About a month ago I cooked a big 6 lb. bone-in pork shoulder. I did it with a “Cuban Mojo” marinade and sauce. (Here’s a link: http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/cuban-mojo-pork-roast/).
We had a fantastic dinner that included sweet potato “discs” along with extra Mojo sauce to kick up the flavor of the shredded pork. And I ended up with a couple of pounds of left over shredded pork. With some of the left-overs, I made pulled BBQ pork sandwiches. And, I tried a new recipe that I concocted for Carnitas—basically burritos made from shredded pork—with Salsa Verde (green sauce).
So here’s the Carnitas recipe. It’s quick and simple and, best of all, it’s cheap. You can set everything out on the counter and let each person in the family build their own. Clean up is easy and this is perfect for a school night or a night when you just don’t want to go to a whole lot of bother putting a meal together.
Recipe: Carnitas Burritos with Salsa Verde
Summary: Here’s a great recipe for left-over pork roast. Quick, simple, tasty and cheap.
Ingredients
- 1-1 ½ lb shredded pork
- 1 pkg small burrito sized flour tortillas
- 1 can green enchilada sauce
- 1 can green chilies
- 1 can refried beans
- 8 oz shredded cheese (cheddar, jack or a mix)
- 1 cup Diced tomato
- 1-2 cups Shredded lettuce (julienned)
- Sour cream (if you want)
Instructions
- Dice the tomato and julienne the lettuce. Put them into small bowls.
- Put the shredded pork in a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat. Bring to heat and check bottom for just a bit of browning (about the same way you’d do hash browns).
- Stir and flip for a bit more heating and browning. This will give just a hint of “crust” and “dry” the meat a bit more.
- Add the enchilada sauce and chilies. This is going to look “wet and mushy” and that’s OK.
- Open the refried beans, put into a microwave safe dish and zap for about 2-2 1/2 minutes.
- Turn heat down a bit and let everything simmer together and the sauce reduce down until it’s “dry” enough to spoon on a tortilla without saturating it.
- Taste test while simmering and if more flavor is needed add a bit of salt or garlic and/or some cayenne or chipotle or habanero for a bit more kick.
- Have the other ingredients (tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream) ready. Use
the back side of a spoon to smear some of the re-frieds on the burrito. Then spoon some of the meat mixture into a burrito, add some tomato and lettuce and cheese and sour cream and enjoy.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 15 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
My rating 5 stars: ★★★★★ 1 review(s)
This smells fantastic when it’s simmering. It doesn’t look that pretty cooking but that’s the meat with light green stuff simmering in it. There’s a great marriage of the meat and chilies and enchilada sauce that will have your nose happy and your mouth watering. Then, when you’re eating, you’ll really be enjoying the flavor of this simple dish.
The Cheap Bastid Test: The cost of the meat for this meal is about $1.50 and the chilies and sauce cost about $1.60 at the Dollar Store. The most expensive thing is the cheese which costs about $2.50 for an 8 oz. bag and you’ll use about half a bag (we save money on shredded cheese by buying a 5 lb bag at Costco for $10). Lettuce and tomato cost about 50 cents. So, the total for this meal is about $5.00 and it’ll feed 3-4 easily. Try getting 2 or 3 Carnitas Verde burritos anywhere for that! Can’t be done.
And that’s the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good, Eat Cheap, Be Grateful!
Delicious! Another great idea.
Thanks Sheila. This is super simple and really tasty.
hi. i just love your recipes. living in australia, we don’t get anywhere near enough usa and latin recipes here. it’s so nice to get your blog and have good, cheap food that we miss a lot. does that make sense?
Thanks Dot. Enjoy the blog. There are a lot of American “comfort food” recipes along with simple and inexpensive recipes that you can make wherever you live. As long as you can get beef and pork and tomatoes and other vegetables plus basic spices you can cook my recipes. And, even if you can’t get dried chilis or fresh peppers you can still “kick up” Mexican recipes with cayenne pepper or tabasco or other hot sauces if they’re available. Thanks again for reading. I hope you subscribed!