If Chipotle's e. coli, salmonella and norovirus outbreaks in recent months—one as recently as March 9—have caused you to skip the burrito chain, that doesn't necessarily mean you've lost your appetite for the brand's cilantro-lime rice, guac (even if it costs extra), or its signature, slow-roasted pork carnitas.
While the chain has made sweeping changes and reinforced existing sanitation practices to prevent future outbreaks, if you still find yourself uneasy—or you just don't have a Chipotle near you and desperately miss having a forearm-sized burrito for lunch, dinner or "yay, I went to the gym tonight, so I deserve a second dinner!"—this recipe is here to help you out.
Chipotle's carnitas recipe is a pretty closely guarded secret. We asked employees and scoured the web, and everyone had the same response: the carnitas and barbacoa are delivered to stores pre-seasoned and vacuum-sealed. Employees at each location cook the meat, but they don't necessarily know how much of each ingredient is used, or for how long the pork has been marinating.
After striking out there, we decided to start trying bloggers' copycat recipes and looking at Chipotle's ingredients listing to see what we were missing. As it turns out, most bloggers' recipes tasted delicious—but were far closer to barbacoa than carnitas. Many call for beef broth and Ro-Tel, which give the dish a tomato-y, stew-like flavor.
On Chipotle's website, the ingredients are pretty straightforward: pork, bay leaf, salt, black pepper, thyme, juniper berries, sunflower oil. Juniper berries can be hard to come by—and a bit pricey, especially if you aren't going to use them on the regular—but you can get a similar flavor by using a combination of lemon juice and rosemary, which is what we did.
The key to Chipotle's tender, juicy carnitas is that it's slow-roasted, making it a perfect slow cooker recipe. Just toss in the ingredients, let it cook, then move the meat to a separate bowl and use two forks to shred it. Easy.
Filling the slow cooker only halfway with chicken broth lets the top get a little crispy, as if you'd seared it on the grill before cooking it. Halfway through, we flipped the meat to crisp up the other side, but you don't have to.
The only thing that's absolutely mandatory is serving this dish with all of the fixings, including a heaping bowl of copycat cilantro-lime rice (make a batch of basmati, then gradually stir in lime juice and chopped fresh cilantro, about a teaspoon at a time, until you get the level of flavor you like).
Taco Tuesday will never be the same.
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