These spicy orange beef carnitas are an easy one pot meal that makes tons of leftovers to eat throughout the week.

And the carnitas love lives on….

Guess what I found out?

My beloved carnitas recipe that I’ve made at least 10 times has a whole bunch of sugary corn syrup in those cans of Goya nectar.

That’s some bs, isn’t it?

I see the word “nectar” and I just assume fruit.

Why would you need to add freakin’ corn syrup to fruit, Goya?

Have you never eaten a pineapple on it’s own to realize it’s already sweet?!

I’m literally restraining my fingers from typing a nice long rant against Monsanto and our government right now.

It’s Friday, that kind of thing seems better suited for Mondays.

So I threw Goya out and got to work on my own rendition sans the life blood of America corn syrup.

And guess what?

I like these spicy orange beef carnitas even better.

I added fresh orange zest and more spices to the dry rub, fresh orange and lime juice and some chili peppers for spice.

Good ‘ol chuck did it’s thing for 3 hours in the oven and came out just as tender with the perfect amount of reduced fruit juice to toss the caramelized pulled beef back into.

I got the same awesome sweetness to each bite but this time with a good bit of spice and heat and without the government subsidized crap.

Oops, I mean corn syrup.

Making good carnitas is really quite simple. It’s just seasoned meat that’s seared on the stove top and then simmered in a small amount of liquid for a few hours until fall-apart tender.

It’s called braising and it’s the same method that makes this braised leg of lamb so amazingly delicious.

When a recipe is this simple it’s important to have quality meat and quality liquid. The two sort of play off each other imparting their flavors in both directions while cooking.

So choose wisely on the ingredients and the outcome is sure to be delicious!