The Aldi Prepared Meat That Turned My Taco Dreams To Dust

I somewhat recently ended my vegan/vegetarian stint after nearly a decade, so I've been exploring all of the meats and animal products that I've been missing out on. Carnitas are one food that I have heard people raving about, and after noticing them on the menu at chains like Chipotle, I finally decided to bite the bullet and give them a try. Rather than visiting a local taqueria (in hindsight, it would have been a better move), I made the trip to my local Aldi to try the Park Street Deli pork carnitas.

I was tipped off as to how good this refrigerated prepared meat supposedly was by a fellow food writer, so I figured that it was going to be, at minimum, passable. But I found that this $6.49 portion was anything but. I followed all of the preparation instructions, including microwaving the meat with the plastic seal ajar, but very quickly noticed that the meat was swimming in a pool of not citrus juice, but its own oil. When I shredded the cube-ish chunks, they were mostly fat, which led to a gristly bite. Oh, and where the heck was that citrus that I was promised on the label? No amount of tortilla or hot sauce could hide this taco filling flop.

I wanted to like these carnitas based on their convenience. But, they left a bad taste in my mouth, and this Aldi meat product is not one I would buy again. Aldi may be better off sticking to what it knows best — like its salty seasonal garlic feta dip deserving of a comeback and top-notch frozen pizzas — instead of messing with this juicy and beloved pork dish.

Naturally, I went to read other reviews of these pork carnitas to see if I was just totally off-base about what they were supposed to taste like. One Daily Meal reviewer who tried them said that their "taste buds [were] met with the overwhelming taste of dog food and stale vomit," and suggested it's one of the worst products that the grocer has ever sold ... yikes. 

I may also have not liked it because of how I cooked and seasoned it. Some Facebook users have suggested adding lime and serving it with a plate with Spanish rice and beans to make it taste more palatable. "You have to cook it in the cast iron until it's shredded and loses its moisture," one commenter suggested on a Facebook post — but that effectively defeats the purpose of buying a microwaveable meal. On top of that, I'm not going to go out of my way to season something that's already pre-seasoned. Other Aldi shoppers have suggested that its quality has gone downhill over the past couple of years due to an alleged supplier shift — so maybe it's a matter of wrong product, wrong time.

Don't get me wrong: I wasn't utterly repulsed by this refrigerated option, and I do think it could be redeemed by disguising its flavor with one of the best store-bought barbecue sauces. However, I was looking for juicy, flavorful, and Mexican-inspired carnitas, and Aldi clearly failed to deliver that here. You can't put lipstick on a pig, nor can you put it on pork.

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