Crockpot, for help.   We had bought a 3 lb. pork shoulder over the weekend and decided to make some tasty Pork Carnitas We had also bought a giant bag of Granny Smith apples over the weekend and needed to use some up so I made a Green Apple Slaw.  The tartness of the apple combined with lime juice and red onion were a fantastic complement to the pork. Carnitas are pretty simple and are traditionally made by slow cooking the heavily seasoned meat with very few ingredients and then turning it up to high heat at the end to crisp.  Most recipes call for garlic, salt, pepper and sometimes chili powder or orange juice.  Some people add milk or a bay leaf.  The key is to keep it super simple. But since The Hub likes everything spicy and does not like to keep recipes simple, he added a few other ingredients.  We woke up in the morning to the most delicious smell.  I wish I could put smell on this blog because your mouth would be watering.  The carnitas turned out great and we had quite a bit of leftover meat that we used to make breakfast burritos over the weekend. For the Pork Carnitas, You'll Need:

• 3 lb. pork shoulder
• 1 medium white onion
• 2 jalapeños
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 3 tbsp. brown sugar
• Chili powder (we were out of chili powder so we used a combo of taco seasoning, cumin and cayenne pepper which worked fine)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 c. orange juice
• 12 oz. light beer

For the Green Apple Slaw, You'll Need:

• 1 medium Granny Smith apple
• ½ c. finely chopped red onion
• Juice of 1 lime
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions: Heavily coat the meat with the chili powder (or spice combo), salt and pepper.  Sear all sides of the meat over medium-high heat until browned.  Place in crockpot with sliced onion, jalapeño, brown sugar, beer and orange juice.  The liquid will not be covering the meat all the way and this is ok.  Turn on low and cook overnight or about 8 hours.

Drain juice from pork and shred.  Place in a skillet over high heat for about 5-10 minutes to crisp up the meat. In the meantime, peel the apple and shred it using the coarse side of cheese grater.  Squeeze out as much excess juice from the grated apple as you want.  Place in a bowl and combine with the chopped red onion, lime juice and salt and pepper.

Put everything on a tortilla and top with sour cream.  Enjoy!