PW Wednesdays ~ Carnitas Pizza and Mango Margaritas
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This week was a double doozey. We’ve been talking all along about how we should be drinking along while we whip up these recipes. It was Gina’s pick, so she had us make carnitas pizza and mango margaritas. Yet again, we all had issues in one way or another.
I’ll start with the good… the pizza.
A bit of disclosure: I hate tomatoes, which means I hate salsa. Salsa is a requirement for this recipe SO, I didn’t eat the entire pizza or even an entire slice. I did nibble on the edges where no salsa was present, pushing toppings over to the edge so I could get a nice taste. Even fun pizzas won’t get me to eat tomatoes. Sorry. I have my limits. I’m pretty sure you do too. Don’t judge.
This seems to be a running trend, adjusting recipes just a bit to work for me but you do what you gotta do… I didn’t use the dough the recipe called for. Instead, I used this recipe. It’s thin and delicious. The trick is planning ahead because it needs to sit for at least 24 hours before you can use it. The longer it sits, the more flavorful it becomes. I’ve let it sit for several days before using, a time or two, and it was so good.
Another large adjustment I made was to use my slow cooker instead of the oven for roasting the meat. I had errands to do and needed this meat cooked. I couldn’t be bothered to sit around waiting for it to cook and didn’t want to leave the oven unattended while it did so. A few adjustments (I know… again, but it was necessary – promise!) and I was on my way to delicious meat. It was easy and let me go about my business. Double, maybe even triple bonus.
After shredding my meat…I waited for the perfect time to continue. It was an off day. Stop and go in every sense of the way. Okay, not every but it was just one of those days. Lots going on. So a timeout and I was back to business.
I didn’t pull out my dough ahead of time like I should have. Typically you should let chilled dough come to room temperature before using, I’m sorta glad I didn’t! It sure limited the amount I could spread the dough but I was able to get a super thin crust that didn’t rip even one bit. Crusty and thin = awesome.
Dough prepped, meat shredded and off we went. Layer by layer a glorious pizza was being created. I also cheated and didn’t sauté my onions and peppers. I’ve made pizza before with raw onions and peppers… it works perfectly.
Glorious and tasty it was. The shredded beef gave a nice spicy kick. In my tomato hating opinion, it’d have been perfectly good without the salsa. The Mr pretty much devoured it. I had no chance of getting any shots later when the margaritas were made.
Oh and speaking of the margaritas. I was so psyched to make these. An excuse to drink something yummy and full of tequila?! I love a good fruity margarita, but this sadly wasn’t it. I truly blame the recipe on this one. Blenders have a huge range when it comes to sizes. I’m positive Ree’s is massive in comparison to mine, which is fairly standard when it comes to box store variety blenders. I even reduced the quantities and still couldn’t fit it all in. Biggest fail was probably the part where I’m told to top it off with ice. But if your blender is different than mine, that’s going to give completely different results. I need quantities. Due to the ice issue, that may be why we had a strange consistency to ours. It was thick like a shake but not in a good way. Margaritas shouldn’t be thick like that unless truly frozen.
The fact that I wasted the last of my triple sec saddens me. Time to stock back up before the weekend… it’s Cinco de Mayo after all, perfect excuse to have a good fruity margarita and tacos. I’m seriously considering making fried tacos again for the occasion because they were that good.
My notes:
-Use your favorite thin crust dough. Even store bought is fine if that’s your favorite!
-The original recipe calls for quadruple the amount of meat necessary for a single pizza. We all had leftovers and didn’t even use the full amount of meat. I used less than half the amount called for and could still have easily made two pizzas… so sandwiches for leftovers it was! 1lb is more than enough for a single pizza if you don’t want leftovers.
-If you don’t want to use fresh mozzarella, shredded store bought is fine!
-Don’t be scared to go the easy route and slow cook your meat. You’ll still have delicious results. I used just under 2lb of meat with 24oz beef broth (instead of the juice that was called for) plus the regular seasonings… with maybe a dash more of each AND a few cloves of garlic minced. Garlic (and bacon) makes everything better. Cook on high for 4 hours, remove and shred. Remove 4 cups of liquid, returning shredded meat to the remaining liquid until ready to make pizza or eat sandwiches.
-Bake pizza at 500 degrees for 12-14 minutes. I find that temp and time range always gives perfect results for thin crust pizza.
Check out the other PW Wednesday posts:
Table For Two Blog
Wanna Be A Country Cleaver
My Life As A Mrs
Stop by Gina’s for the complete recipe(s):
Running To The Kitchen
And in case you missed the previous PW Wednesday posts:
Week 1: Fried Tacos
Week 2: Mushroom Sliders with Spicy Fry Sauce
Love your honesty…and that pizza crust looks amazing, I love thin crust!
aw I’m sorry you didn’t eat much of the pizza b/c of the salsa..at least there was tons of meat to nibble on AND you had margaritas..your margarita looks amazing. I wish I could just take a huge swig of that right now.
No need to be sorry. I considered making half without salsa but didn’t… I really should have!
awww boo sorry the margarita didn’t work out for you. Tough without exact measurements!
Pizza sounds awesome (and while I don’t understand the tomtato thing bc tomatos are da bomb… I am the same way with olives!!)
This looks seriously good. I think it’s high time I buy the PW cookbook.
I’m definitely giving your pizza dough recipe a try next time. This one was too weird for me even though it came out fine. Maybe I’ll actually be able to roll it out into a normal pizza shape with yours? One can hope…So sorry the margs didn’t turn out for you. I agree that recipe was vague. I think she should stick to food, not drinks ;)
Love all your notes – the super high heat and shorter cooking time totally makes the crust. And as a bread lover – I will always let my dough age and rest so it develops that gorgeous tangy taste. YUM!!
I LOVE a two-in-one recipe and this is the perfect combination! Delish looking pizza and icy cold looking margaritas! Thanks for sharing, Rachel.
Love the margarita pairing, what a great idea!
love this idea! I love carnita anything!
So, so great! I love the jalapeno slices on top, that just makes it for me. And the mango marg = perfection!
So disappointing the margaritas weren’t amazing, they sound incredible! The pizza looks delicious. I love salsa, so I would be all over this!
You are not the only one who hates tomatoes. There is a point in my life as kid where I also hate it. Now as I grew up that was changed. Love the mango margarita!This a very tasty and yummy treat. =)
This was one of the first recipes I flagged from the new PW book, and I have such high hopes for it. Yours looks perfect! Love your tips and shortcuts.
Yum! Look at all that shredded meat. Love it all.
This is all kinds of wonderful. I am seriously getting hungry. Sorry the marg didn’t work out. That’s painful.
What cut of beef did you use? I thought carnitas was traditionally pork? And, do you at least like sun dried tomatoes? Could you handle that? Subbing red bell peppers is a great idea and they roast well. For kids, I would recommend mild green chiles. Too bad you don’t like tomatoes but I suppose that means more for ME :-)
We used chuck roast following Ree/Pioneer Woman’s recipe. And nope, the only tomatoes I tolerate are in ketchup form. :) I’ll cook with tomatoes of all varieties, I just won’t eat them.
I didn’t think there was such a thing as a bad margarita! :(
The pizza looks good though! I can’t believe you don’t like salsa!
Well, I love salsa, so this sounds fantastic! And a totally different and fun idea for Cinco de Mayo!
Gorgeous pizza! Since you just ate the edges, can I have the rest of it please? :)
I am a salsa (and tomato!) lover, soI know that I’d devour this. Gotta try the pizza!!
these both look delicious to me, especially the margaritas! i think it might be time for me to whip up a batch right now – it is 5 de mayo after all. =)
We make a lot of pizza, so I am constantly looking for new variations. This one looks amazing!