This is a great low-carb recipe for Carnitas, literally “little meats,” which consists of pork butt cooked in lard with added flavors.
It’s very simple. Get a 3 to 4 pound pork butt from your butcher. The butt is actually the shoulder, but ‘butt’ sounds better, doesn’t it?
Chop it up into 1/2 pound to 1 pound chunks and completely submerge it in a casserole or dutch oven full of melted lard. You heard me. Try to get unprocessed lard with no added trans-fats. It might take a few pounds of lard to get it completely submerged.
Cut an orange in half, squeeze the juice in, and throw the orange halves in, peel and all.
Add 1/2 an onion (cut up or not. up to you), 5 cloves of crushed garlic, half a lime (squeezed just like the orange), 1/2 cup of heavy cream (which I found out you should add after about an hour), and 1 teaspoon of salt.
Slow cook it over low heat, low flame, or an open fire for at least two hours. Don’t let it boil too much. I have a propane range, and I find I have to stack about 4 burner racks on top of each other and keep the fire on low to get just the right heat. If after a few hours the meat isn’t falling apart, continue to cook it for another hour.
Take the meat out and shred it. Crisp it up in a frying pan over medium heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze the other half of the lime over it before serving. Serve as is, or with guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, cheese, all the usual taco fixins. Just stay away from the tortillas. 
I introduced this recipe on my ketogenic lifestyle podcast with Richard Morris, 2 Keto Dudes.
- 3-4pound pork butt
- 3pounds lard(unprocessed)
- 1/2cup heavy cream
- 5-6cloves garliccrushed
- 1tsp kosher salt
- 1head Bibb lettucefor "tacos"
- 1red pepper chopped
- 1cup Sour Cream
- 1cup fresh guacamole
- 1cup oaxaca cheesegrated
- Cut the pork butt into 1/2 pound sections.
- Melt lard over medium heat in a 8-quart dutch oven or large casserole
- Submerge pork pieces in melted lard
- Cut the orange in half, squeeze into lard and then submerge both orange halves in the lard
- Cut the lime in half. Squeeze half the lime into, and then submerge into the lard
- Cut onion in half and submerge into the lard, outer skin and all, along with the crushed garlic
- Cook over low heat for an hour
- Add 1/2 cup heavy cream and salt. Stir to combine
- Continue cooking for 2-3 hours over very low heat
- Prepare condiments: Bibb lettuce leaves, sour cream, Oaxaca cheese, chopped red peppers, guacamole, lime wedges.
- Remove from heat. Remove the meat from the lard. Shred or cut into bite size pieces
- Crisp up in a fry pan over medium heat. Add salt and pepper to taste
- Serve and enjoy