My Carnitas Recipe

Salsa-mole
2 roma tomatos (degunked and diced)
1/2 large white onion (diced)
1-2 avocado (diced, 1 is more salsa, 2 is more guacamole)
1 Tbs cilantro (minced)
1 Tbs garlic (minced)
1/2 poblano chile (seeded and diced)
OR
1 jalapeno chile (seeded and diced - hotter, but not by much)
2 Tbs lime juice (more to taste)
salt, pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, mash a tad bit (but you still want distinct chunks). Stick it in the fridge to cool.

Carnitas
2 tsp dried celery
3 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp red chile flakes
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried mexican oregano
1 Tbs dried epazote*
1 tsp dried sage
2 Tbs garlic (minced)
1/2 white onion (sliced thin)
6 packets Taco Bell mild sauce (contents only)
1/4 lemon
1 pork butt (shoulder) (big, whole, deboned is good)
-This recipe will use ~3 lbs of the shoulder, but a larger one can be used as well, read for details.

1 ancho chile
1.5 poblano chile (cut into fat matchsticks)
2 C leek (split lengthwise, washed, sliced finely perpendicular to the lengthwise axis in segments a little less than a quarter inch)

1-2 Tbs lard/manteca

Place the pig shoulder into a large pot with enough water to barely cover, and all of the other ingredients in the first group. If the pork shoulder is deboned and held together with a netting, that's fine. Squeeze the lemon juice out into the liquid and toss the lemon in behind it. Put a lid on it and crank it to 11 until you have a rolling boil. When you have a rolling boil, turn it down to a steady but not weak boil and continue to cook for another 1.5-2 hours. Strong steam and tasty smells should be issuing from under the lid at all times. Top off the cooking liquid with water as necessary..

At about hour 1, take 2 cups of liquid from the pot and place it in a small bowl, submerge the ancho chile in there to rehydrate (~15 minutes). Once rehydrated, pull the chile stem out in the liquid so that all of the seeds and liquid from inside the chile pour out into the soaking liquid. Dump the soaking liquid back into the boiling pork mixure. Mince the rehydrated ancho and put it into a container with the leek and poblano chile.

Start preheating oven to 400 at this point.

Once the boil is over, move the pork shoulder to a baking pan (covered in foil). Remove the netting if it is present, and place meat into oven for ~30 minutes or until the outside is dry and lightly browned. After removing the pork from the oven, hack it up into little chunks. This isn't your last chance to change the chunk size, but it's the easiest. So if you see a chunk that's way too big for your bowl/tortilla, fix it.

Place the lard in a cast iron or electric pan and melt. Add the vegetables from group 2, and saute over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Then add 3 lbs of the chopped/shredded pork meat. Fry, stirring occasionally until most of the meat is browned on the surface. Finally, add a cup or two of the cooking liquid and simmer the fried meat. This will make the meat more tender and succulent. Once this liquid no longer coats the bottom of the pan (but before evaporating completely), remove from the heat and transfer to a serving vessel.

If you have >3 lbs of pork, make up another batch of vegetables and repeat process. The finished product refridgerates very well.

Serve in a bowl or on tortillas (corn tortillas are my preference), with a good amount of salsa-mole (70/30 carnitas/salsa-mole ratio is good) to provide a contrast in flavor, texture, and temperature.

Enjoy.

*Epazote is interesting stuff.
1) In some places, it is classified as a noxious weed. If you can't find it locally, try Penzy's.
2) Epazote is often used in bean dishes to reduce flatulance. It can also apparently be used to dislodge hookworms from the intestinal tract.
3) In large doses, epazote is poisonous.
4) Epazote (in larger than culinary doses) is an abortifacient. Be aware.