I’m convinced that chicken thighs and pork butt (also known as pork shoulder) are the two most versatile meats around.

One of these days I’ll talk about the chicken. But the purpose of today’s post is to talk about the humble and inexpensive pork butt. Or as it is called around this house, the ‘Wonder Butt’.

Usually this pork can be purchased on sale for under $2 a pound. Of course, that is usually with the bone in. Out of curiosity, I took the bone out and weighed it to see what difference it made in the overall price of the chunk of meat. The answer is 10 cents per pound for your average 4-6lb pork butt. So, if you have a choice between a boneless pork butt for, say, $2.25/lb versus a bone-in pork butt for $2/lb, buy the bone-in version for a bargain.

Don’t worry too much about the bone in any case. I leave it in when I make pulled pork. After cooking the bone just slips out from the meat cleanly. Also, the added flavor from the bone will enhance pork stock.

I save and smoke the trimmings, such as the fat with little chunks of meat attached, to use when I cook a pot of beans. You’ll find that the fat just falls away so it’s easy to scoop out, leaving the delicious meat pieces among the beans.

Speaking of meat, now to the meat of this blog: Carnitas tacos using the sous vide cooking technique. Cook about a pound and a half of pork shoulder in the sous vide at 160F for 24 hours.

Meanwhile, we roasted chopped tomatillos, green chiles and onion under the broiler for 13 minutes and blended it into salsa verde. This ended up a little tart for my taste so I added a dash of honey along with minced garlic and roughly chopped cilantro. A little salt and tasted great.

The pork was fall-apart tender, so we shredded it out on a foil-lined baking sheet, topped it with a sprinkle of Honey-based BBQ seasoning. I like Kosmo Q’s ‘Killer Honey Bee’ but you can use whatever you wish, or even a sprinkle of brown sugar. This will help the pork crisp a tiny bit as well as add flavor.

Broiled it for 8 minutes just until we got a little char/glaze atop it.  After that, it was taco time!

Built up each taco with carnitas pork, a slice of avocado, diced onion, cilantro, salsa verde, and a squeeze of lime. You can use flour-based tacos but corn tacos are the best with this recipe.

Absolutely marvelous. The full recipe is below.

CARNITAS FROM THE SOUS VIDE:

4lb Pork Butt

2 bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick

1 onion

1 orange

Optional: Kozmo Q Honey Killer Bee Seasoning

SALSA VERDE:

12 Tomatillos

2 jalapeños (de seeded)

1 Onion

1 tablespoon honey

¼ tsp umami salt

1 clove garlic

Half bunch of cilantro

GARNISHES:

Half onion, chopped

Half bunch of cilantro

Cojita Cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1) Cut pork butt into inch-thick steaks. Season with salt and put into SV along with the spices and halved orange + onion.

2) Sous vide at 160F for 24 hours.

3) Roughly chop Tomatillos, jalapeños (de seeded) and onion and put on baking sheet. Cook under broiler 13 mins.

4) Take out (should be soft and slightly charred) and put in blender. Add remaining salsa ingredients and blend until smooth.

5) Take pork out of SV and shred. Arrange into one layer on foil-lined tray and sprinkle liberally with Honey Killer Bee seasoning.

6) Place under broiler until crisped to your liking. (8 minutes worked!)

7) Chop garnishes and serve with tortillas and sprinkle with cojita cheese.