Food
Large-Format Carnitas with Pork Fat Cilantro Rice
Lesson time 23:19 min
Try your hand at the mouthwatering recipe Roy dreams of—especially when he cooks his pork shoulder low and slow overnight.
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Topics include: Carnitas • Pork Fat Cilantro Rice • Check Your Carnitas • Tomatillo-Cilantro Purée • Assemble Your Pork Fat Cilantro Rice • Plating
Preview
ROY CHOI: Warning-- this class contains some bad [DRILL SPINNING] language. [MUSIC PLAYING] Get ready. We're making carnitas with pork fat cilantro lime rice. And then in the next chapter, we're going to turn that whole thing into a burrito. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to take our pork butt. This is about a 5-pound pork butt. Sometimes it's called pork shoulder. And in no way is this carnitas that I'm about to show you traditional. But over time, I've kind of developed it where it's a kind of very low maintenance. And it yields an extremely flavorful product. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to season our pork butt with salt and pepper. And we're going to be very generous. The bigger the cut of meat that you have, the more generous you can be with your seasoning. You want to get it all on the inside, on the edges, all around. The way that I'm seasoning this pork butt is the same way that you would season a prime rib or a rack of lamb. This is not singular towards just this recipe. This is a technique and a process in which you learn how to season any cut of meat. This is only a 5-pound one. But you could do it as a 10-pound or 20-pound. It's just going to take a little more time. And this is what we're going to do from a very low heat, very slow, sometimes up to 4 hours, 6 hours. The larger the cut, sometimes you can go up to 12 hours. I always like to cook them overnight. You fall asleep, and there's just something beautiful about you sleeping and this roast kind of snuggling in the oven at the same time. So we have our seasoned roast here. You see that? See how much I put on there? You want to take your garlic cloves and stuff them in here. Okay. And then you're going to take your Dutch oven over here. And then you're going to put your roast right inside the Dutch oven. Okay. The Dutch oven doesn't have to be hot before you put it in. So I'm going to take this Dutch oven here. Just put it in right like that, cold. And we'll take the oil. And I'm going to drizzle it all around. As the pork fat renders and mixes with the oil, it's going to give you enough pork fat to be able to put into your rice. Any time you roast a large cut, as you can see, you have the flesh side here and then the fat cap here on top. By having the fat cap on top, all this fat is going to render and liquefy. And when it liquefies, it's going to create kind of a shower effect over the rest of the meat. And that makes it juicier, obviously, as juicy as Tom Holland doing "Umbrella." We're going to take this Dutch oven. We're going to put it into a 225-degree oven. You put it in, and you say good night. Okay? You don't have to turn it. You don't have to touch it. You don't have to do anything. Just make sure the temperature is extremely low-- 200 degrees, 250 degrees, 225, 215. I like to sometimes even go 185, 185 for 12 hours. [MUSIC PLAYING] I know there ar...
About the Instructor
Roy Choi wasn’t trying to start a revolution when he took tacos, kimchi, and more to the Los Angeles streets with the Kogi BBQ taco truck. He just wanted to make what he loved and knew by heart: immigrant-influenced all-American food. Now he’s teaching you his recipes, sauces, and techniques. Learn how to cook with your instincts using equipment you already have—and start adding your own twist to tried-and-true favorites.
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Roy Choi
Food truck “godfather” Roy Choi teaches you his signature recipes and mother sauces—then empowers you to make them your own.
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