Frida Kahlo’s Recipe for Carnitas

On this Frida Friday, we are honored to spotlight the traditional carnitas recipe served in Frida Kahlo’s home, la famosísima Casa Azul in Coyoacán, Mexico.

One of the greatest painters ever and the wife of painter Diego Rivera, Frida was also immensely proud of her country’s cocina tradicional and loved to host Mexican comidas and fiestas for family and friends. We are celebrating favorite traditional Mexican dishes loved by Frida, in honor of her many exhibitions this year. One of the most famous and recognizable artists of all time, Frida Kahlo is extra everywhere right now. Thanks to a seven-city Immersive Frida Kahlo show, the Mexican painter’s work and larger-than-life vida are being celebrated in light, sound and immersive visuals in: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. For more information and tickets, visit https://www.immersive-frida.com.

And if you happen to live or be in the Chicago area, catch more Frida at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Home to one of the largest Mexican art collection in the United States, the museum is hosting two shows about the artista this year. The first is Surrounding Kahlo: Works from the Permanent Collection, March 5, 2022 to January 15, 2023. The second is Frida Kahlo, Her Photos, a powerful exhibition of her own photography, open April 1 through August 6, 2022. We plan to go to all three shows here at Familia Kitchen. And then come home and cook like her, beginning with these carnitas.

Ready to Make Frida’s Carnitas Recipe?

This is the artist’s go-to carnitas recipe, as reported in a beautiful 1994 cookbook by Guadalupe Rivera, daughter of Diego, who lived with the two artists in La Casa Azul during the 1940s. She writes that it was her mother, the model, writer and Diego’s second wife Lupe Marín, who taught Frida to cook, using recipes from her own grandmother.

”Like many ladies of her period,” Guadalupe recalls in her Frida’s Fiestas: Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo, written with Marie-Pierre Colle, “Grandmother relied on a cookbook that was revered as a classic in Guadalajara. It was called Practical Recipes for Housewives … Frida would later consult a cookbook that belonged to her mother. Called The New Mexican Cook, it was a collection of the finest and tastiest traditional recipes. I eventually inherited these books from my grandmother and from Frida, complete with her own recipes and kitchen secrets—the very same ones that appear in this book.”

In Frida’s Fiestas, Guadalupe remembers one melting-hot day in April when she, Frida and a boatful of friends took a day trip to the flower-filled canals of Xochimilco. In their beautifully packed basket filled with delicious traditional lunch treats starring these deliciosas carnitas.

Ready to Make the Carnitas Recipe Loved by Frida?

Frida Kahlo’s Recipe for Carnitas

Recipe by Guadalupe Rivera, Frida’s Fiestas: Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo

5.0 from 2 votes

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings

6 to 8

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

• 3 lbs boneless pork, from the leg, cut into 2-inch cubes

• 2 onions, large, cut in half

• 4 cloves garlic

• salt, to taste

• 2 Tbsp lard (see substitutions in cooking notes, below)

• 1 1/2 cups milk

Directions

• Place the pork in a saucepan with water to cover. Add the onions, garlic and salt to taste.
• Cook for about an hour, until the pork is tender.
• Drain thoroughly and discard the onion and garlic.
• Heat the lard and milk with salt to taste in a large saucepan.
• Add the pork pieces to cook, stirring often, until the milk cooks away completely and the meat is golden.

Notes

• Like most traditional Mexican recipes, this one calls for lard. If you prefer to substitute it with a more readily available or healthier alternative, one option is using butter (make sure it’s 100%). A good rule of thumb is to use 3 Tbsp of butter for 2 Tbsp of lard. You can also replace it with olive oil in a 1 to 1 ratio.
• That day at Xochimilco in 1942, Frida, Guadalupe and friends feasted on these carnitas in addition to these traditional treats packed in their lunch basket: guacamole, seasoned pork sandwiches, manzano chile sauce, red sauce, fruit salad and grenadine punch.