After making cha siu and a Taiwanese-style pork roast, I was looking for other regional preparations of pork butt/shoulder (apparently butts and shoulders are interchangeable in pigs). I thought carnitas would be overly ambitious, but of course Kenji pulls through with a non-slow cooker non-pork lard soaked recipe.

Carnitas

• Cut 3 lbs boneless pork butt with rind removed into 2-inch cubes. Season with 1 tbsp salt. Arrange in 9×13 baking dish with no spaces.
• Quarter 1 medium orange. Squeeze over juices. Add orange pieces, 2 quarters of a medium onion, 4 cloves garlic halved, 2 bay leaves, 1 cinnamon stick broken up. Pour over 1/4 cup oil.
• Bake tightly covered with foil at 275 F for 3.5 hours, until fork-tender.
• Remove other solids. Strain out liquids, which should result in 1/2 cup liquid and 1/2 cup fat. Shred pork with forks. Season with more salt. Optionally add some fat back to pork.
• Roast under broiler for 6 minutes to develop crispy edges. Rearrange and roast again for 6 minutes.
• Serve with salsa, 1 onion finely diced, 1/2 cup cilantro chopped, limes, crumbled cheese, on corn tortillas.