Fiesta Friday: Carnitas, Margs, & the Best Refried Beans
When Cinco de Mayo rolls around, I’m ready to turn the Zehner house into a full on taqueria for at least one day. Cinco is kind of special to us simply because we love tacos, beans, and nacho cheese, and we love to force all of our friends to like those things once a year, too, by throwing a Cinco Fiesta every year. & one thing is always consistent - we go hard with that menu. The scenery is a little different this year with this being our first Spring in our new home, but I refuse to let the tradition die. & it’s so fun to dust off the Mexican table runners and margarita glasses, and just get mildly re-acquainted with tequila.
The actual Cinco 2019 was spent with Jordan manning the grill, me doing minimal chips & dip prep, and a Trailblazer play-off game. & since then my craving for tacos, beans, and skinny margaritas has been borderline insatiable. I swear - more Mexican food has come out of my kitchen in these last 60 days than the entire year we’ve lived up here, and we’ve made more trips to the closest hole in the wall Mexican spot in that same time frame because I can’t get enough. My love of cheese & guac & refried beans has made me want to experiment with all sorts of Mexican meals, & in this short time since Cinco we’ve had chilaquiles, tostadas, homemade salsa, & so many variations of margaritas we’ve made a significant dent in our tequila stash. Needless to say, I’ve been dying to direct my relentless obsession with Mexican meals towards a full-blown fiesta datenight, & one that sorta fills the void of the Cinco parties we’ve come to know and love over the years. Meaning it had to be heavily rooted in margaritas, street tacos, & lots of chips & dips options. So Fiesta Friday was set in motion - kicking off the weekend with my 3 amigos & the best at-home Mexican food I’m capable of producing in the confines of my kitchen.
Mexican food at my house in the year of 2019 can be summarized as so: branching outside my existing repertoire & carving out the the time to make those go to items I love to order when I’m out, and usually only eat when I’m out. Those things that seem far too complex to dive into at home. I’ve already taken a crack at barbacoa this year (one of my other faves), which was a big hit, and next up on the list is Carnitas. Juicy & crispy shredded port that tastes so good piled o pillowy flour tortillas, and the perfect centerpiece for an at-home fiesta.
Carnitas are un-chartered territory, so I did my research in preparation for the carnitas overhaul - like buckled down and dived into a bunch of different blogs (a solid combo of reputable cooking blogs & ones I’d never heard of), combing through them all to find similarities & craft what I thought would be the best carnitas recipe for our tastebuds. Lots of different ratios of orange jucie + lime juice + onion out there, but I’m super happy with how this version turned out. The thing I was so happy to learn - the crock pot is your friend. I set my 4-pound hunk of pork in my crock with all the fruit juices and seasonings for 8 hours on low, and the end result was the most perfect, juicy, shreddable meaty goodness. Effortlessly shreddable, like barely stick a fork in it and it falls apart. & that’s exactly what you want!
The best part about carnitas is the crispy bits. I know from Diners Drive-Ins & Dives that the crispy-ness is usually from frying the pork, but I have one word for you - broiler. Literally fucking genius. Spread your freshly cooked and shredded carnitas, and all of their juicy goodness on a foil lined baking sheet, broil for 7-10 minutes, and you’ve got carnitas that look like they’re straight from the taqueria. Juicy, but with crispy edges that are just so satisfying. To be totally honest - I did bake some bacon for my cheater beans (jump down like 2 paragraphs for that action) & I used the same foil lined baking sheet with just a bit of the reserved bacon fat, set the carnitas right on top of that bacon grease, & broiled. It was super tasty, but not a crucial step. All you need is some fresh onion, radish, and cilantro to place right on top, and a dollop of salsa, and it’s the most perfect taco. So minimalistic, & the carnitas get to kind of just be the shining star. & the meat really is so good you don’t want it’s flavor to get lost in a bunch of other toppings.
Carnitas were the shining star, but I really like to make a curated dinner with plenty of sides when we’re having a datenight at home. & that’s how we’d do it for our Cinco parties, so hell yeah I’m doing it for just us! I personally like the variety. & we like leftovers in this house! So I paired our carnitas tacos with 2 sides: Mexican Slaw & refried beans. This Spicy Mexican Slaw is light & crunchy, & even tastes super good piled on the tacos themselves (which is something we did with our leftovers). It’s refreshing like any summer slaw, but the corn & the beans & the salsa based dressing just makes it fiesta appropriate, and a super yummy salad alongside warm tacos.
My other side for tacos MUST be refried beans - my favorite! Did I even have Mexican food if there were no beans? I made Cheater Refried Beans, which is a quality step up from the usual open a can & call it good approach. They’re essentially loaded refrieds, & they’re theeee BEST. My goal was to give that they were cooked with lard taste, but without actually doing that. I baked 4 slices of bacon at 375 for 17 minutes, so until it was cooked and crispy. In a saucepan, I added a can of refried beans, 2 tbsp of the rendered bacon fat, and 1/4 c. chicken broth. Heat it up until it bubbles, mix well, & then transfer the beans to an oven proof bowl, topping them with some shredded cheddar cheese, the cooked bacon, and a few jalapeno slices. Bake at 350 for five minutes & you’ve got cheater beans. They’re so good and just have a little bit more going on, plus a little bit of that bacon flavor to make-up for the fact that you used canned refrieds. We ended up just dunking chips into the warm beans, & I think we both ate our weight in chips & loaded beans.
But what is a fiesta without chips & dips & margaritas? There have been a lots of kitchen experiments going on in our house, particularly lots of margarita & salsa making. The perk being finding a super yummy go to Backyard Margarita recipe, and a really good Chipotle Salsa recipe. They’re our new in-house go to’s for any Mexican meals
I’m writing this feeling so thankful for these kind of memories with my little fam. I’m thankful that I have this amazing husband who totally goes all-in on these datenights, and is just as committed to making the most of a datenight-in as I am. I’ve come to cherish the whole routine around these datenights. The cooking together with music in the background & drinks in hand, and having it all end with a meal in one of the favorite spots in our home. I’m sure some people think it’s so over the top, but for me (& I think I can safely say for us) this is how we can enjoy our home. & our time with just us. Having a fun cocktail to look forward to on a Friday, & a reason to dip into that good tequila - for us that’s enough to make a night at home feel just a bit more special. That feeling of putting the phone down and slipping away from strictly business work mode to just being with my person - no agenda, no worries, no underlying subtext - is the moment I look forward to at the end of the day or the week. This past week was busy, and I can feel the time fly by during the week as we get closer to opening our bar. & I know that once it opens it’s officially go time, and carving out time for nights like these might become fewer & farther between for at least a little while. I can catch myself fearing losing this time, & I still look to Jordan for reassurance that we won’t forego opportunities for these moments that are so precious. For now I’m only grateful that we had our own little fiesta in our happy home, and it was perfect for us. & for the Chiweens, who are truly the best dogs ever for tolerating these doggy sombreros & being our little señors for the night.
For the Carnitas
4 lb pork loin
1 yellow onion, quartered
2 oranges, juiced
1 lime, juiced
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cuminn
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 white onion, diced
4-5 radishes, thinly sliced
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Small flour tortillas (street taco size)
Salsa, sour cream, & hot sauce for serving
Place the entire pork loin in a large crockpot. Add in the onion, juices, sugar, garlic powder, cumin, salt & pepper. Place the crockpot on the low setting, and set the cook time for 8 hours. After the cook time has ended, shred the pork with 2 forks (the pork should be super shreddable and practically fall apart when gently raked with a fork). Keep the pork in the crockpot, leaving a juices, and continue to cook the shredded pork on low for another 30 minutes. Then move the crockpot setting to keep warm.
When you’re ready to eat, place the pork (just enough for eating that evening)on a foil lined baking sheet in a single layer. Broil for 7-10 minutes, or until the pork becomes slightly browned and crispy.
Place the onion, radishes, & cilantro in small ramekins for self serve toppings. Warm 2 tortillas per human eating over medium low heat. Fill each tortilla with about 2 tbsp of carnitas. Let everyone top with their own accoutrements and finish with the salsa or hot sauce of their choosing.