Crockpot Carnitas

Traditional carnitas are typically made by taking pork, seasoning it, and slowly cooking or braising the meat in lard or by deep frying. This use of lard or deep frying adds a lot of fat to the meat, particularly saturated fat, but makes the meat very moist. My goal was simple, make moist, tender carnitas without having to add any fat. The added issue, using a cut of pork that is low in fat as well to keep the carnitas under 30% calories from fat.

As I worked through this problem, I first had to choose my method of cooking. Since braising in the oven without fat tends to dry the meat out and deep frying is always fatty, I decided on using a crock pot instead. Crock pots allow even cooking and tends to keep the meat moist. I borrowed this idea from a Penzeys catalog as well as a portion of the spices used.

The next step in limiting the fat in the recipe was choosing the proper cut of meat. The tenderloin and sirloin cuts of the pig tend to be lower in fat and are good choices for this recipe. Roasts from the shoulder or butt have more fat, but some of this can be trimmed off before cooking. The key, when you are in the supermarket, look for a piece of meat that visibly has less fat than the others.

This recipe is easy to put together, but the cooking time is quite long. The cooking time of the recipe is required to break down the collagen fibers in the muscles of the meat which allows you to shred the meat. Collagen is a protein fiber that helps to connect tissues together. However, when you want to shred meat, this is your biggest enemy. The longer the meat is cooked, the more these collagen fibers are broken down, allowing shedding to be easier. The trick is to keep the meat moist during the duration of the cooking time. Typical carnitas uses lard. I use a crock pot. The typical way adds a lot of unnecessary fat, my recipe give you all the flavor, without the additional fat.

So if you are craving mexican food and want to make something delicious, this is a great recipe to try!

Slow Cooker Carnitas

• 3-4 pounds pork tenderloin or sirloin roast
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 8 oz. can Tomato sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp Spanish style paprika
• 2 tsp Mexican oregano
• 1 Tsp ground coriander (you can also use fresh cilantro, coriander is just the seeds of  the cilantro)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 whole bay leaves

Place the chicken broth and tomato sauce in the bottom of the crock pot. Stir until the tomato sauce and chicken broth is mixed together. Place the roast in the crock post. The sprinkle the seasonings on top of the roast in the order seen above. Place the bay leaves on top after all the seasonings have been added. This is what your roast should look like right before you start cooking:

Then, put the crock pot on high and set for 2 hours. After the two hours on high, reduce the crock pot to low and cook for 4 hours. After 6 hours of cooking, take two forks and shred the meat as much as possible. Also, take the bay leaves out as well. If the pork shreds well, then it is done cooking. If not, let sit for another hour and try again. Once the pork is shredded well, you cans serve the pork or crisp it in the oven. I like the carnitas straight out of the crock pot, but some people like their carnitas crisp. To crisp the meat, spread it out on a cookie sheet and place in a oven at 400 F until at the desired crispiness. Add liquid from the cooking to moisten if desired.

At this point you have a very low fat meat to use in tacos, burritos, ect. To keep the fat from calories low, make sure to use toppings and tortillas that are low in fat as well. Ideas can include salsa, low fat cheese, low-fat/fat-free sour cream, and lots of vegetables. Also, rice and beans make great side dishes to this meal.

Here are the nutritional facts for this recipe:

The calories from fat comes out to 22% calories from fat. This can further be reduced by draining any fat from the juices after cooking. So if you are hungry for carnitas and don't want the lard that usually accompanies it, then give these a shot!

Pizza!

Most people I know really love pizza. The problem.....the puddles of grease typically found on the surface of your favorite pizza waiting to clog your arteries. So I decided to tackle this issue to create a great tasting, lower fat pizza option.

There are two main fat culprits while making pizza. The first is cheese. Cheese is typically high in fat and saturated fat. However, without cheese, you don't really have a pizza. There are two options: First option: measure out your cheese before putting it on. I never used to measure my cheese before loading up my pizza. However, one day I decided to actually see how little cheese I needed to adequately cover a pizza with cheese. To my surprise, I found that you really only need 1 cup of cheese to cover a 14" pizza crust. Armed with this knowledge, I found that a simple cheese pizza has 30% calories from fat!!! That means just being careful with cheese can provide a lower fat option! However, if you really, really, really like a ton of cheese, use option. You can find lower fat mozzarella in the cheese section of any supermarket. This cheese typically is 1/3 to 1/2 the typical fat amounts in 1 serving in cheese, so you can use about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup more. This allows you to add more cheese with less total fat being added. My brother tried these lower fat cheese options and found that they are excellent and tasty substitutions for full fat cheese.

The second culprit is toppings. Toppings can be a double edged sword. They can either improve the nutritional value of pizza, or totally kill it. Meat lover's pizzas are great examples of toppings that kill the nutrition of a pizza. Any sort of processed meats, like pepperoni, sausage, bacon, will add considerable amounts of fat, especially saturated fats, and will create a caloric and fat nightmare. However, using fruits and vegetables, chicken, and low fat ham, can provide excellent flavor without the extra calories from fat. When dealing with a food that is right on the 30% fringe, it is better to use lower fat ingredient to drive down the percentage of calories from fat.

So, in the end, how can you make a tasty, healthy pizza? Use low fat cheese and monitor how much you add and use toppings that add little or no fat.

What follows is my general recipe for a basic Cheese pizza. This pizza actually uses full-fat cheese, showing that you still can use it and be okay. However, the more toppings you add and use low fat cheese, each slice will be nutritionally better for you!

14" Cheese Pizza (8 Slices)

Crust:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons yeast)

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45

degrees C)

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

 

Sauce:

8 oz can of Tomato sauce

Your Italian/pizza seasoning of choice, I use 1 tsp

Toppings:

1 cup cheese

Anything else that is low in fat

First, make your crust. Add the water, sugar, and yeast to a mixing bowl (I use my KitchenAid Stand mixer with the dough hook, if you have a bread machine, you can use the dough setting) Let stand for 5 minutes. This allows the yeast to activate. 

 

*Yeast uses the sugar, glucose, as food as well as other carbohydrates. As yeast processes carbohydrates, the yeast produces CO2 as a waste product and releases it. This CO2 when trapped in a dough will cause it to rise as the yeast continues to process the sugar and make more CO2. This is why yeast breads rise. Also, yeast is the most active around 100 degrees F, which is why recipes typically call for warm water. This is your science for the day!* 

 

Once the yeast is active, add the rest of the ingredient. You want a dough that is not sticky, but easy to work with. If it cleans the sides of the mixer bowl and doesn't stick to your hands, the dough is ready. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin until reached to proper size of your pan. Grease the pan and place the dough in the pan. Before adding the sauce, mix in the seasoning. Spread the sauce evenly across the dough. I typically leave 1/2 to 1 inch around the edge of the dough free from sauce to allow for the crust. Add the cheese and then top with anything you wish!! (as long as its low in fat) Bake in the oven at 425 F for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and starting to turn brown. Cool and eat!!!

So up to this point, I have not had a recipe that has come near the 30% calories from fat limit. This recipe, hit it right on the dot. If you make the recipe exactly, it comes out to 30% calories from fat. However, this is without the addition of any toppings or the use of lower fat cheese. That being said, you can obviously make this pizza way lower in fat by using low fat cheese and low fat toppings (toppings under the 30% calories from fat). Here are the nutrition facts:

 

 The pizza comes out to 30.0% calories from fat. As I stated above, the use of lower fat cheese and low fat toppings will reduce the percent calories from fat. So you no longer have to hide away from pizza if you are looking for something low in fat! Just be wise with your ingredients and amount of cheese and enjoy!