Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pork Carnitas

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pork Carnitas
Recipe from: Family Feasts for $75 a Week by Mary Ostyn

One 3-pound pork butt (I used a pork loin, because that's what I had!)
1 can lemon-lime soda
2 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
Twelve 8-inch flour tortillas, warmed
Salsa and sour cream or guacamole for serving

1. Trim pork of excess fat; cut into 2 to 3 inch cubes. Combine pork cubes in a large heavy pot with soda, water, and salt. Bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce heat to low and continue to simmer, uncovered for 2 hours. Do not stir. (I actually transferred everything to my crockpot at this point)

2. After 2 hours, turn heat up to medium and cook, covered, until all liquid has evaporated and pork fat has rendered, about 45 minutes. Stir a few times, just often enough to keep pork from sticking hard to bottom of pan. If it starts to stick, add a little more water as you complete cooking time. When done, pork will be brown on both sides, and just a little liquid fat will remain in pot. Pork will be so tender that it will fall apart at a touch. (after it cooked all afternoon in my crockpot on low, I transferred back to the pot on the stove to cook down the juices)

3. Serve pork in warm tortillas with salsa and sour cream or guacamole. (Brandon likes the green salsa and cilantro!)

Our verdict: Great! We'll make this again for sure. Using the crockpot made it a really easy way to do the slow cooking - since I wasn't home all day! Also, our cat thought this smelled great, and was begging all evening to eat this! Even for leftovers!!! Silly cat! :)