Carnitas Tacos

As I mentioned last week, I've been working through the pulled pork chapter of my friend Nick's cookbook: Love Your Leftovers. You can find the core pulled pork recipe in my post from last week, but for this post, I'll write about one of the many suggested recipes in his book. It uses the slow cooker pulled pork in a new way. I hope to take some of the frozen pulled pork out of my freezer and make a third recipe later this week. Because as far as I'm concerned, a week without pork products is a sad one!

Carnitas Tacos (makes 8 tacos)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. shredded pork (approximately 3 cups)
• 3 TB unsalted butter, melted
• 16 (6-inch) corn tortillas (or 8 flour tortillas, whatever is your preference)
• 2 avocados, mashed
• 4 radishes, sliced thing
• Fresh cilantro
• 1 lime, juice only

Quick Pickled Red Onion

• 1 red onion
• 1 large lime, juice only
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

To make pickled onions, peel the onion and slice it first in half and then into thin slivers. Add to a bowl and toss with lime juice and salt. Let sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes while you prepare the rest of the carnitas.

Add shredded pork to baking dish. Try to spread out pork so it is in a thin layer and covering the entire pan. Drizzle pork with melted butter.

Bake until the shredded pork becomes crispy on top, approximately 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your other toppings.

If you have a gas range, and you like your tortillas a little toasted, you can do so my placing the them directly over the gas flame over medium heat. Let them cook until they are lightly charred, about 10 seconds per side.

To make the tacos, use two toasted corn tortillas per taco. Smear tortillas with some mashed avocado and then pile on the pork, followed by the radishes, cilantro and pickled red onions. Finish off with a little squeeze of lime juice.