Meat – How to finish sous vide carnitas without drying them out

meatsous-vide

I've followed this recipe from Serious Eats to make sous vide carnitas. The sous vide step is easy – just leave it in the bag for 12-24 hours. The last step of the recipe is to break up the meat with a fork and put it under the grill for 10 minutes. However when I do this the meat goes from delicious and moist to crispy but completely dried out!

How can I finish the meat and keep the moist meat I spent so long preparing?

Best Answer

Make sure not to break up the meat too much. In particular, try not to smear it between the fork and the dish... You want chunky pieces, not spread-out strands. The more broken and strand-y the pork gets, the greater its surface area and the faster it dries out. You also want to crowd the pieces in the pan as much as possible while browning. It's better to have a bunch in the middle of the baking pan, than individual pieces spread around the pan.